My crew open free ranges, but when hospitalized I use a wire dog cage. They like it in the cage for some reason, I don't even have to close the door. The last bird in the hospital cage would walk in circles inside, even with the door open. I have another chicken that I can sit down anywhere on the floor and she will go right into an empty cage.
Mine don't have any enclosed spaces except the nest boxes. I do know several different animals like to den up. Lets see I have a wire dog crate maybe I should drag it out and put it in with the chickens and run an experiment with them. Whats that somebody saying don't let Him experiment on the chickens, next thing you know They'll have them all in cages in big buildings. Yeah like I could see that happening.
Mine are all fairly new to me (a month for the silkies, 2 weeks for Barred rocks), and I made up a hog panel pen for them to protect from the many dogs that run thru my yard (no comment on how I feel about that.) anyways, I have just begun to let them out in the evenings for a few hours... When they actually come out of their pen they stay right around the outside edge, or they wander no more than 10 ft away from the pen in small groups (3-5). Most of the time they scare after about 20 minutes if being out and dart back into the pen like the whole world outside of the pen is on fire. It's pretty funny how unsure they are of the "outside world." so I guess mine prefer cages...
