How to stop our hen from hopping the fence

[Swiftbow]

So, my last idea failed. But now I took a cardboard box, cut it open, and stapled it to the upright posts. (The pinwheels are still on the side shelf.) Two days with that and she hasn't gotten out. So I do suggest this for anyone elses' flighty birds! (If you don't mind a wall of cardboard on your gate.)

 

[aart]

So, my last idea failed. But now I took a cardboard box, cut it open, and stapled it to the upright posts. (The pinwheels are still on the side shelf.) Two days with that and she hasn't gotten out. So I do suggest this for anyone elses' flighty birds! (If you don't mind a wall of cardboard on your gate.)

Pic Please!
Might need some plastic corrugated for winter.....or rain.

 

[BYC-user-452147]

run a hot wire along the top of the fence line, or you could get out the hose and every time she gets on the fence spray her till she hops off.

 

[bruceha2000]

The biggest problem, of course, is that the gate is only about 3 feet high.

I have a gate at the front of the area between the 2 barns. It is over 5' high. Several of my chickens happily fly up to the top then go over.



If your bird was even slightly more motivated, she could fly that 3' fence anywhere she liked.

run a hot wire along the top of the fence line

That sounds like it SHOULD work especially since I have previously read they won't land on a skinny wire. BUT I've seen chickens land on a single strand of wire MEANT to keep them from going over and a couple of months ago I watched one of my younger girls land ON the 5' high hotwire that is over the 4' high field fence, then go to the other side. Like any bird on electrified wires, since she was only touching the hot wire, no ground, she felt nothing.

All to say to the OP - GOOD LUCK! I hope you find a solution shy of a 7' deer fence around your property.

 

[Sylvester017]

View attachment 1138659 Okay, here's what we've got at the moment (will see if it works after a couple of days).
The wire on top is chicken wire, so it gives a lot with a landing.

Love the pinwheels - pretty!

Chickens love what they see on the other side of a gate and if motivated enough will do their best to fly or jump over. Chainlink allows good visibility so we covered our gate with webbing through the chainlink and no more squawking from the hens wanting to go to the "other" side. Surprisingly the heavy rubberized webbing has lasted for over 6 years without deteriorating. With your wooden 3' gate, change out the chicken wire with wooden fence slats or secure a solid piece of fiberglass cut to fit the gate size and attractively paint or decorate it to your heart's content!

 

[bruceha2000]

Interesting @Sylvester017. My girls stand at the gate I posted the picture of demanding I let them out. If they had tin cups I swear they would be raking them across the bars. I do let them out if I'm going to be home. I might have to consider making it so they can't see the other side (even though they know what is on the other side and WANT to be there).

 

[ScottKelly1974]

So... a couple months ago, after we lost a hen, we got two new pullets and an older hen to introduce to our last bird. They've gotten accustomed to each other at this point, but our first hen was a little show-offy at first, jumping up onto several spots she'd never jumped onto before and more or less crowing her displeasure at the situation.

One of the things she jumped onto was our side gate, and shortly after, she realized that a whole new world of scratchable things exists in our driveway.

Since then, we've tried a whole bunch of different things to dissuade her, including adding some vertical, triangular topped posts to the gate at regular intervals to keep her from landing, putting a coiled wire on the gate, slotting in a sun visor, and hanging up pinwheels and an umbrella.

The sun visor worked, but it's not a very good long-term solution, especially once we get snow or high wind. The biggest problem, of course, is that the gate is only about 3 feet high. We've hoped that keeping her from the driveway for a few days would put it out of her mind, but every time it becomes possible again, she inevitably hops on over once or twice a day.

She's not particularly difficult to round up (she's a very friendly bird), but I'm quite concerned about loose dogs. Any thoughts? I'm not greatly inclined toward wing clipping (since they free range so much), and I don't think the gate is tall enough for that to be effective anyway.

Thanks!

I used bird netting mostly to keep predator bird out, but it also keeps the chickens in. It turned out to be effective against other animals. We had some heavy rains and strong winds of the last two weeks and the netting was unaffected.

 

[sawilliams]

I will never understand how some can keep chickens in such a short fence. Mine easily try to jump and fly 4-5 feet even with thier wing clipped... one of our friends had a 3 foot fence doesn't clip thier wings and the hens just stay in the fence... my brain can't wrap around that. Mine would be over that gate and fence in a heartbeat, no questions asked

 

[shawthorne44]

I have one, SuperChicken, that doesn't even pause on her way out of the chicken yard. When I let them out of the coop/run in the morning into their chicken yard she doesn't pause to scratch in the piles of cut grass or peck at stuff in the ground like the other chickens. Noooo, only outside of the 1600 sq.ft. chicken yard is good enough for her. Fence is over 5' tall and it doesn't slow her down.

 

[Sylvester017]

I will never understand how some can keep chickens in such a short fence. Mine easily try to jump and fly 4-5 feet even with thier wing clipped... one of our friends had a 3 foot fence doesn't clip thier wings and the hens just stay in the fence... my brain can't wrap around that. Mine would be over that gate and fence in a heartbeat, no questions asked

I have one, SuperChicken, that doesn't even pause on her way out of the chicken yard. When I let them out of the coop/run in the morning into their chicken yard she doesn't pause to scratch in the piles of cut grass or peck at stuff in the ground like the other chickens. Noooo, only outside of the 1600 sq.ft. chicken yard is good enough for her. Fence is over 5' tall and it doesn't slow her down.

These posts made me chuckle. I have a 28-inch high rabbit fence dividing our "people" yard from the "chicken" side. Our chickens, even the so-called flighty hens, have all come to respect the rabbit fencing no matter where we move it. They know if it's closed off, they don't jump over, and wait until we open it up before they enter the "people" side. It was not without some training however.

When we introduced our first White Leghorn, she wanted to fly to the top of the 4-foot coop. Gently, calmly, we took her down from the roof and after a couple times of that, she never ever flew to the roof again. Then, she jumped over the rabbit fence a half dozen times where we gently slowly stretched out our arms and walking behind her softly said "Shoo, shoo" until she saw our opening in the fence to go back to the chicken side (All our hens today know that a soft "Shoo" means to go to the chicken side automatically and calmly). Later if any of our hens find themselves on the wrong side of the rabbit fence they pace to get back to the chicken side and wait for us to open it for them (silly girls could just jump back over again but that's chickens for you!).

Currently, I'm training 3 new Dominique chicks so I have my work cut out for me because they are very ingenious crafty explorers. But raising them from chicks is making it a bit easier to train them.

Some photos of our backyard remodeling turmoil where the chickens respected the rabbit fence and never jumped over it. Of course, the workers loved the hens and made sure none escaped the enclosure or stray dogs entered the work area.

28-inch rabbit fence upper left of photo

Yard was openly exposed during block fence construction.

28-inch rabbit fence roll was all that separated the chickens from an openly exposed backyard while block wall fence construction was in progress. No matter how small or large we made the enclosure the chickens respected the short fencing. Chickens are creatures of habit and once they realize the fence is their limit, they're comfortable with that no matter where the fence is moved.