All about fences for chickens
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- Опубликовано: 30 июн 2024
- Everyone asks How high should a fence be, to keep chickens inside it? But actually chickens don't often fly over a fence - they tend not to fly up and over anything. They will fly up and onto anything that they think they can perch on, though, so it's important to avoid rails along the top of the fence, and look out for anything close to the fence that chickens might use to perch on and then fly down on the other side of the fence.
Even more likely - they will definitely go through any gaps in or under the fence! If you don't find the gaps, they will will!
For more fascinating facts, hints and tips about caring for your chickens, and the sheer pleasure of chickens, subscribe to my channel: Chickens in my garden - New Zealand
/ chickensinmygarden
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As always very good content! Thank you.
Thank you 🙂
Love your site! Fun and straight to the point!!
Thank you 🙂
In the uk 6ft high or higher and a least 2ft underground, a strong wire fence then cover with chicken wire should keep the foxes away.
Thank you. We are lucky not to have foxes here. They look beautiful and I know they belong in the english countryside but they must be a challenge to keeping chickens.
Thank you for your very helpful and informative video.
Thank you 🙂
This is very good information! Thank you very much! My pullets sometimes still want to jump up the fence but I hope they settle as it gets closer to their laying age
They will certainly settle down some 🙂
This video is so useful! Thank you. 🙂
I'm glad. Thank you for commenting 🙂
Nice video! Thanks for making this 😊👍
You're very welcome. Thank you for watching 🙂
Very helpful will keep these things in mind come May🌈😃🤙
Thank you! It is always delightful watching your informative videos and I just love seeing someone else's chicken fiascos! J:O)
You are correct about the chicken fencing (fencing lessons). And yet, there is always one chicken in the flock that seems to defy the law of gravity. The smaller weight chickens tend to need less of a runway for lift-off. My Salmon Favorolle is one such gravity-defying, leaping-in-a-single-bound, no-need-for-a-runway, acrobatic, trapeze artist. Funny how quickly those clipped wings can grow back. I hate to clip their wings, don't you? Thank you again. J:o)==
Chickens certainly are a lot of fun!
Some of my light breeds have flown right up onto the roof of the chicken run. But often they fly back down to where they belong anyway so I haven't bothered clipping their wings recently. My past attempts didn't seem to slow them down much at all. What worked was when the rooster stopped chasing her around. Or just time and maturity. Fortunately the consequences are not great - risks to my garden rather than risks to the chickens.
I love your chickens! thank you for sharing!
Thanks 🙂 Do you have chickens too? I hope you do - they are so much fun!
@@chickensinmygarden
Yes I have chickens as well, I grew up with chickens and my wife and I recently bought a home with some property so I decided to get chickens. And now I cannot stop! ha we recently incubated our own eggs and had a good hatch. I always share your video you did on the longevity of eggs. I love your channel, and the variety of chooks you have! I agree, chickens are so much fun.
"And now I cannot stop" ha ha! I know about that! Incubating and hatching are my favourite of all the wonderful things about chickens but now we live in town I have to limit myself to one hatch per year.
When I was a kid, I'd come home from school and discover that my chickens had escaped into my neighbour's garden (my neighbour is terrified of chickens) through digging under the fence. They were digging up my neighbour's garden so I had to run and pick them up quickly and take them back to my house! Neighbour was not happy, and it happened more than one time.
Those chickens just love to dig! 🙂
Great points. My chickens for sure fly over the top haha especially one of them and I even trim her wings. Nothing stops her she’s “super chicken!!” Able to leap y’all buildings in a single bound!
I had a couple of Anconas (light Mediterranean breed) that did fly over fences when they were young but they settled down once they started laying. Or maybe they just finally realised how much better off they were on their own side of the fence 🙂
Excellent, thanks
Thank you 🙂
Very good thank you
Thank you 🙂
Thanks for the cool video
Thanks for watching and commenting 🙂
I've watched several hours of your videos today and throughly enjoyed them. It's been raining for most of the afternoon and I have been feeling lazy today. So when I scrolled through RUclips and found your channel I was hooked. Naturally I had things to do in the house so I would pause the video and come back to it later. I don't get tired of watching chickens and maybe learning something I didn't know. I'm 69 years old and have had chickens the majority of my life, but I still like to see what others are doing with cross breeding and the different traits of the different breeds.
