Sebrights and flight

[biomistake]

Hello does anyone have sebrights and do they have to keep them in coops or with netting over their runs to keep them in? I have some I am ready to put outside but dont want them flying out of the pen to go roaming with the large fowl and get hurt.

 

[BWchicken]

How high is your fencing? I have a small flock of 13 bantams including sebrights and any one of them could fly over a 6 foot fence easy, and the sebrights could probably go way higher. The top of my pen is completely covered with chicken wire, took a little work but so worth it, one of the best things I ever did, especially since there has been a pair of hawks lurking around lately. The pen is large and the chicken wire is supported up high with 12-foot long posts so they still have room to fly around in there a bit if they want to. If you can, I would suggest covering your pen with something, of course it doesn't have to be chicken wire, a stiff netting would probably work fine, so long as it didn't sag. Hopefully others will have better suggestions about types of coverings you could use. You'll be so relieved once you know your birds can't fly out and also that bird predators can't swoop down and get them. A hawk can and will easily pick up a sebright (as well as most other bantams). Because of that and the neighbors five free-ranging dogs, I've never been able to let my bantam flock free range.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[silkydragon]

i free range my sebright pair with my other chickens and they do fine they hate being pinned up though i left the door close for an extra hr and they went crazy flying into the windows and flying back and fourth and as for hight mine get up on the roof of our coop which is atleast 12 foot high and have flew from the coop to the porch in winter to avoid the snow which is about 70yrds so in conclusion you need to have a top if you plan on keeping them in a run but they will be fine if you free range them

 

[biomistake]

Thanks for the replies that really helped me with figuring out what to do. I will make them a nice long narrow covered run which will be huge in size for 5 tiny birds.