Mrs

[maxjam]

We keep 20 chickens in a 30ft x 30ft enclosure at the bottom of our garden, but several of them have decided they want to roam the rest of the garden. And the neighbours...

 

The fence is 6ft 6in high, but several of our girls have learnt to scale it. Other than clipping their wings - something I would rather not do - what other ideas are there for keeping them where they are supposed to be!?

 

Ideally I think I would like to put a netting 'roof' over the top of the run but am unsure as to how to go about this without driving more posts into the ground every few feet.

 

Any bright ideas would be appreciated as I am on constant chicken vigil at the moment...

[Patricia W]

I can't help with the netting, but have had experience of clipping wings. You only clip one and it doesn't hurt them at all. However, you do have to keep doing it or they catch you unawares!

 

Are they launching themselves off something? I haven't seen any doing vertical take offs - but your hens may be different.

 

Tricia

[maxjam]

They aren't launching themselves off anything however, I did see one several days ago leap up about 3/4 the height of the fence (chicken wire) grab on with its feet then launch itself over the top!

 

In the center of the enclosure we have our chicken shed, I have been looking at pigeon netting this morning and reckon that will do the job. We could attach it to the shed and pull it reasonably tight over the fence.

[bennett]

The netting sounds like a good idea, although clipping wings is common practise. All my chooks have thier wing done after moult , it doesnt hurt them at all, it makes it much easier to catch the flighty ones for thier lice treatments ect.

[maxjam]

Pigeon Netting Update...

 

The netting arrived yesterday afternoon (£70 for 10mx10m) and fits over my chicken run really well. The chicken run is 30x30ft with posts 6ft apart and chicken wire inbetween, the netting was stretched over the wire and attached to the posts and pulled taut with very little in the way of sag in the middle. I trimmed off the excess and it possibly looks better now than it did before! Not sure how long it took to install as I wasn't clock watching, however, I started after the chickens had gone to bed at 9pm and finished before it got too dark to work.

 

So, not a cheap option but it provides peace of mind and dispite a few funny looks this morning, the chickens don't seem to mind it at all!!!

[amc]

Netting is what we have and it works extremely well for us, and also a further deterrent for the fox who apparently has been known to scale high fences.....