Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: T C on September 01, 2008, 23:46

Title: Flying hens
Post by: T C on September 01, 2008, 23:46

TC would like to know, it may sound a funny question, how high can i expect my hens to fly, i would like to extend the pen,and create a large area of land for a day enclosure, i want to make it high enough so they dont fly out,

Title: Flying hens
Post by: naturesparadise on September 01, 2008, 23:51

depends on the breed large breeds for the most part can get up to 4 inches lol

bantams again depends on breed iv seen my landlords ones fly into a tree
about 6 foot up

the little old english game bantams can fly well over 6 foot up from the ground


the other thing you need to think of is cats getting in

Title: flying hens
Post by: T C on September 02, 2008, 00:05

Didnt think of cats, we have cats, never had a problem with them, the hens are mediem sized spanish hens, but i think if cats can be a problem we may have to consider a smaller enclosure with its top fenced over,thats a shame as i had the idea of the hens having free range all around the many trees we have here.

Title: Flying hens
Post by: naturesparadise on September 02, 2008, 00:08

if there bigish then cats should not bother them as there to big

so you could be ok see what others on here say

Title: flying hens
Post by: T C on September 02, 2008, 00:16

Just a bit worried now as i have seen a very large cat about,its a real hunter, my cats are well fed, but if this cat is a good hunter and hrungry, it may fancy my girls for supper, im going off the idea of the open toped pen, think i might go for the second option, smaller  with top

Title: Flying hens
Post by: Jellyhead on September 02, 2008, 08:09

My cats have never been a problem and I have 12 now. 1 of which isnt really mine he just likes to eat here :roll: he really is feral although I can touch the top of his head now, he still gives me that ears back glare tho. I have a pen with small chooks in and they have (touches wood) all been left well alone by the cats. A few of the young cats spend hours a day in with the chooks, I have also had lots of chicks this year :D  and the hens take such good care that it really hasnt been a problem at all. I am either extremely lucky given the amount of cats I have or cats just dont go for chooks :wink:

Title: Flying hens
Post by: poultrygeist on September 02, 2008, 09:05

I don't know if it would help, but you can buy poultry netting (durable, knotted string nets) online to any size you want. If you bought several metres at say, 1.5 to 2 metre width, it wouldn't be too expensive and would keep your hens in and would be too flimsy for a cat to climb. As long as you can be on the look out for foxes, you should be ok.

Rob 8)

Title: Flying hens
Post by: stickywicket on September 02, 2008, 16:22

I have bantams and use electric netting and so far they have not been bothered by the very large black cat that comes in our garden.

They can fly very well - one got on top of a 12ft hedge in next door's garden while we were away on holiday :shock:

I have reluctantly clipped their wings :cry:

Title: flying hens
Post by: T C on September 02, 2008, 16:58

thanks, i think the poultry netting sounds a good idea, we have a lot of wild life here, as we are in the mountains, we even have wild boar, and youve never seen such big lanky foxes, thats why we hve a brick built hen house,a very secure 5 metre x 3 metre run, but would like them to have more freedom, we only have 6 hens, but 6 years ago we had hens, and had 2 hens taken in daylight by a fox, it was horrible, we saw one being taken,but we were to far away to do anything