Are my chickens stupid?

[ChickenMatt96]

Hey! Just wanted some opinions. I have a small fence I use for new chickens until we introduce them to the flock. They have shelter and roost bars in there. We had some small chickens that preferred to sleep right by the fence instead of roosting. That resulted in one losing her head to a predator. We just chalked that up to them being young. Now we have some 1.5-2 year old hens in the same pen and they are doing the same thing!! What gives??

 

[Kiki]

Could you post a picture of your set up please to better help understand what you are trying to describe?

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Can you enclose just the area that they are roosting with old fence boards or something to protect them from predators reach?

 

[Zoomie]

From a chicken's point of view, it's not stupid to roost or sleep against something like a barrier. And if that barrier were solid, it would actually protect them, and they would have one side defended against predators. However chickens are not able to process that wire fences have holes in them that predators can reach through.

What I do is either have a type of fence that a predator can not reach through, or do a double barrier, with one fence about 6" inside another fence, to protect the birds from the risk of a predator reaching through.

I can see what you are trying to accomplish here with integrating new birds... maybe try this, use a big folding dog kennel, and set it up well inside your fence, so that nothing can reach through. Your new chickens will be able to meet the flock in safety that way.

Any birds that sleep along a fence line will be vulnerable, but no, they are not stupid.