The Layer Most Likely to Leave Over the Top
Leghorns are light, lean, athletic chickens bred for laying, and they behave like it. Where a heavy dual-purpose hen treats a fence as a wall, a Leghorn treats it as a suggestion: this breed flies well, startles upward at sudden movement, and will be over an uncovered run and into a tree before you cross the yard. Security for a Leghorn therefore starts overhead, not at ground level.
Leghorns are also restless foragers. A cramped, bare run produces constant escape attempts and squabbling, while a roomy covered run with litter to work through keeps those same birds occupied inside the wire.
Cover the Run and Build the Mesh for Climbers
Net or roof the entire run, with no gap at the eaves where a hen can slip through or a climbing predator can slip in. Use small-mesh welded hardware cloth rather than light hexagonal chicken wire: chicken wire keeps hens in, briefly, but it tears under a determined dog and lets smaller predators reach through and grab a roosting bird.
Bury the mesh edge or fit an outward skirt at ground level so digging animals hit wire when they dig at the fence line. Check door frames and corners weekly, because those are where mesh works loose and where a Leghorn — an expert at finding the one unlatched gap — will be waiting.
Do not rely on a low fence and good intentions in an open yard unless someone is present the whole time. A single dog racing the fence line can put the whole flock over it in seconds.
The Dusk Lock-Up That Prevents Most Losses
More backyard Leghorns are lost at night than at any other time. Shut the flock inside a solid coop at dusk, every dusk, with a latch that a dexterous paw cannot slide — simple hook latches are opened by persistent night visitors with depressing regularity. The coop itself needs ventilation high up, covered with the same small mesh, so air moves without anything reaching in.
Inside, give the hens a proper roost bar, because a Leghorn that cannot settle on a roost she likes will roost in the run, on the coop roof, or in a tree, all places your lock-up cannot protect. Count the flock in each evening as you shut the door; noticing one missing hen at dusk gives you a same-evening search instead of a cold trail.
Daytime Safety in the Run
Provide grit, dust-bathing spots, scattered greens, and perches at different heights inside the covered run, and rotate what there is to scratch through. Shade matters: a Leghorn in full summer sun will crowd any weak, shaded corner of the fence and worry at it. Keep feed in a covered store so spilled grain does not draw rats, which draw larger hunters, to the run's edge.
If you let Leghorns range a garden, do it supervised, with the dog indoors and a herding-back routine built on a feed call they already know.
If a Leghorn Gets Out
Search at roost height as well as on the ground — trees, fence tops, shed roofs, and woodpiles near the run — and listen at dusk, when a separated hen often calls. Ask a veterinarian for help if a recovered hen has wounds, a drooping wing, or stops laying alongside fluffed, quiet behaviour. KinsLe's Circle of Love widens that search when a Leghorn strays, linking your free KinsLe account into a local network of pet lovers who can keep eyes open and help get her home.