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chicken and fence question!
NS Dev - 5/3/09 at 08:33 AM

anybody know how high a chicken can flap with clipped wings?

Will a 4 ft fence keep em in?

fov - 5/3/09 at 08:35 AM

4' seems a bit low.
Ive seen them flap over a 6' hedge. They did always come back though.

blakep82 - 5/3/09 at 08:37 AM

i've got 2, they can jump pretty high when they want to. but they never seem to want to. mine have never tried getting over the fence, and their wings aren't clipped.
4ft might be alright, but they could easily clear it. i'd go 6ft if possible.



[Edited on 5/3/09 by blakep82]

Mr Whippy - 5/3/09 at 08:39 AM

I was under the impression they can only really glide or hop about

Can’t you sneak up on them and go

AAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

Then you’d know…


bet that pooped on your shoulder

[Edited on 5/3/09 by Mr Whippy]

blakep82 - 5/3/09 at 08:45 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
bet that pooped on your shoulder


nope she's good like that

l0rd - 5/3/09 at 08:49 AM

my grandma has about 100 and the fence around the house is about 5ft tall. Maximum i have seen them fly before being run over by me was 3-4 ft.

If you plan getting a goat though i would recommend a 8 ft one
OMG These things know how to jump.

Mr Whippy - 5/3/09 at 08:57 AM

When I was at school my folks had a heap of ducks on a large pond, they could fly away anytime but always came back, totally tame they’d wander into the house in a gang raid and steal the dogs food as the mutts looked on. Do make a right mess of the water though but did keep the lawn short and well fed

Angus180 - 5/3/09 at 09:09 AM

my chickens are fat and lazy so dont jump/flap much. but up to 4-5ft fence would be ok.

liam.mccaffrey - 5/3/09 at 09:21 AM

We have had chickens, goats and a crazy crazy bounding boxer dog.

5' SHOULD be good for chickens, the boxer could leap and throw his front legs over the wall and kind of flop over.

The goat though it was like it wasn't there
They seem to have a persistant desire to stand on top of everything, cars, walls, climb trees shipping containers anyhting

[Edited on 5/3/09 by liam.mccaffrey]

designer - 5/3/09 at 09:22 AM

I have seen them jump 2 metres when they want,

l0rd - 5/3/09 at 09:30 AM

quote:
Originally posted by designer
I have seen them jump 2 metres when they want,


the goat or the chicken?

The goat we had was tied with a leash and managed to go at about 2.5 meters high. I wonder if the leash wasn't there what it could do.

f1ngers - 5/3/09 at 09:33 AM

We've got a 5ft fence and that keeps them in. mind you they are ex battery hens so they aren't particularly adventurous after spending most of their life crammed together indoors!
I would say 5ft or possibly 6ft will be sufficient to keep them in.

oldtimer - 5/3/09 at 09:33 AM

I'd be more worried about how high a fox can jump to get in, if you have them where you are.

maartenromijn - 5/3/09 at 09:35 AM

I keep chickens in a cage. I always leave the door open. They always stay on my property, and come back to their cage at the end of the day. And the 2 chickens give me about 10 egs per week!

Edit to say: I have the fence dug into the groud approx 2 ft.

[Edited on 5/3/09 by maartenromijn]

twybrow - 5/3/09 at 09:36 AM

Just make sure you dig the fence into a trench so that Mr Fox cant dig under it.

Chickens are amazing creatures - so stupid they are brilliant!

NS Dev - 5/3/09 at 09:46 AM

I have a roll of 4 ft weldmesh, didn't want to go any higher with a "large structure" as it would take over my garden a fair bit!

I have a secure house for them at night, the fence was to hopefully keep them in one patch during the day. I want to keep moving the run about though, hence not making it too big and unwieldy.

My plan is to then make a fully wired in little "mini-run" (bit like an eglu run thingy) that fixes to the front of their house for when we are away so if a neighbour forgets to put them in at night mr fox can't get them (yep plenty of foxes around, though my nextdoor neighbour is a bloody good shot, so if a fox does have a go, it'll only be once, he can cover my garden from his bedroom window! )

[Edited on 5/3/09 by NS Dev]

Daddylonglegs - 5/3/09 at 09:58 AM

quote:
Originally posted by oldtimer
I'd be more worried about how high a fox can jump to get in, if you have them where you are.


Me too!

We've gone for wing clipping, a 3ft fence but it's electrified . The zapper runs off the mains so no worries about Mr Raynard waiting for the battery to run down

BTW, get 'em used to coming when you call for feed and you'll see how fast and how high they can fly!

JB

tendoshingan - 5/3/09 at 10:57 AM

Chickens are cunning fellows.

I'm sure that I heard a story of a lot of them ganging up, building a plane and flying a lot higher than 4ft.

NS Dev - 5/3/09 at 12:27 PM

me too, but I'm confiscating any plane building supplies that I find!

Daddylonglegs - 5/3/09 at 01:07 PM

Already done that! Cunning devils indeed, we just got rid of our Cockerel 'cos they're the ringleaders!!

tomprescott - 5/3/09 at 01:27 PM

5ft would be fine for chickens, don't get a goat - you'll regret it!

Daddylonglegs - 5/3/09 at 01:28 PM

quote:
Originally posted by tomprescott
don't get a goat - you'll regret it!


So would the chickens

MikeR - 5/3/09 at 06:04 PM

Any chickens in your place Nat would end up building themselves a race car in your garage form the left over bits!

blakep82 - 8/3/09 at 01:14 AM

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907 - 8/3/09 at 07:29 AM

If you clip the wings then you only clip


one wing


Paul G