Are you in the process of getting your backyard ready for chickens for the first time? Worried about them going wandering or eggscaping? Or perhaps you’ve already got some birds and they’re proving to be much more adventurous than you expected.

Fear not. Chickens can jump, fly or hop further than most people think, but there are plenty of ways to keep them under control.

How high can chickens jump?

Whilst chickens have the necessary feathers and muscle, they’re not known as frequent flyers. Especially since domestication has removed much of the need and has fattened them up enough to make it more challenging. Depending on the breed and size of your chickens, getting off the ground will be easier for some than others. But that’s not to say that even the most vertically challenged can’t jump pretty high given the right motivation.

Generally, if there’s no surface for them to perch on, chickens won’t jump over a 3-foot high fence. However, if they’re startled by another chicken or a predator, separated from their feathered friends, or just really unhappy with something on their side of the fence, they can jump over 6 feet to get to somewhere more appealing.

How to deal with jumping chickens

Wing clipping

Some owners choose to clip their chicken’s feathers which will significantly reduce their capacity to fly or jump. Don’t worry – clipping flight feathers does no harm to your birds. As long as it’s done properly it’s the same to them as clipping our fingernails is to us. But if your chickens have the run of a large open space, wing clipping is not a good idea as flying or jumping is their only defence from a predator. 

Limit opportunity

By using one of our automatic coop door kits you can easily control the amount of time your chickens have out of their coop, and thus the amount of temptation there is for them to jump. As chicken behaviour tends to be driven by daylight hours, they’ll naturally retreat to their coop once darkness falls. This is why our kits come with light sensors to automatically lock your birds in at night time and protect them from any predators, as one happy customer discovered. If your chickens aren’t good at getting into the coop before nightfall, check out our tips on how to encourage them.

Keep them entertained

A happy bird is much less likely to go eggsploring. As well as the basics of giving them enough space, keeping their living area clean, and feeding them well, there’s plenty more you can do. Get some toys for them to play with – a swing to perch on or a foodball that dispenses treats. And try adding a bale of hay to their run. Chickens LOVE to kick with their feet and they’ll have great fun tearing it apart and spreading it all over. When they’re having that much fun, why would they want to jump over a fence?

Add a roof

Depending on your setup, you might be able to add a covering to your chicken run or playpen. Bird netting will be enough to keep your chickens from jumping and will also protect them from airborne predators. If foxes or other climbing predators are a concern then you’ll need to use a wire material for your roof as bird netting will present no obstacle to them!

Every chicken is different

As experienced owners will know, chickens all have their own individual personalities. Some are simply more adventurous than others, and more likely to try to fly or jump somewhere that looks interesting. So it’s really important you get to know them and understand their needs. If they can get all the food, security, attention, and entertainment they want within the confines of their coop and run, then it’s very unlikely they’ll want to spread their wings and fly away.

A whole lot of what chickens can do as far as getting over a fence depends on motivation. If they really want to get over a fence, they’ll surprise you with what they can do. Some people keep chickens confined with a 3’ high fence. Some people have problems with 5 feet high fences. Clipping a wing can help but it doesn’t always stop them. There are plenty of threads on this forum from people that have discovered that.

I don’t clip wings but I have had hatchery quality chickens of your breeds. I have similar sized chickens now. They have absolutely no problem getting up on a five feet high roost and could easily go much higher if they wanted to. I had an Australorp and some Delaware that would daily get out of a run with five feet high walls. They learned they could get out so they went out each day. I had plenty others that never got out. Right now I keep them in with a 4 foot high electric netting. They could easily fly out if they wanted to but they generally don’t.

What would motivate a chicken to go over a fence? Food for one thing. Food is a great motivator. But chickens often have trouble with the concept of getting over a barrier. A lot of times if they can’t walk to it they assume it is out of reach. They don’t think to fly over something to get here. They often have trouble with the concept of gate too but that is a different story.

Also, they are not going to launch themselves into the sky and commit themselves if they don’t know there is a safe landing area. So a fence they cannot see through is a great start. But that brings up another problem. Chickens like to perch. They really enjoy just flying/jumping up on things to survey the world. Once they get up on top of a fence, they just might hop down on the wrong side. They generally don’t know to get back home the same way so they can be pretty desperate at bedtime to get back to the coop yet can’t figure out how to get there. A fence with a top that looks like a good perching spot can be a problem. If you have wire going up a few inches above the top of the solid top of your fence, they won’t fly up there.

A general note. When I say “can” I don’t mean it will happen each and every 100% of the time without fail for every chicken on the face of the earth. I mean it is possible and sometimes happens. It’s something to be aware of.

Even with wings clipped chickens can reach amazing heights on a fence by flapping wings and pretty much walking up the fence. This can happen when a hen is trying to get away from an amorous rooster or if a chicken is losing a pecking order fight and is trapped in a corner or against a fence. A predator or perceived danger can cause this behavior too. If I walk toward them with a feed bucket they come running but if I’m carrying something strange and really dangerous like a small camera they can panic and go to great lengths to get away. I don’t see this as much of a problem for you. You have all hens, no roosters. I assume they are the same age and have worked out the pecking order. They should not have any reason to try to get away from each other. If you integrate in the future you could possibly have this problem, but in your case I doubt it. Something else you have going for you is that you have big area. It is highly unlikely they will ever be trapped against the fence and need to go vertical to get away from something. You don’t have any really sharp corners but they are pretty open so they should be able to run away instead of go vertical even if trapped in there.

Bottom line, I think you will be OK with a 6’ high privacy fence even without clipping a wing. They have no reason to want to get to the other side and have plenty of room on their side. I think you would be OK with a 6’ high wire fence too. The only concern I’d have is if they want to perch on top of the fence and come down on the other side, but that’s probably not going to happen. If it does the fix is to have some wire sticking up a few inches above the top of the fence so they don’t have a safe landing area up there to perch on. They will do great damage to your garden though unless you fence them out of those. A less expensive five feet high wire fence with no top rail should work great for that.

If you do clip wings, the only time you need to do that is after a molt. As long as you don’t remove the shaft the feather should not grow back until after a molt. If you pluck out the entire shaft the feather will grow back.

Good luck!