Not sure if just dumb or successful psychological hack...

[yakitori]

Okay, my birds can totally jump 4ft, but they never try to scale this cheap plastic fence I use. It was meant to be a temporary thing, but since it seems to work very well, I’ve just left it there...

Even the guinea fowls who fly on top of the run all the time (and my roof sometimes!) stay inside the pvc fencing. I think it’s possibly because unlike a solid fence, they don’t have something to jump on to, and as for jumping over it.. well, it’s probably not in their natural instincts to do that either...

***OR***

they are just really dumb birds.

That said, I love them all

(I know I hoard ladders, shhh)

 

[Araucana Nest]

Maybe they're just happy inside?

 

[3KillerBs]

My Chipotle got out of the electric net yesterday. We think she was up on the coop and caught some unintended air when getting down.

We turned the fence off so we could try to pin her against it to pick her up and she managed to shimmy through the larger opening higher on the fence because she wanted back in with her flock.

She *could* fly out any time she wanted to because the part of the coop where she likes to sit is higher than the fence, but I think you're right about not jumping up on the floppy net.

 

[Birdsong 82]

My chickens will always get confused on how to get over the 4x4 goat fencing till they find the chain link fence gate that has a pole to jump on.
But I know they could otherwise fly 4' fence (seen them do it easily) but maybe if they're happy in there then way put in all that work of flying right?
So maybe a combo ( some of my girls are just plain simple though )

 

[FluffyBottomBantams]

I don’t think they’ve figured it out yet and maybe they never will.
that being said, if one does figure it out..you’re out of luck and you’ll have birds all over your yard because they’ll teach it to their flock-mates.

 

[yakitori]

Haha, I hope they stay dumb then. They haven't really shown much intelligence so far, but who knows, maybe it's because they're young. My cat was really dumb when he was a kitten, now he's a cunning one - knows exactly how to get his way

Maybe they're just happy inside?

I hope so! The only reason I have it up is to prevent them from going into the neighbors yard... there's plenty of space in my yard, but they always want to go where you don't want them to go! I mean the neighbors hasn't complained or anything, but I don't want to risk it....

My Chipotle

I love her name!

 

[3KillerBs]

I love her name!

All my chickens have food names. Chipotle is my California White. She and her sister, Spicy, got their names for their intrepid boldness. They were the first to leave the vicinity of the water dish and set out to explore the coop after I unboxed them and the first to start hunting ants (I was brooding in the coop). Unfortuately, I lost Spicy at about 4-5 days old -- probably from shipping stress.

Chipotle is the flock troublemaker. Not dominant, but if a chicken is into something she shouldn't be it's probably her (unless it's Picatta, the Wyandotte who goes under fences instead of over them).