Fences: Yay or nay?

[r3g]

This is my current enclosure for chickens, but winter has come and I've read online in some places that it might not be enough. 

Various sources have have conflicting statements that animals can climb fences if there's snow, that they can't, or that animals don't pathfind over fences regardless.

Does anyone have a definitive answer to this? It would be much appreciated!

[LadyWYT]

53 minutes ago, r3g said:

Various sources have have conflicting statements that animals can climb fences if there's snow, that they can't, or that animals don't pathfind over fences regardless.

It's variable, really, and if you're playing with mods some modded creatures are able to climb fences. In vanilla though, animals aren't supposed to be able to climb over fences, but that doesn't mean that a lurking bug won't produce the occasional escapee.

Based on what I see in your screenshot though, you should be fine. It looks similar to the coops I typically build, except bigger. 

[r3g]

Thank you for the clarification! I've just got chickens in here lol, no mods.

They deserve a big home

[Dilan Rona]

I had a few cases of chicks escaping tbh. and when its snowing, I generally take the precaution to make the fence 2x higher, with a double gate at the entrance (whether its snowing or not).

[pigfood]

I don't see a lightning rod. I've had my entire chicken population wiped out multiple times.

Is there forest nearby? Bears can kill your chicken through the fence.

Animals can step on each other and glitch over/through fences. Chicken try run from you, bears, wolves and may panic-aggregate in a single spot causing that issue.

You may want to keep a backup rooster somewhere. Beyond escaping, roosters can also completely wipe each other out, if you are unlucky.

[CastIronFabric]

21 hours ago, r3g said:

This is my current enclosure for chickens, but winter has come and I've read online in some places that it might not be enough. 

Various sources have have conflicting statements that animals can climb fences if there's snow, that they can't, or that animals don't pathfind over fences regardless.

Does anyone have a definitive answer to this? It would be much appreciated!

agreed on the conflicting statements. I have read the same conflicts leaving me perplex.

That said, I have witnessed a fox jump into my single fence height without there even being snow. I think he stepped over a dead animal. Regardless, I used double high fences and problem went away.

[CastIronFabric]

3 hours ago, sushieater said:

I don't see a lightning rod. I've had my entire chicken population wiped out multiple times.

Is there forest nearby? Bears can kill your chicken through the fence.

Animals can step on each other and glitch over/through fences. Chicken try run from you, bears, wolves and may panic-aggregate in a single spot causing that issue.

You may want to keep a backup rooster somewhere. Beyond escaping, roosters can also completely wipe each other out, if you are unlucky.

so basically you are saying no fences period? because even at 10 fence high animals can glitch thru? Problem is I heard that they also need sunlight, so put them in a walled greenhouse?

I have no idea what the best action is , someone really needs to set the record 100000% straight on this, I have played for 1000 hours now and have only had one pen for about 20 hours of that because I have no idea how we are supposed to do this.

 

Edited December 27, 2025 by CastIronFabric

[Michael Gates]

42 minutes ago, CastIronFabric said:

so basically you are saying no fences period? because even at 10 fence high animals can glitch thru? Problem is I heard that they also need sunlight, so put them in a walled greenhouse?

 

Regular, 1-high fences are fine for keeping animals on this side or that side, IN MOST CONDITIONS. 

The exceptions are:

1) Putting a raised block next to the fence. If you've got your fence, and there's a raised block on one side, animals can go over the fence from that side. This is useful sometimes, because you can make a fenced pen and then drive goats and stuff into it.

2) Snow. Snow can pile up so that animals can climb on the snow, and then walk over the fence. 

3) Bears. Bears can *reach* over a 1-high fence to strike animals on the other side, even if they can't get to them. 

Cases #2 and 3 can both be prevented by using 2-high fence.

I have never seen animals "glitch" through a fence.

[CastIronFabric]

1 hour ago, Michael Gates said:

Regular, 1-high fences are fine for keeping animals on this side or that side, IN MOST CONDITIONS. 

The exceptions are:

1) Putting a raised block next to the fence. If you've got your fence, and there's a raised block on one side, animals can go over the fence from that side. This is useful sometimes, because you can make a fenced pen and then drive goats and stuff into it.

2) Snow. Snow can pile up so that animals can climb on the snow, and then walk over the fence. 

3) Bears. Bears can *reach* over a 1-high fence to strike animals on the other side, even if they can't get to them. 

Cases #2 and 3 can both be prevented by using 2-high fence.

I have never seen animals "glitch" through a fence.

ok, that is what I have been doing. two fence high. I have seen a fox jump over a dead animal using single high fence. 

[Zane Mordien]

1 hour ago, Michael Gates said:

) Snow. Snow can pile up so that animals can climb on the snow, and then walk over the fence. 

I don't see this happen myself. What animals do you see doing this? I am currently playing snowball earth and I have musk ox and a moose fenced in. There is tons of snow on the ground and they can't jump over. 

[CastIronFabric]

10 minutes ago, Zane Mordien said:

I don't see this happen myself. What animals do you see doing this? I am currently playing snowball earth and I have musk ox and a moose fenced in. There is tons of snow on the ground and they can't jump over. 

