Will my chickens try to fly out or roost in the trees??

[madditremaine]

Hi. My name is Maddi. I just got chickens, and they are only about two months old right now. I have them in the coop, still, but I wanted to know (I heard from a friend) if they will try to fly out of the yard and roost in the trees?? I'm going to add some pictures. There will me my yard, which is in a rectangle shape. The bottom and top of the right side is chain link, but the bottom and top left is Privacy fence. (if you split it in half). I wanted to know if my chickens will try to fly out and roost in the trees which are on the other sides of the fence, or just try to fly over. Our neighbors who put up the privacy fence originally have eight dogs, who I am sure would not mind eating some chickens. (Not wanting that to happen) So I was wondering if they would do that. I have red sex links, which I've heard are an adventurous breed. (Rhode Islands) and I wasn't sure what to do. I have some time to decide, but I really want free rangers, and we have a large yard, so I was thinking that maybe if they weren't unhappy or looking for more, they wouldn't go searching. Thanks!!! (Above photo is my yard)

 

[papajoe]

I can tell you the first time I let my chickens out of the coop and into the run, one flew over the fence and then almost had a fit trying to get back in the run. Easiest way to avoid this is to clip the flight feathers on one wing, really easy to do, plenty of youtubes showing how.

 

[madditremaine]

Thank you so much. It hadnt even occured to me.

Maddi

 

[thomasboyle]

My chickens have never had a desire to escape. They are certainly capable of doing it, but unless you give them a reason to fly off, they usually stay on the ground and walk everywhere. As suggested, if you have a flyer or two, you can clip their wings. I raised Guineas for a while, and they would fly into the trees and to the top of the house, coop, barn and garage. They are a little less domesticated than chickens. I would guess your chickens will stay in the yard without too much fuss.

 

[Keaokun]

Let them run around while they are young so they get used to the area. Feed them where you want them to stay. Most chicken breeds can't fly up to those trees but they can fly over that fence.


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[Sonya9]

Realize that they may not try to fly over the fence at first, but one day as they get older if one figures out they can do it the others might follow. I would clip their wing feathers before it happens and not after. If they fly into the neighbors yard with all of those dogs it will be a one way trip.

 

[Sabz]

My chickens never escape either (no fences in my yard).

I have many trees and they never, ever roosted on them. They always go in the coop at night time.

Once I forgot the door opened for the night. Next morning I had a hen on top of the coop but that's it.

Most the time, I think if they are not scared and let out only during the day, they'll stay on the ground. If they are afraid of something they might fly a bit and perch.

 

[junebuggena]

For most heavy breed chickens, 4 feet is about as high as they can get. Mine would go under a fence before they even think about going over it. Your yard looks plenty big enough to keep them happy, but you might want to plant some bushes and trees in the yard to provide cover from aerial predators, shade, and shelter from rain.

 

[Jackduckrabbit]

with those 2 breeds i dont think they will fly into the trees or even over the wooden fence, but they might be able to fly/jump up to the chain link fence. you can just clip 1 wings feathers and it will through them off ballence and should stop them from getin over. also to add on to what junebuggena sayed you can hang some blank CDs to keep raptors away it worked for us for a long time.