GLW flies into door each morning.

[scooter147]

I have GLW that's 5 years old. Each morning she flies from the lowest roost (about 30 inches from the floor) right into the chicken wire screen door and yes it has a big bow in the middle of it and several times a year I have to tack it down in different places. Why she does this is a complete mystery to me, she has been doing this for at least 2 years and probably more. She has approximately 8-10 feet of fly down room so that isn't the problem and she doesn't do it when I don't open the human door because of inclemet weather.
This morning as I was putting water in the bowls I heard her crash once again and then came limping down the chicken ramp, her actions finally caused an injury.

 

[chicmom]

Hmm, could you clip on of her wings so she can't fly as far? Or how about putting something other than the bow on the door? Is the bow red? Some chickens have a bad reaction to the color red, believe it or not. Maybe your hen has poor eyesight--bad depth perception? I am really reaching for straws here.........

 

[RM44]

LOL! I have a couple of those goof-balls too. I open the pop door and the chickens have a 10 foot length (not counting the angle from the top roost to the bottom of the pop door) and yet a few of them always overshoot the pop door and crash into the wall of the the coop. It's usually the same one or 2 hens. What goof balls! It's like a game to them to see if they can fly all the way from the roost and out the pop door without touching the ground. And they are all quite bad at it!

 

[scooter147]

Quote:
The bow is not a actually bow/ribbon, it's a big bend in the chicken wire. Picture a impression of a chickens head, breast, wings tips and feet in the wire.

 

[chicmom]

OH....like an imprint of the chicken's face and body smashed into the wire?! LOL (I shouldn't laugh), but seriously, can you hang someting on the door that would make your hen wake up and realize there's a door there? Maybe when she starts flying from that far away, she can't really see the wire.......

 

[scooter147]

Quote:
Maybe I will take strips of ribbon and hang on the door (so I can still get good air movement) with clothespins to see if that stops her. I will have to clip the top and bottom of the ribbon to the wire or the movement of the ribbon will freak them out completely. Heck it will take them a good day or two just to get use to the stationary ribbon in their coop.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Quote:
The screen door is messing with her depth perception. I would leave the human door closed until she is off the roost or put some cardboard on the screen area that she hits (just larger than her body bow).

Poor girl