Chickens dig tunnels?!?

[HuskerHens18]

I never knew this was a thing!

Neither did I until it happened to me

 

[StarChicken]

I guess I'm pretty lucky that when I built my chicken pen, I used rocks and concrete to set the chain link fencing in. I wanted my fencing to be strong and to last, since there are dogs, cats, raccoons, possums, foxes and coyotes in this mostly wooded area.

We're in Arkansas with as many rocks as anyone can want, so I put the wire up, lined each side with rocks, set forms up on each side and filled in with concrete. Yeppers, I'm a cheap old gal. As some have said, to keep the predators out, not knowing the chickens need to be kept in. Then I put regular chicken wire on top to keep the hawks out.

I recently lost three of my ladies to something that managed to get in even with all my efforts, but that's another story.

For now, I've repaired any and all possible entry ways and the chickens seem to know it's useless to try digging out.

 

[Hopperkiller]

I apologize for laughing but i just got home from a hard day at work after i doctored a cow earlier. This thread has to be the funniest i have seen in a while. Now im glad i have 4 foot mesh around my run to keep the coyotes out. Never even thought of chickens tunnelling even though they dig craters big enough to disappear in. They fill it up mining for worms a foot away the next day.

Not laughing at you but at your crazy chickens who prove there are no such thing as dumb animals.

 

[The Phantom]

I have had to wrap a skirt of 1" chick wire on almost every fence on our big property. They can breach the perimeter if they can dig on both sides of the fence as well. Some runs we have placed retired telephone/utility poles along the fence lines. As the birds dig under the fence line, The cut sections of telephone poles drop deeper- eventually filling the holes with the section of poles. Lite birds go over- big birds go under!
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I love that show!

 

[HuskerHens18]

I apologize for laughing but i just got home from a hard day at work after i doctored a cow earlier. This thread has to be the funniest i have seen in a while. Now im glad i have 4 foot mesh around my run to keep the coyotes out. Never even thought of chickens tunnelling even though they dig craters big enough to disappear in. They fill it up mining for worms a foot away the next day.

Not laughing at you but at your crazy chickens who prove there are no such thing as dumb animals.

I'm glad you got a laugh out of it! Watching them dig was pretty funny too

 

[HuskerHens18]

I guess I'm pretty lucky that when I built my chicken pen, I used rocks and concrete to set the chain link fencing in. I wanted my fencing to be strong and to last, since there are dogs, cats, raccoons, possums, foxes and coyotes in this mostly wooded area.

We're in Arkansas with as many rocks as anyone can want, so I put the wire up, lined each side with rocks, set forms up on each side and filled in with concrete. Yeppers, I'm a cheap old gal. As some have said, to keep the predators out, not knowing the chickens need to be kept in. Then I put regular chicken wire on top to keep the hawks out.

I recently lost three of my ladies to something that managed to get in even with all my efforts, but that's another story.

For now, I've repaired any and all possible entry ways and the chickens seem to know it's useless to try digging out.

I wish we had rocks, that would be so great. Around here it costs an arm and a leg for even a couple decent sized rocks. I'm hoping to get sand in my coops and run soon, that should hopefully fix some things.

 

[ronott1]

I wish we had rocks, that would be so great. Around here it costs an arm and a leg for even a couple decent sized rocks. I'm hoping to get sand in my coops and run soon, that should hopefully fix some things.

I am lucky--The soil here is very hard clay so the hens have a very hard time digging holes

 

[ChickieChickieMama]

Okay, so speaking of daring escapes, I have to tell you what happened today!!! I had removed my buff cochin cockerel from the main coop because he was being too aggressive with the other chickens and I'm trying to rehome him. I was housing him temporarily in a smaller separate coop across the property and when I opened his coop to change his water, he came busting out and got loose in the yard. I wasn't too worried because we've got an acre of untended weeds so I figured he'd enjoy foraging for awhile while I did a few things in his coop, but no...he made a beeline straight for the big coop, circled the large run (30x 17 roughly) until he found the half a hole dug by the coop door and started burrowing furiously. In less than a minute, he was back inside the big coop, strutting around like he owned the place.



I had taken this picture of him a few days earlier...man is it ever appropriate..

 

[dunnmom]

Mine dig deep holes, too. I also put my coop and run on top of buried concrete blocks, so nothing will tunnel through. Has worked so far.

 

[HuskerHens18]

Okay, so speaking of daring escapes, I have to tell you what happened today!!! I had removed my buff cochin cockerel from the main coop because he was being too aggressive with the other chickens and I'm trying to rehome him. I was housing him temporarily in a smaller separate coop across the property and when I opened his coop to change his water, he came busting out and got loose in the yard. I wasn't too worried because we've got an acre of untended weeds so I figured he'd enjoy foraging for awhile while I did a few things in his coop, but no...he made a beeline straight for the big coop, circled the large run (30x 17 roughly) until he found the half a hole dug by the coop door and started burrowing furiously. In less than a minute, he was back inside the big coop, strutting around like he owned the place.



I had taken this picture of him a few days earlier...man is it ever appropriate..

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How funny! What a sneaky little guy!