Will chickens stay out of the dog's yard?

[Meesh]

Hi, I'm on a roll with my second questions for the day!

Are chickens smart enough not to fly over a 4' fence into the dog yard? I am going to give them a 100' x 75' well-fenced area to free range, but the fence will only be 4' high.

My two more predatory dogs (11 y.o. ridgeback and 13 y.o. whippet) are getting to be ancient and arthritic. If the chickens don't have a deathwish & will stay where they belong, it should be just fine.

Oh, tangential question - if the henhouse will be closed up tight at night, does the attached run (~16 x 8, 6' tall, fully enclosed) need to have the wire buried a foot? The run is going to be parked over my septic leach field, it would be nice if it can be easily moved - just in case. Would a skirt + cinder blocks work? The run is inside of a fenced yard area, there shouldn't be stray dogs or coyotes up near it during the day.

Cheers,
Michelle

 

[arlee453]

Yes they will fly over a 4' fence regardless of the dogs on the other side - at least once or maybe twice if they live long enough to learn their lesson.

And they will easily clear 4' fence - even large breeds - when they are young, or spooked, or really tempted.

I'd recommend covering their run.

As far as the skirting - I"d think the cinder block idea would work. I don't have skirting around my pen, as my girls are locked up at night, and I am not in a high predator area - or at least not a high day-time predator area... but if you have any thing that will dig under fencing that is active in the daytime, the skirting is the way to go.

 

[Meesh]

Thanks.

To clarify, there will be a fully covered run next to the henhouse. They can also free range in the horse corrals part of the day, when I'm home.

Will they possibly learn not to jump over if there is a non-chicken-eating dog in the yard? My Aussie snuck up on a wild turkey mama once and just sniffed it's tail feathers. She won't even chase the rabbits out of the yard.

She might be able to help me herd them back to their area a few times, if that would help to train them (can they be trained??). Ifffff she's not skeered of chickens.

Cheers,
Michelle

 

[raindrop]

I don't think they will learn not to fly into the dog's run. When I was a kid I had pigs for a season or two and watched 3 of my chickens fly to the top of the fence of the pig run, one jumped in, got stuck in the mud and almost eaten. While I was trying to save this chicken (obviously in distress), the other 2 jumped in too. The next day, they tried to do it again and I had to keep the chickens in their run until the pigs went to the freezer a couple weeks later.

 

[Meesh]

Thanks Raindrop. Based on the feedback, I've decided to start off with a chicken tractor. It's not quite free range, but at least they can safely get out of the coop to enjoy bugs and fresh greenery...

Cheers,
Michelle

 

[living2ride]

Quote:
I had (note the use of the past tense) two chickens fly over my 6 foot fence into the dogs' yard. Not pretty.