Want to own chickens again after 6 years…

[Brummie Pekin]

There is a difference in "can they" and "will they". A lot of that is "want to". I don't know what the physical limit is for any specific hen. My Sussex, Orpington, Rocks, Delaware, and such have no problems flying up to or down from my 5 feet high roosts. They want to get up there and from watching them have no doubt they could go higher.

What do your fences look like? Does it have a solid top rail that would make a good landing place and perch? What can happen is that a chicken flies up to perch and hops down on the wrong side. Not all do that but many can if they want to.

I use four feet high electric netting to contain mine. They can easily fly over that if they want to but they generally don't. If one is trapped against the netting in a pecking order fight or is trying to get away from an amorous rooster it may go vertical to get away and land on the wrong side so they can fly that high. Since my netting does not have a solid landing place on top for them to land it works really well.

Seven feet is a high wall. The odds are pretty good it will contain your chickens, even if it is solid but I don't give guarantees with living animals. I'd try it and see if it worked. If it doesn't work put a 12" or so extension made out of wire mesh so they don't have a good landing spot. That is a common fix.

Just a standard solid wood fence, yeah the upper is probably suitable enough for a chicken to want to perch. I guess il just have to trial and error and if I do see the chickens trying to fly up onto the fence get a wire mesh installed.

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

Weather gets quite hot in the summer and quite cold in the winter, also can larger hens fly quite high? I have 7 ft fences around my backyard

I have a Barred Rock named Star who regularly sleeps like, eight feet up one of those satellite dish scaffolds. But I also have a bunch who sleep in the coop, a Brahma who has been seen face planting into walls because she can’t reach the coop roof anymore (moved the trampoline), a pair of White Leghorns that are light enough to actually reach the roof from 5.5 feet down and is it to fly another 5 feet into a small tree, a RIR that roosts on the porch railing, and an idiot of a Production Red who tempts fate (and a killer raccoon) every night by sleeping in a poorly built run on top of an unsecured cinder block.
So I guess it depends on the bird.

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

I have a Barred Rock named Star who regularly sleeps like, eight feet up one of those satellite dish scaffolds. But I also have a bunch who sleep in the coop, a Brahma who has been seen face planting into walls because she can’t reach the coop roof anymore (moved the trampoline), a pair of White Leghorns that are light enough to actually reach the roof from 5.5 feet down and is it to fly another 5 feet into a small tree, a RIR that roosts on the porch railing, and an idiot of a Production Red who tempts fate (and a killer raccoon) every night by sleeping in a poorly built run on top of an unsecured cinder block.
So I guess it depends on the bird.

But yeah they can fly.