Well, we got them home, and settled in for the night last night. They seemed happy enough, still have all their feathers, no fussing or pecking on the drive, only a little clucking when my 11mo old was crying. They ate and drank well and this morning we even had an egg! However, the sad news is that our feathered friends have flown the coop. I was anxious to give them some room to stretch their legs after being in the dog crate, so we clipped their wings and let them out into a temporary circular enclosure of 5' high metal fencing--nothing fancy, but I thought with clipped wings it would keep them in while we put some finishing touches on the coop and run that will be their permanent home. Apparently clipped wings don't bother these birds a bit. They flew. Straight up and straight over, hopped around our yard for a bit, and up and over our 4ft fence and off through the neighborhood. We searched all morning, but can't find them. I have the teensiest hope that they'll come "home" to roost, though they don't really have a reason to call my house home, and the comfort that when we caught these birds, they were living wild, not being fed by anyone, except some dog food every now and then, and handled themselves around hunting dogs just fine (for the most part). In other words, they are used to evading predators and finding their own food and water, but still, I feel a bit ridiculous for having relocated these two hens from their home flock to a new place where they may just end up roadkill. I seriously thought they wouldn't be able to jump that fencing with freshly clipped wings--we only clipped one wing each, but whenever I used to do that with my cockatiel, he would be seem surprised and have a hard time getting off the ground at first, then he would do very small flights in circles. So, I'm sad for the hens, and for me, because that was a lot of work and stress on them for nothing, you know?
*sigh* So, our feed store gets biddies in today, heavier breeds like RIR, australorp, barred rocks, americaunas...if we raise them from biddies, are they going to be less likely to fly the coop when free ranging? And is it normal for chickens to fly 5' in the air w/ clipped wings? I mean, I figured that type of enclosure was not good on a permanent basis (not good predator protection), but there's a local farm here that has the same fencing as their permanent run, and nothing overhead, so I thought it would be fine for an hour or two...
