How high should my garden fence be to keep chickens in.?
It’s interesting to think about how high the birds can actually go when you’re thinking of rearing a few. I should think that a large enough pen would be able to deter some of them from trying to go over, and there should be a roof or hen house over a significant portion of the pen as well for them to roost out of the elements. Fencing wise, I should think that you would do well enough with anything over 1.2 metres although as others here have mentioned, you may want to clip wings in case the chickens do decide to spread them!
Fence height is dependent on the breed that you are trying to keep. If you have a ten-foot tall fence, and you get a Junglefowl and he feels like being on the other side, he will be. However, if you purchase a Silkie it will not pass a two-foot fence. Now, I would say the standard fence is four foot tall. And you should also stick with heavier breeds as well, such as Orpington, Brahma, Cochin, Java, and anything seven pounds and up. I have never had any of these breeds jump my fence. However, my other large breeds Rhode Island Red, Black Australorp, Plymouth Rock, and Wyandotte don’t see anything wrong with my four-foot fence and they are about 6 pounds. Better breed birds (that are not hatchery quality) will be heavier, so buying a well breed Rhode Island Red, may very well weight the same amount of a hatchery Orpington. Clipping wings does help, but not really. As long as the bird has the muscles to get over the fence, it will get over it. The reason why the larger birds aren’t getti
