Letting your hens out....

[MorganSS]

I really did search but this forum is new to me

My apologies if this is the wrong forum, but can I "manage my flock" outside of a residential pen with a chain link fence? I havent moved in and taken possesion of the birds yet but they are rock barr(sp) hens.

Great temperment from what I can tell, I use to raise in 4H 20 years ago but I do want to have some social birds but I want to keep them safe, and not cooped up all the time. Either way Im meeting with the owner before we buy next month to see what he does, the coop is immaculate, the birds are well behaved, so Im really looking forward to starting another fun fantastic hobby.


I put the birds in the contract. no birds, no house being bought

a little overboard? LOL

 

[NYRIR]

LOL....Boy did you find the right place! All of us on here feel like that!

There is all kinds of info on here on how to keep your birds "in" and safe for yards/runs. How tall is the fence?
And welcome

 

[AinaWGSD]

The short answer is yes. Most of the heavier layer breeds are unlikely to be motivated to go over a chain link fence, although they can. I live in a residential neighborhood with a 4' chainlink fence around our backyard. I do clip my chicken's wings to keep them from flying over the fence (although after finding one of them on top of the run I'm sure they could go over if they really wanted to) and rarely have a problem with them roaming. The few times they have gotten out it has either been through a gap in the gate or because I was a dork and left the gate open (at least I was right next to the gate to quickly remedy the problem after shooing them back into the yard).

Smaller and lighter breeds (such as bantams and the mediterranean type breeds) are going to be able to get a lot more lift than the heavier breeds and may be more difficult to contain with chain link fencing. They also have a tendency to be more flighty and are generally stronger fliers to start with too.