How to keep chickens inside a 4' fence?

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
The "easiest and cheapest" method for preventing them from flying up over your fenced enclosure is by clipping their primary wing feathers on one wing. It's harmless, free and effective!
Here's the BYC link that tells you how to do it!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-wingclipping.html

 

[CoyoteMagic]

I had an 8lb RIR (Houdini) that could get out of anything. A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G!!!!! 8 ft fence stopped her until she figured she could jump on top of the attached 6ft dog kennel an hop off the other side. Added another 2 ft. She figured if she hopped up on top the cover I put out for them in the middle of the run (40 x40 mind you) she could still make it over the 8ft is she kept trying at it!! What made it worse was she would "brag" about it when she did!! BAWK BAWK BAWK!!!! for 30minutes!! GLOATING!!

The only thing that stopped her and Madame Lace who she taught how to get out too, was to add another 4 foot of fence that leaned in at a 30* angle. They would bump into the fence trying to get over and get knocked back to the ground. Boy would they get up and fuss!!


This however only lasted until late summer when the Morning Glories grew up and over the fence. Houdini and company figured out how to grab the trailing Morning Glories and climb it like a rope over the wall!!

 

[happyhensny]

CoyoteMagic - Would love to see video of those girls escaping. Hysterical!

 

[CoyoteMagic]

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oh it was. The criminals, "Broomhilda & the Crip Kicker 4" (what my husband calls them) have recently been moved to a 30x10 with an attached 10x10 run that are totally covered and they can't get out.

Unless one of them has taking up lock picking!!

 

[Beekissed]

The whiskers you describe are a solution but you can get the same effect by extending your wire or a piece of your wire about 3-4 inches above the top bar of your gate and on any of your posts. This keeps the birds from having a foothold or a landing place from which to hop over. I've used this with great success on all my gates and bigger fence posts.

You can clip a wing but a determined bird will still be able to hop that high...mine hop higher than 4 ft. to get onto their roosts, even with one wing clipped. And my flock are all fatties!