Chicken behavior

[slunurse]

I live in a county that allows me to have chickens but the neighborhood association says no. I have them anyway because that's how I roll. I have a fenced in yard...fairly decent size. My 5 chickens are in an entirely closed coop and run and stay in there 99.9% of the time. My question is this....if I were to let them out to free range in my back yard, would they stay in the back yard or would they hop the fence and leave? I have not clipped their wings and therefore are very capable of clearing the fence. Thoughts? I don't want them going into other peoples yard. I'm buying their silence with eggs but I don't want to push my luck. Would love to let them out to free range. I grow fodder for them to bring the free range to them but I'd still like their lives to be as natural as possible.

 

[pdirt]

The only way to really know is to try it and see. But they probably will hop the fence and if you're real lucky, they will dig up your neighbor's prized flower bed. They can do that in about 5 minutes. That might spell the end to your silenced chicken keeping.

What you could do is set up electric poultry netting in your yard. Move it around every few days so they don't over graze one area.

 

[slunurse]

Electric poultry netting? Really? There's such a thing? Sounds like I need to research. I wonder if they make that for kids!! (Totally kidding!!)

 

[pdirt]

Yep, it's about 4 feet high and will keep chickens in and legged predators out. Premiere1 is a brand I have heard good things about.

 

[klyra]

Might be worth the 5 minutes it takes to clip one wing on each birdy. It's as easy as cutting a few feathers. Watch a video on YouTube. I have no experience and was told the same advice. I managed it without issue and it was surprisingly easy to do!

 

[pdirt]

Might be worth the 5 minutes it takes to clip one wing on each birdy. It's as easy as cutting a few feathers. Watch a video on YouTube. I have no experience and was told the same advice. I managed it without issue and it was surprisingly easy to do!

I know this works for some chickens but not all. Be sure to read up on it more if you go this route. Also, don't clip both wings... Clipping one will unbalance them if they try to fly. But some chickens, m maybe specific breeds?? are not as easily affected by wing clipping.