How to extend the height of a chain link fence?

[AmeliaBedelia]

My chickens have always stayed in our yard when free-ranging...until now. I think one of our neighbors seeded their lawn or something, and the ladies keep hopping the fence. It's a 3 ft tall chain link fence...I was honestly really surprised it wasn't an issue before now.

Since it is his fence, I either need to build my own, taller, redundant fence next to his OR extend his in a way that is effective, not an in-your-face eyesore, and can be removed if he decides he doesn't like it.

Also open to other ideas to keep them from hopping up there if you have any.

Any good ideas?

 

[rosemarythyme]

I would buy long poles (probably4 to 6 feet)... maybe there are inexpensive dark colored garden stakes that you can buy...

And then buy dark colored bird net or deer net or equivalent.

Zip tie the poles to the chain link. Slide the net down the poles to weave them in place, or use more zip ties... so the net is stretched from pole to pole.

Gather up and gently tighten the entire thing. Loose bits of net will cause birds to get tangled up in the net.

Hopefully in a dark color it will tend to disappear and not be an eyesore.

Hopefully with it

x2. You can get 6' tall U-posts and then just hang netting across it using the little tabs sticking out to help guide you. The existing chain link will help support the taller posts.

Not exactly the same, but:

 

[perkolator]

Here’s the basic idea. This is my chicken run extension and I had extra t-post exposed to fix string to. Fence is about 5ft, so the extension gave it another foot. Other perimeter fence I did for deer deterrent and it’s the same concept - just with bamboo poles zip tied to the t-posts and 3 layers of string.

The chicken run height extension was working great until recently. I think the chicken figured out a new way to get out of the run, since my kids kept finding Ghostie out by herself in the middle of the day (the ONLY chicken I had to make the extension for keeping in) and my oldest mentioned he's seen her on top of the chicken coop's roof a few times. Well, sure enough this morning when I was tossing them some scratch, I saw her eyeballing the roof of the coop, as if she was getting ready to jump up there....well not even 5 min later when I come back she's magically nowhere to be found inside the run, lol. Roof of the coop is over 7ft off the ground where she must have jumped up! Guess someone’s gonna be getting her flight feathers clipped!

 

[Alaskan]

I would buy long poles (probably4 to 6 feet)... maybe there are inexpensive dark colored garden stakes that you can buy...

And then buy dark colored bird net or deer net or equivalent.

Zip tie the poles to the chain link. Slide the net down the poles to weave them in place, or use more zip ties... so the net is stretched from pole to pole.

Gather up and gently tighten the entire thing. Loose bits of net will cause birds to get tangled up in the net.

Hopefully in a dark color it will tend to disappear and not be an eyesore.

Hopefully with it

 

[perkolator]

I've extended several of my fences - I just use any pole (bamboo, pvc, stick, anything...) woven into or zip-tied/baling wired to the fence, then just use mason's line across it horizontally, spaced about 8" or so. Has worked for my chickens and for the damn deer

 

[perkolator]

Thanks, I need it with her! She just likes to do her own thing and wants to be the rogue chicken I guess. She randomly showed up at our place the week one of our hens died...because of timing and because she's ghost-white, she got named Ghostie. She's our only chicken who goes off exploring on her own and several times has started laying elsewhere on the property (including inside my truck one time when I left the window open for a few days - and 3wks ago I was burning our burn pile and found like 20 of her eggs underneath it!!!), and sometimes she doesn't like to go into the coop at night after free-ranging and I'll have to fetch her out of the pear tree nearby, lol.

 

[Stephanie8806]

My chickens have always stayed in our yard when free-ranging...until now. I think one of our neighbors seeded their lawn or something, and the ladies keep hopping the fence. It's a 3 ft tall chain link fence...I was honestly really surprised it wasn't an issue before now.

Since it is his fence, I either need to build my own, taller, redundant fence next to his OR extend his in a way that is effective, not an in-your-face eyesore, and can be removed if he decides he doesn't like it.

Also open to other ideas to keep them from hopping up there if you have any.

Any good ideas?

Can you work with your neighbor to find a solution he would be happy with? Would it be possible for you to replace the 3 foot fence with a 6 foot one and keep the materials from his old fence for future projects? Idk, I know that’s an expensive option... but I haven’t really worked with chain link fence so I’m not sure on the options!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Thanks! The visual really helps!! If I can talk the spouse into "blocking the view," this may be what I try. Do you know how close I need to space the posts?

I have mine spaced roughly every 5' or so. If the netting (or whatever fencing material you use) is fairly light, really shouldn't need a ton of poles.

 

[kerbotx]

Have you considered trimming their flight feathers? Might not work with such a short fence, but it is the cheapest option

 

[perkolator]

Yes, somewhere in the 6-8" apart. I only used the orange because I couldn't find my roll of white, that I'd normally use (my thought is the deer would see it better at night). I like the mason line because I can make it nice and taught, it also seems to hold up to the UV exposure