Flying the coop (literally!!!!)

[twilightsparkle]

Help!!! One of my chickens (Ninga - silver laced whine dot i have spoke of her before.) has been escaping and i'm out of ideas on how to stop her plz help me all of you BYC lovers!

 

[lazy gardener]

How is she getting out? How high is the fence? Flying over the fence? Are there any objects in there that she is able to hop up on to get a head start getting over the fence? If so, You might need to take those down, or make them so she can't get up on top of them. If that's not part of the problem, and she's just flying over the fence, (assuming that the fence is over 3' tall) you'll need to clip one of her wings. It's not at all difficult. Do a thread search for a tutorial. If your fence is only 3' tall, i expect you'll have to make it taller, and perhaps still clip one wing. Good luck.

 

[twilightsparkle]

Thanks for the info. I will answer your questions in the order you asked them: 1 She is flying over her chicken wire coop onto our bantams roofed coop. 2 The fence is made up of 4 and a half foot chicken wire. 3 Yes she is just flying out of the coop,and there is nothing inside her coop she could get on besides her feed/water troffs and houses witch are in the back. (She is flying out from the front)She gets on the bantam coop once she has cleared the fence.4 We have already cliped her wing as far as we can go without hitting the meat and blood, but she still finds away to escape! But still, thanks for the info I appreciate every bit of it!

 

[twilightsparkle]

About 25 minutes ago I had a late brunch at Waffle House and later guess who I find out of the coop chasing a June bug...... Ninga! I really don't want to give her up, but what other choice do I have?

Plz help me all of you BYC lovers!

 

[cafarmgirl]

Maybe try covering the pen with poultry netting or chicken wire so she can't fly out?

 

[deacons]

You could just buy simple bird netting to put over the top. You buy it at Home Depot or other home improvement store, it's the stuff you put over berry bushes to keep wild birds out of them.

I would highly encourage you to find some covering for the top of the run- I had an escape artist like this last year (also flying to the coop roof and then over the top of the 5 ft tall fence). Sadly, she flew out one time too many and was hit by a car while unsupervised Very sad to lose her in that way, and made me feel terrible because it was totally unnecessary and could have easily been prevented with a cover over the run (which is now in place).

 

[twilightsparkle]

Thanks! Thats a good idea too. I wonder why I never thought of that. I'll try this idea. I hope it works! Thanks for everyone elses replies. They were all great suggestions!

 

[DianaMallory]

Remember chicken wire is to designed to keep chickens out not predators! My run is completely enclosed with hardware cloth.
I live in the woods and have many predators!

 

[deacons]

Remember chicken wire is to designed to keep chickens out not predators! My run is completely enclosed with hardware cloth.
I live in the woods and have many predators!

Yes, I agree with this. My run has hardware cloth on all sides and on the top. But since the OP sounded like she needed a quick solution, I thought the chicken wire or bird netting could at least stop the immediate problem of the one chicken flying over. I would definitely say the longer term solution is a hardware cloth (or other predator resistant) roof on the run.

 

[twilightsparkle]

I live at the edge of a small woodsie area, but my biggest threat are my neighbors 2 dogs: Duke and Trixie. They have already killed a baby bantam and a full grow jersey!