I've always had heritage breeds until this year. I purchased a few Isa Browns, a sex link that is suppose to be heavy layers. I have only females and don't need a rooster because my son has several and I can always get fertile eggs from him.
I like your feeder very much and am going to see if I can find the equivalent here in the states.
Have a blessed and happy weekend.
Mary
Thank you Mary. How lovely to hear from you. And I'm very glad my videos have brightened up the afternoon for you.
I had to wait until I was 50 (and we got our 2-acre block) before I got chickens (I'm now 67) but now they will be part of my life forever - they are so enjoyable in so many ways.
It will be interesting to see what you think of your Isa Browns - I think they are great for beginners because they are so productive, but they seem to burn out and die so young, now I think I prefer the heritage breeds, even though they moult every winter.
I wish you a cosy weekend.
@@chickensinmygarden I prefer the heritage breeds over the so called sex link chickens, however I want to sell a few dz eggs a week and thought the Isa's would serve that purpose and I assume with free ranging and good care they might be able to live a longer life. I don't use artificial light to keep my girls laying, I don't think that is good for the birds health.
Unlike you I won't have a problem harvesting a bird for food if she's no longer productive. I've raised and consumed my own meats for many many years. Being raised on a farm it's a natural process for me. I do get attached to some of my sweetest birds and can't harvest them ,so I'll let my son do it. I do enjoy watching them and see the different personalities in the flock. I'd love to have my own breeding program, but I'm to old and worn out to move back to a farm.
All the best to you my new friend.
I have a friend who does just like you - she gets new Hylines every year and sells the eggs. Her husband is a butcher and he does the kill of the old hens but she says they are too scrawny to be worth plucking. I expect they would make good soup though.
Great video, you chickens are so pretty. Mine usually free range during the day but we did have a problem with my neighbors rooster coming over and "bothering" my hens. I don't want or need a rooster so it was pretty annoying. We had to increase the level of our big chicken area fencing (we call this area jurassic park, lol) so that he couldn't fly in and eat the food and mate with them. So whenever he came around I just put them in there and he was no longer a problem. Of course I told the neighbor what he was doing but they had a hard time containing him it seemed. Eventually he disappeared I imagine a fox or hawk got him and I was actually not sad that he was gone. Most of my girls are pretty big now and you're right they do settle down with time. I enjoy your videos and your chicken knowledge :) Oh also, just curious as to what types of predators you have there in New Zealand? I am in the eastern united states and we have quite a bit of wildlife out here in the country.
I also find roosters can be harder to contain than hens, especially if they can hear hens nearby, even if they have their own flock. They can be very determined.
We are lucky to have very few predators in New Zealand - rats, stoats, and neighbours' dogs are about all. I lost one young chick to a stoat before I got a stoat trap, and the neighbour's dog slaughtered four hens and broke my heart. But that's nothing compared to foxes, snakes, eagles, and even bigger predators that some people face.
very interesting and useful
Thank you
Thank you! I have some young ones, and am looking to start let them out.
If you can, it can be useful to let them out bit by bit into a small area and then slowly expand their space, so they learn the way home and don't get lost. It usually only takes them a few days to learn - longer if there is a kink that means they have to go away from the house to get around something when they want to head for the house.
@@chickensinmygarden yes, exactly what we are doing. Thank you!
Informative
Thank you 🙂
This is really helpful! We pick up our new laying hens on Monday and we wanted to keep them seperate from the existing flock until they have gotten to know each other through the fence. For that we only need the chicken wire. The free range yard has all the predator proofing because here in Missouri we have many of those that love tasty chickens. Mostly coyote, racoon, and neighborhood dogs. But we have owls that live in the trees and hawks everywhere. I love the way you did your grow box for them too. I have been pondering how I wanted mine to be. Love your videos!
Ooh, how exciting - new chickens!
If they are chickens raised on another farm they might have been exposed to different pathogens. There's a chance that they might get sick at your place or make your existing chickens sick. I suggest that if you can, keep them quarantined separate from your existing chickens for a couple of weeks. Just make a double fence - two netting fences about 3 ft apart. During this time, try not to track poop from one space to the other - e.g. wash your boots between feeding each side as well as washing your hands.
After a couple of weeks take down one fence so they can get close to each other. Then once the two flocks seem ready you can let them mix.
I hope this is all unnecessary and you could mix them without any problems but I just mention it because there is a small risk for you to consider. The further your new chickens have come the bigger the risk.