I have seen a fox jump over a dead animal it killed. I think maybe if an animal is 2 blocks high anything obstructing that second block might prevent it? just thinking out loud I do not know

[LadyWYT]

6 hours ago, sushieater said:

I don't see a lightning rod. I've had my entire chicken population wiped out multiple times.

Oh, that's a great point. I always forget that's a thing, but yeah, a lightning rod is a must given how fragile chickens are.

[r3g]

Well, it's getting closer to spring, and so far no chickens have jumped over the fence. I think it's safe to say that fences are viable to keep chickens in. 

Edited December 27, 2025 by r3g

[r3g]

 

7 hours ago, sushieater said:

I don't see a lightning rod. I've had my entire chicken population wiped out multiple times.

Is there forest nearby? Bears can kill your chicken through the fence.

Animals can step on each other and glitch over/through fences. Chicken try run from you, bears, wolves and may panic-aggregate in a single spot causing that issue.

You may want to keep a backup rooster somewhere. Beyond escaping, roosters can also completely wipe each other out, if you are unlucky.

No forest nearby, and I've set up a lightning rod since posting this thread. I've only ever had lightning once in this world though so I'm not sure if I even needed to do that. I don't really have much fauna spawning around my baes anyways, I have to go a few hundred blocks to hunt and whatnot. I'll take your advice with the rooster stuff though, thank you.

[Diff]

Unfortunately I can't speak for snow and other edge cases, but in the normal case while they can't climb fences, they can phase through them sometimes. https://www.vintagestory.at/forums/topic/16839-livestock-escaping-closed-barn/#findComment-88846

[Zane Mordien]

2 hours ago, Diff said:

Unfortunately I can't speak for snow and other edge cases, but in the normal case while they can't climb fences, they can phase through them sometimes. https://www.vintagestory.at/forums/topic/16839-livestock-escaping-closed-barn/#findComment-88846

I can't reproduce that in Vannila. I can load as many chickens as I want into a pen and they never do that. 

[Diff]

2 hours ago, Zane Mordien said:

I can't reproduce that in Vannila. I can load as many chickens as I want into a pen and they never do that. 

I should have double checked before posting. That was (effectively) vanilla in that recording, so maybe a now-fixed bug, since I'm now also able to have my own boiling sea of birds safely contained by fence

 

 

[Zane Mordien]

1 minute ago, Diff said:

I'm now also able to have my own boiling sea of birds safely contained by fence

That... is a lot of chickens.  

[r3g]

9 hours ago, Diff said:

I should have double checked before posting. That was (effectively) vanilla in that recording, so maybe a now-fixed bug, since I'm now also able to have my own boiling sea of birds safely contained by fence

 

 

what the hell HAHAHA

[Bumber]

On 12/27/2025 at 5:19 AM, CastIronFabric said:

Problem is I heard that they also need sunlight, so put them in a walled greenhouse?

It doesn't have to be sunlight, but they will despawn if left in insufficient light for too long.

18 hours ago, Diff said:

I should have double checked before posting. That was (effectively) vanilla in that recording, so maybe a now-fixed bug, since I'm now also able to have my own boiling sea of birds safely contained by fence

Do they stay contained when leaving the area and returning later? I've always assumed unloading chunks was an aggravating factor.

[Diff]

5 hours ago, Bumber said:

Do they stay contained when leaving the area and returning later? I've always assumed unloading chunks was an aggravating factor.

Good question, I built a new bird sea on the corner between 4 chunks and tried to recreate 2000's stop motion classic Chicken Run.

I tried zipping back and forth across a few hundred blocks, no escapees.

In case it's a combination of distance and time, I tried parking myself 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13 chunks away and stepping back towards the chickens, still no escapees. I found an outdated reference to a default loaded chunk radius of 12, which is why the gap's there. They made an ungodly sound in unison when I got back in range, but no escapees.

Video of the testing setup in case anyone has any suggestions for improvement:

 

 

[williams_482]

The patch notes for 1.21 said they had fixed the issues with animals phasing through blocks when the player is far enough away to unload their chunks. I'd say your testing confirms that they succeeded. 

[Valsalan]

In my experience I find that having two high fences is generally best because it both keeps animals from jumping over the fences during winter when snow builds up, but it also means that bowtorn have a much harder time of shooting you when you walk outside, assuming your base isn't beneath some cliffs (two high fences wouldn't help you then). Personally I find that having a base fence of stone wall with a wooden fence on top of it (especially the rough fences) looks really nice, and makes for a very cozy vibe when inside them. As can be seen in this build:

[ArgentLuna]

On 12/28/2025 at 1:15 AM, Michael Gates said:

I have never seen animals "glitch" through a fence.

Never seen them do it but i see the results all the time (or the lack of animal being the result)

[Zane Mordien]

9 hours ago, Valsalan said:

two high fences is generally best because it both keeps animals from jumping over the fences during winter when snow builds up, but it also means that bowtorn have a much harder time of shooting you when you walk outside

The snow doesn't impact them from my experience. The baby animals can popcorn out when you scare them into a corner, but not even 3 high fences will stop that the last time I checked. You can put the fence in the ground so it barely sticks above the ground and animals can't easily cross it. A bear will just run up to it and look at you.