Should Stella be grounded?

Short history: Stella, my Icelandic/EE cross jumped the fence at our last residence and joined our flock. She has been with us nearly two years. The girl won't stay home. She free ranges with the Icelandics and is the only one who roams. Her wings are clipped but she still gets over the fences. I could take her from the Icelandic free range and put her back in with the layers in a covered run for her own safety. She's a free spirit, a gypsy and I'm not sure she'll take well to confinement. Please review these pictures of Stella taken yesterday & today and help me decide of she needs grounded.

Cute pics!!! I vote to ground the little runaway!

Let her spirit FLY!

NO! Don't ground Stella! She must be FREE ! ! ! Let her be!

LMAO! I love the picture of her with the bindle stick




As for an answer, I guess it depends...

You said your worried about her safety - if she wanders enough to get lost, hurt, or preyed on then yes, ground her, but if she just hangs out and free ranges without getting in heaps of trouble, then I don't see why she couldn't stay out.


My "gang" has a coop with attached fenced in run. I do like to let them roam and free rang a bit on my property and never had any problems with them being out. The only reasons why I do have a coop/run are:

- living in NY, our winters are horrible (the weather is general changes in the blink of an eye) so they have a nice insulated shelter with heat lamp (if necessary)
- gives them a place to lay eggs where I can easily find and get access to them
- we do live on a large rural property surrounded by fields and we do get many predators that snoop around, so for protection.



Like I said, if you live in a pretty "safe" area, I'm sure she'll be fine out especially if you have other free ranging birds.

If she's not being a nuisance to your chickens or you. Let her come and visit.

Quote:
Well here she is visiting a neighbor across the road. In Stella's defense, at the time this picture was taken Happy Chooks was here sexing chickens and she might have panicked!

Sure hate to see a free spirit in a cage. Some people... err chickens are just born to roam.

i say ground her, what if she catches something and then gets your entire flock sick? or clip her wings so she wont fly over and stay within your property.