Increasing Fence Height - Ideas?

[My Three Chicks]

I am raising my first flock...three 8-week olds! My SS has learned to jump the 4-foot temp fence I have installed outside their run to give them more space. I think if I could extend the height another foot with a slick/solid (vinyl/plastic?) material where she can't grip the open wire with her feet. I just don't know what to use or how to attach it on top of the fence. Please see the photos.
Any thoughts or experience?

Thank you!

 

[dennisma1]

I solved this problem with babies with bird netting over a market umbrella. Bird netting along would be fine, but it also provided shade and I could stand up.

 

[My Three Chicks]

I solved this problem with babies with bird netting over a market umbrella. Bird netting along would be fine, but it also provided shade and I could stand up.

Hi dennisma1. Would you have a photo you could share? I'm trying to imagine what that set up would look like that would cover the entire area.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

You might also consider clipping the feathers on one wing on each chick. There is an article here on BYC showing how it's done.

 

[dennisma1]

Lol.its dark here so no pics at present. As with your setup, I had problems with 4 foot fence not working out. I got a large umbrella and stand and some zip ties. Once the umbrella was up, the bird netting was zip tied to fence and kept the umbrella from tipping in the wind. It worked out as a place to leave food out of rain , and I could stand up. I did it more to protect from bald eagles, rather than escapees.
Got to keep those snack sized chickens safe.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Could be as simple as zip tying bamboo garden stakes to the fence every couple of feet, and then skewering some bird netting vertically to make a floppy 1-2' extension. If the bird can't land on it, it makes it less likely that it will escape, as they tend to spring off a landing surface to get over a fence.

 

[TheAlrightyGina]

Could be as simple as zip tying bamboo garden stakes to the fence every couple of feet, and then skewering some bird netting vertically to make a floppy 1-2' extension. If the bird can't land on it, it makes it less likely that it will escape, as they tend to spring off a landing surface to get over a fence.

6' bamboo stakes are pretty easy to find. Or you could use saplings.

 

[BDutch]

A thin wire just above the fence might be enough to keep the chickens in.
If that doesn’t work , then an electric fence wire with low voltage will do. And it keeps some predators out too.

Another possibility is to add a few solid posts and stretch netting (cat netting) and tie it to the fence.

If you clip the wings the chickens can’t escape from predators anymore. I would add a few bushes for shade and to give them the possibiulity to hide for birds of pray.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

A thin wire just above the fence might be enough to keep the chickens in.
If that doesn’t work , then an electric fence wire with low voltage will do. And it keeps some predators out too.

Another possibility is to add a few solid posts and stretch netting (cat netting) and tie it to the fence.

If you clip the wings the chickens can’t escape from predators anymore. I would add a few bushes for shade and to give them the possibiulity to hide for birds of pray.

We usually clip our chicks (just one wing on each) when they start getting adventurous. Sometimes we have to do it once more following a molt, but usually never again. What happens is that they gain weight and get too heavy to gain lift, and also by the time their flight feathers grow in again, they've forgotten they could ever fly. They become earthbound. The grow-out pen has a 4-foot fence, but the fence around the run is only 3 feet tall. Yet they never fly over.

 

[My Three Chicks]

These are all such amazing ideas. Thank you so much. I wouldn't know what to do without the BYC community!