Just wondering: fencing and free range

[thefishery]

I see so many pictures on here of runs with no tops to them. If you don't have a top to it, how do you keep them in? I just don't get it. Mine would be up and over before you turned around.

The other thing I was wondering, if you free range, do your birds ever spend a second of the day in the run? I've got to throw a goat or two in the chicken run every now and then just to keep the weeds down because the chickens never go in the run. It's up and out of the coop, right through the door to the run and out to the field. It's like the corner is to my kids, punishment. Strange little creatures.

 

[JanetS]

Mine has a roof on it. It has to because of predators.

 

[thefishery]

Mine has a roof on it. It has to because of predators.

Mine free range so they're out there in the open but can hide if there is danger, or we take the chance But if you're going to keep them up, how does one do it without a top? Are people cutting wings?

 

[Michael Apple]

One yard I have only 4' electric netting and even some Barred Rocks have learned how to jump over it. After a coyote made off with a fence jumper, I wasn't lazy about clipping wings. You must have Bantams. They are agile little devils. My other yard has 6' perimeter fence with chicken wire over the top of the run. It's a large yard so I even find myself cutting the grass a few times a year. I've found less chickens get crop bound by keeping the grass short. It also limits the number of slugs and snails that can carry tapeworms and gapeworms.

 

[thefishery]

No, I've got large breeds. My son has a bantam...in his room. I've got netting over my coop and if I don't keep an eye on it and it gets loose, they're over and out. I stopped clipping wings after I watched a dog kill my favorite hen because she couldn't get away from him. She was trying so hard to get up over the fence