Questions about Premier Chicken Fencing.

[chickenboy100]

O.K., so, I've been planning about my own property in a few years, and I was wondering, I would like some Premier poultry fenceing to keep chickens/ducks/geese/maybe turkeys, and all show birds, and I was wondering, how would I keep them(I have leghorns, so they are sure to fly) from flying out of the fence without having to damage the feathers/skin, any ideas??? Thank you!!
Signed,
CB100

 

[chickenboy100]

Anyone???

 

[purpletree23]

The only way is to clip their wings. Not all the feathers get clipped just the larger flight feathers. As long as they are not show birds.

If you don't want to clip their wings you'll have to construct a run using a taller fence.

 

[Hokum Coco]

My run is about 4 ft high. If you clip the feathers on one wing of each bird it will help.

Make sure there is no blood in the shaft of the feather before you clip or your bird may bleed to death.

On some birds you may even have to clip a few secondary flight feathers.

One wing throws the bird off balance and is more effective than trimming equal amounts off both wings.

 

[wholehearted]

We haven't used the Premier fencing with all of the birds you mentioned, but we have used it with our regular flock which includes some that are pretty good fliers like leghorn and ancona. We never had an issue with them flying out, but I have heard it can be more of a problem if your fenced area is small. Premier's poultry fencing comes in both 42" and 48" height, so I would definitely go with the taller one if you decide to try it.

 

[chickenboy100]

Thank you, all!!

 

[beaglady]

I HAVE had heritage turkeys fly out of that fencing. Broad breasted ones never did.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don’t know about geese. I have not kept them. Turkeys are likely to be a huge challenge. They really like to fly and can fly extremely well, at least the Royal Palm I had could and did. The larger broad breasted turkeys may be different.

I keep my chickens in the Premier 48” netting. I have extremely few problems with them flying out. It comes down to motivation. They can easily fly over it if they want to. Some people report they keep chickens in with a three foot high fence. The secret is to not give them motivation to get out.

I think size and configuration has a lot to do with it. The bigger the better, but also don’t put it in a long narrow configuration where one can be trapped against the fence and can’t get away from another chicken by running. If they feel trapped and go vertical to get away they can fly out. I think for that 3’ fence to work, you’d have to have a huge area.

In over two years I’ve had one mature chicken get out. I had it in a narrow configuration and I’m pretty sure a hen felt trapped by an amorous rooster and went vertical to get away from him. When I tried to herd her toward a door, she just flew over the netting to get back in.

I have had a few adolescent cockerels get out. When they are going through their fighting for dominance and pecking order, the loser gets trapped next to the fence and goes vertical to get away. It doesn’t happen a lot but it happens. The narrower the configuration, the more it happens.

Baby chicks can run right through it. Their down insulates them.

If your area is big enough, the netting works great to keep ground predators away. It won’t do anything for birds of prey.

One of the problems is that the grass and weeds growing up will ground them out, especially when they are wet from dew or rain. Trash like dead leaves in the fall will blow up against it too, and ground it when wet. Lawn mowers and weed eaters are death to netting. Of course it depends on how fast your grass and weeds grow and the season, but you might have to spend a lot of time relocating it. That’s part of some people’s plan, constantly moving it to a new area to keep fresh forage. But if you try to keep it in one area, you have to work up a system to manage the weeds and grass. I used to move it and mow but finally decided to just use roundup to keep that area clear.

 

[chickenboy100]

I don’t know about geese. I have not kept them. Turkeys are likely to be a huge challenge. They really like to fly and can fly extremely well, at least the Royal Palm I had could and did. The larger broad breasted turkeys may be different.

I keep my chickens in the Premier 48” netting. I have extremely few problems with them flying out. It comes down to motivation. They can easily fly over it if they want to. Some people report they keep chickens in with a three foot high fence. The secret is to not give them motivation to get out.

I think size and configuration has a lot to do with it. The bigger the better, but also don’t put it in a long narrow configuration where one can be trapped against the fence and can’t get away from another chicken by running. If they feel trapped and go vertical to get away they can fly out. I think for that 3’ fence to work, you’d have to have a huge area.

In over two years I’ve had one mature chicken get out. I had it in a narrow configuration and I’m pretty sure a hen felt trapped by an amorous rooster and went vertical to get away from him. When I tried to herd her toward a door, she just flew over the netting to get back in.

I have had a few adolescent cockerels get out. When they are going through their fighting for dominance and pecking order, the loser gets trapped next to the fence and goes vertical to get away. It doesn’t happen a lot but it happens. The narrower the configuration, the more it happens.

Baby chicks can run right through it. Their down insulates them.

If your area is big enough, the netting works great to keep ground predators away. It won’t do anything for birds of prey.

One of the problems is that the grass and weeds growing up will ground them out, especially when they are wet from dew or rain. Trash like dead leaves in the fall will blow up against it too, and ground it when wet. Lawn mowers and weed eaters are death to netting. Of course it depends on how fast your grass and weeds grow and the season, but you might have to spend a lot of time relocating it. That’s part of some people’s plan, constantly moving it to a new area to keep fresh forage. But if you try to keep it in one area, you have to work up a system to manage the weeds and grass. I used to move it and mow but finally decided to just use roundup to keep that area clear.

What did you have to do for a gate? And, I think I'll just roundup around the fence.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have a permanent coop and run. My entrance inside the netting is through another door into the coop then out to the permanent run. Then I have a gate between the permanent run to the netting.

My coop is pretty predator-proof so they are locked in there at night. My permanent run is pretty predator-resistant, but it would be possible for a raccoon to climb over the coop or permanent rund and down into the netting area but it’s not a likely route. That’s why I call it predator-resistant, not predator-proof.