This might be useful for general information
extension.missouri.edu/publications/g8903
But the risk is small so whatever you decide, enjoy those chickens 🙂
Best chicken fence video on RUclips
Thank you very much 🙂
@@chickensinmygarden Your literally the only one explaining the roost theory lol
Really? I'm surprised. Maybe those other people don't have time to watch chickens 🙂
The net over the fence is the only way I see my chickens not getting out 😂
Whatever works for you 🙂
If the chicken is "crossing the road", the fence is to low.
Great video!! How would you recommend keeping a white leghorn in a run? Is there anything I can add to the top of my run which either makes it looks unsteady, or actually is impossible for her to perch on? Thank you so much!
I'm assuming your run has no top cover. Adding mesh or several strands fairly close together might actually be easiest. (And I find a light cover like shade cloth is good for protection from excessive sun and rain anyway.)
Otherwise you need really high fences about 3 metres high, and absolutely nothing close to the fence that they can use as a step.
A wire fence with thin metal poles - you can even put spiky tops on the poles like they do to stop pigeons perching on them.
But if she's already an escape artist and desperate to get out, probably only a roof will work.
@@chickensinmygarden thank you so much!! I will give the mesh a try :-) she is certainly a character. My other chickens don’t even try to jump, but she’s flying everywhere!
Breed makes a huge difference. But so does age - if she's only young she might settle down once she comes into lay. (Just avoid her getting into bad habits in the meantime)
Flighty birds can have thier feathers clipped
👍👍👍
What are the stakes used for the bird netting fully covering the run
Thin metal with a white pigtail on top? They are designed for temporary electric fences. A lot of NZ farmers use a hot wire looped into these stakes. The stakes have two prongs on the bottom so are easy to push in straight upright then pull out and move when the stock are ready to be moved or given access to the next strip of grass etc. They cost about $4 each and last for years.
Here's an example
www.strainrite.co.nz/product/7mm-heavy-duty-gold-foot-pigtails-posts-bundle-of-10/
And the Dunkit caddy video shows how the stakes are usually used
www.strainrite.co.nz/product/dunkit-pigtail-caddy/
I love your chickens what breed are the adult birds they are very pretty. thanks
I have a mixture of different breeds - Rhode Island Red, white Shaver, cuckoo and silver duckwing Leghorns, light and speckled Sussex, lavender Araucana, Ancona (the black and white ones), Barnevelders, and hyline browns.
It's fun having a mixture, and I get lots of different coloured eggs.
@@chickensinmygarden thanks for your reply I love those Ancona are they the ones with the black and white spots I wonder if I can get those in Canada are they good egg layers I have 3 red rock and 3 cinnamon queens I love them all (you are in New Zealand) ?
Yes the black and white spotty ones are Anconas. They are an Italian breed and excellent layers of white-shelled eggs, rather like Leghorns which are also originally from Italy. They are not common here either (yes I'm in New Zealand).
The best is this
www.weidezaun.info/voss-farming-farmnet-25m-huetenetz-135cm-9-pfaehle-2-spitzen-gruen-ohne-strom.html
big holes and high. Chickens will not try to fly on this model and the fence will not grow into the ground. The chickens eat through the fence, cleaning it up so that it does not grow in. The chickens try to run through the large meshes, but get caught.
❤️thank you
Thank you - you are the first to comment 🙂
👍 felicitări.
Multumesc
Chickens in my garden do you speak Romanian?
No. I was just using Google translate 😀 It is wonderful to be able to communicate with people all around the world about chickens.
How come your chickens don’t eat all your flowers etc?
I'm not sure why they were in the flower garden that day. Usually they go straight under the trees and spend most of the day there.
But essentially if you want to have a garden as well as chickens you have to keep them apart - either fence the chickens in to their enclosure or fence the garden to keep the chickens out.
Chicken wire will get ruined and predators can chew open or tear it open .
Plus they climb it and also dog kennel as well.
Line the fence or kennel with hardware cloth . . Predators won’t get in then
We are lucky in New Zealand - we have no chicken predators, except the neighbour's dog. As I said in the video, this is about how to keep chickens in, not how to keep predators out. What you need to do to keep predators out will depend on what kind of predators you have to contend with in your area. What kind of predators do you have at your place?
I let my chickens get out during summer, fall, and winter. During those seasons, there is no need for a fence.
Lucky chickens! I bet they love that 🙂
@@chickensinmygarden I just don't let them out in spring because they could eat the seedlings.
And scratch them up, too, I bet !