There is a lot of disagreement and strong opinions on this forum about how much wing clipping helps, whether to clip one wing or two, or how to clip them. I'm not going to get into any of that though I do not consider it torture. I think your real question is how to keep them contained.
Some people keep their chickens contained in a 3' high fence, others cannot with a 6' high fence. With your breeds at that age I'd expect them to be able to fly up to a 15' high tree branch if they really wanted to. That's the key, how much do they want to.
Chickens like to perch. If the top of your fence has any places like a solid top rail or even the top of fence posts that look like good places to perch they might fly/hop up there just because it's fun. There is no telling which side they will hop down on. If the top of your fence is wire or netting that does not look like a fun perch you are much better off.
Chickens tend to not fly to a place they cannot see. A solid fence may help with this but are you giving them a perch on top? Yours have learned to get out so this may not help you that much. Still a solid fence with wire at the top, either going straight up or leaning inward, can be a very effective fence.
I find that when chickens panic they are very good at climbing a fence. If they are trapped against a fence and have nowhere else to go they will go vertical. This happens a lot more often with pullets and cockerels than adults but it can with any of them. It may be a dominance fight between cockerels, a pecking order fight between any of them, or a female may be trying to get away from an amorous male. I've seen it a few times. They flap their wings so they get some lift from that but a lot of it is that they use their feet and walk up the fence while their flapping pens them against the fence. Don't underestimate what a chicken can do when panicked.
I use 4' high electric netting to contain my flock. I almost never have the adults get out, maybe once every several years thought they can easily fly over it if they want to. An escaped hen proved that when she effortlessly flew back in when I was trying to herd her to the gate. I raise pullets and cockerels in there also. I usually have one pullet get out every couple of years, not very often. I used to have a lot of cockerels get out when they started their fights, often one or two a day when they were at a certain age. I learned a couple of tricks with that netting to greatly reduce that rate, often down to less than one a week. I avoid sharp corners where they are likely to be trapped against the fence. A 90 degree corner isn't bad but with that netting I go wider. Another trick is to avoid narrow sections. I once had a configuration that had about a 20' long 15' wide neck before the netting widened out. I was getting two or three cockerels put a day. But when I widened that out so the whole thing was closer to a square that rate dropped to almost none. If yours are all pullets and aren't fighting this probably isn't important to you, but if a cockerel is involved it could.
I once had three dual purpose hens learn that they could get out of a 5' high wire 12' x 32' run if they wanted to, probably by one trying to get away from an amorous rooster and she taught her buddies. So they did daily until I raised that fence to 8' high by extending stiff wire upward. Their wings were not clipped.
I don't know if you can get anything useful out of this or not. Since yours have learned to get out it may be more challenging to keep them contained than otherwise. I wish you luck.
Some people keep their chickens contained in a 3' high fence, others cannot with a 6' high fence. With your breeds at that age I'd expect them to be able to fly up to a 15' high tree branch if they really wanted to. That's the key, how much do they want to.
Chickens like to perch. If the top of your fence has any places like a solid top rail or even the top of fence posts that look like good places to perch they might fly/hop up there just because it's fun. There is no telling which side they will hop down on. If the top of your fence is wire or netting that does not look like a fun perch you are much better off.
Chickens tend to not fly to a place they cannot see. A solid fence may help with this but are you giving them a perch on top? Yours have learned to get out so this may not help you that much. Still a solid fence with wire at the top, either going straight up or leaning inward, can be a very effective fence.
I find that when chickens panic they are very good at climbing a fence. If they are trapped against a fence and have nowhere else to go they will go vertical. This happens a lot more often with pullets and cockerels than adults but it can with any of them. It may be a dominance fight between cockerels, a pecking order fight between any of them, or a female may be trying to get away from an amorous male. I've seen it a few times. They flap their wings so they get some lift from that but a lot of it is that they use their feet and walk up the fence while their flapping pens them against the fence. Don't underestimate what a chicken can do when panicked.
I use 4' high electric netting to contain my flock. I almost never have the adults get out, maybe once every several years thought they can easily fly over it if they want to. An escaped hen proved that when she effortlessly flew back in when I was trying to herd her to the gate. I raise pullets and cockerels in there also. I usually have one pullet get out every couple of years, not very often. I used to have a lot of cockerels get out when they started their fights, often one or two a day when they were at a certain age. I learned a couple of tricks with that netting to greatly reduce that rate, often down to less than one a week. I avoid sharp corners where they are likely to be trapped against the fence. A 90 degree corner isn't bad but with that netting I go wider. Another trick is to avoid narrow sections. I once had a configuration that had about a 20' long 15' wide neck before the netting widened out. I was getting two or three cockerels put a day. But when I widened that out so the whole thing was closer to a square that rate dropped to almost none. If yours are all pullets and aren't fighting this probably isn't important to you, but if a cockerel is involved it could.
I once had three dual purpose hens learn that they could get out of a 5' high wire 12' x 32' run if they wanted to, probably by one trying to get away from an amorous rooster and she taught her buddies. So they did daily until I raised that fence to 8' high by extending stiff wire upward. Their wings were not clipped.
I don't know if you can get anything useful out of this or not. Since yours have learned to get out it may be more challenging to keep them contained than otherwise. I wish you luck.
