Will this electric fence setup work to keep chickens in?

I have a very small flock of chickens, 3 to 10 birds range. They're in a secure chicken tractor type of coup that over summer we tow around and let them free range with an automatic, light-activated door. When grass isn't growing or we're away, we have a paddock full of hay, compost, and perches for them in an area out of the wind. To enclose this paddock and keep chickens safe during the day, we put up a 6' fence using 8' T-posts and 6' 2x4" welded wire fencing. Thing is, chickens just keep flying over that fencing. We added chicken wire extension 2' on top of the existing fence, but the chickens roost on a T-post or top of the welded wire, then manage to fly over the chicken wire. We are determined to keep the chickens in this paddock when we want them in, as when they let themselves out freely they end up 1) exposed to foxes and 2) eating where they shouldn't, like in our lawn-to-meadow conversion areas and eating vinyl labels for plants. The plastic eating is a real frustration and we're phasing out those labels but still have many in our tree nursery area.

To improve this paddock's fencing, I am thinking to run a single wire (I have 14ga galvanized wire for another project) up along the top of the 6' T-posts on the interior of the paddock, and energize it with a solar/battery fence charger. Here's an example charger I was looking at: https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/american-farmworks-2-mile-solar-fence-energizer-esp2mn-afw

The whole paddock is small, about 70ft perimeter and apx. 400sqft.

Electric fencing seems like a big project to add on to this setup but I imagine once we start using it, it's actually pretty simple. We're just new to it. And it seems like the simplest way to try to keep chickens in this paddock, but I'm not sure it will work - could they just avoid touching it and get atop a T-post anyway, or touch the wire but not be affected by it like mammals would be? I don't want to energize the entire 6' welded wire fence as we handle it to go in and out of the paddock daily.

If this doesn't sound good, any other ideas? My other idea is covering the entire top of the paddock with chicken wire. Again it's not that big of an area. But that would be hundreds of dollars of chicken wire, I'd need some support posts in the middle to keep it from sagging too much, and I imagine it'll open other cans of worms I'm not thinking of (like debris piling up on top, or harder to keep the paddock wall and ceiling 'sealed').

This is a stupid question, but, did you trim their wings?

If I understand correctly, your plan will not work. The birds will perch on the live wire but they will not get a shock because there is no ground.

Thank you for posting your good question!

I've had chicken for a long time in various settings. In my experience an electric fence doesn't work for chicken, they learn quickly to avoid the wire if they get a shock, and indeed, if there's no ground (the thread is high so the chicken don't touch the ground whilst touching the wire) they don't get schocked.

My vegetable garden is fenced, to keep the chicken out, with; horizontal planks against the fence posts up to 50 - 60 cm (visual barrier) and on the inside with sheep fencing which is 120cm high. On top of that (!) there is a chicken wire on the sides where the chicken of 100cm high.

The chicken can find enough to do and to eat outside the vegetable garden and the barrier is high.

If one of these factors wouldn't be in place and the chicken would try to raid the veggie garden, I'd clip one wing per chicken.
They don't feel pain from the clipping and the feathers eventually grow back BUT; with clipped wings they also can't escape from a potential predator as well as if their wings are intact.

Good luck and keep us posted on the developments!

Hi R,
I agree with those who posted before. An electric fence has little to do with keeping chickens in. I had an electric net from Premiere 1. The feathers on their body mean they rarely get shocked by it. So they would not train to it like other animals would. It worked great for keeping foxes and raccoons out though.

While bigger breeds of chickens are less likely to fly and don't tend to fly as high... they do still fly. The two best ways to keep the chickens in that I know of are

1. Put a roof/net on the pen (which is pretty hard to do if its a big pen or moveable).
2. Clip their wings (as has been suggested). I clipped my chicken's wings with a 4ft fence. No problems until they grew back... then I had to clip them again.

I wonder if there is an option for you to get some netting to put over the paddock? Assuming you are trying to keep the chickens in and keep out flying predators this might be a cheap(ish) fix for you.

I think they trick is trying to figure out how to support it as it is draped over the paddock. Maybe some tall t-posts or 4x4s that can keep it up.

(source)

Netting over chicken paddock