Prevent chickens from flying over fence

[danaday76]

Hi, A little background on my situation… My chickens are about two years old I only have two and I want to get more. They have a nice coop and they are free range on 20 acres. Well I basically got sick of stepping in chicken poop around my house so I put up a fence about 20 x 30. And sure enough they flew over it immediately Is there any netting I could maybe put around the top on the edges to make it hard for them to fly out? Or should I just go ahead and clip one of their wings each? But I'm afraid if I do that maybe they won't be able to get away from predators and maybe that's why they've survived so long… Please let me know your thoughts. thank you

 

[mobius]

How tall is your fence? Is there anything in their yard they can climb on and then fly over? I have a four foot high fence and I found they were flying over from the vantage point of an old stump in their yard.

I find them on top of their coop occasionally...and that is about six feet high...

I put a couple of strands of wire above the fence...you could add ribbons to it...and they stopped flying over the fence.

 

[danaday76]

It's only 4' I feel like such an idiot for making it that low! They fly from ground right to a fence post. Could you explain to me what you mean by a couple of strands of wire thanks

 

[mobius]

It's only 4' I feel like such an idiot for making it that low! They fly from ground right to a fence post. Could you explain to me what you mean by a couple of strands of wire thanks

Sure, everyone's situation is different but I strung wire (old electric wire, not electrified but easy to use) horizontally about six inches and a foot above the fence..it helps if you have higher posts or can extend your fence posts vertically...you could use string or rope or what have you...mine can kind of perch on top of the fence and this wire prevents them perching and dropping over the other side...my fence is only four feet too...it was a relatively easy fix if you can manage it....

And I am taking out that old stump within the week....lol...right now it has a large very round bowl upended over it. Those chickens are persistent, aren't they?

Sometimes even wing-clipping won't do the job...if you do it, it is pretty easy to do, but be sure to do it on one side only...and read instructions and use sharpest scissors...

 

[danaday76]

Thank you. Yes persistent! If possible show me a picture

 

[mobius]

Here is a picture of the fence on one side. I strung wire at the top of the fence posts horizontally. Hope this helps. At the bottom of the pic on the left is a gate, so no wire, lol...hoping they won't figure that one out...or I will have to put wire or small chain with some kind of hook and eye that I can undo at will....coop is on the right...you can see how they can perch on top of the fence otherwise....how convenient for my little Chicken Einsteins...

 

[RichM]

I have a 20' x 20' run, and I ordered a 25' x 25' cloth of aviary netting to put over the top. In the middle of the run, I have a 10' 2x4 holding up the center. The netting holds it in place. It keeps chickens in and keeps hawks out.

 

[Zamanthia]

We did netting over our enclosed run area, but hubby is addicted to chickens so we have chicks brooding in the basement right now which means we need more space. We have started an expanded run area, but netting over top will not be feasible this time, but the wire on top fix makes perfect sense! It will not support the weight of the bird so they don't perch on it to contemplate what is on the other side of the fence. I love it! We'll be giving that a go too