The only way I can think of, aside from having them inside a pen, is to run an electric fence/hot wire. Most of my chickens hop the fence, but usually stay right next to the fenceline.
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Maybe you can move the shelf down lower(12" below top of fence) and on the outer side of fence so you can still reach it but birds can't land on it.I just put in the shelf, actually. It was meant for us to be able to set stuff down while we go from car to house and vice versa. It can came off, but I'd rather not.
Pic Please!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.)
The biggest problem, of course, is that the gate is only about 3 feet high.
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.run a hot wire along the top of the fence line
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.
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.
Wow! I can't believe they don't hop that fence. My chickens don't fly over any fence that they can't land on. Most of them don't try to fly out at all, but I had one that would fly up to the top of the 5' chain link fence and then fly down... I gave up trying to keep her in, and she had lots of cover to hide in. None of the others even tried
Me neither....but what can get in would be my concern.