Has this happened to anyone else?

[Whitney13]

The other morning I went out to check on my chickens, they usually get up around 5:30-6 and I get up at 7:30-8, and I get a huge surprise. It is a pretty large run(24ft x 18ft x 6 ft tall) with a covered top because my Sumatra hens can fly and we have a lot of hawks.
One of my hens is standing on top of the run.

These chickens are confined to the coop and run all day. I go out there to catch her and she flies down and follows me back into the run. I then start looking for how she got out. I thought maybe she had flown up and ripped another hole in the chicken wire but I couldn't find one. So I start looking on the side wires for a hole and I can't find one. Then I start looking around the bottom and I find my hole. This hen had dug her way under the wire.

All the dirt from the hole was on the inside of the run so it wasn't something trying to get in. I have since put a rock in the hole so it don't happen again and I am going to put concrete edgers around the entire run next week.

So has anyone else's chickens dug there way to freedom before?

 

[ranchhand]

My avatar, a bantam Cochin, can tunnel like a mole, only better! She actually dug a hole so she could go into the next pen with her paramour- a huge EE rooster!

 

[gryeyes]

My neighbor's chickens are about to break free from their run, through digging at the base of the perimeter fence. The run is on terraced land, and they have been dust bathing (as a "cover" activitity, I'm sure) at the high end of the run, right next to the fence. They've exposed tree roots and dug out quite a lot of soil. It won't be long before they've tunneled out of there.

I will mention it to them the next time I see them. But I've been watching their flock's activity. I know the neighbors are chicken newbies.

Mine range freely, so they don't have to tunnel out of anywhere.

 

[leahthor]

I have a little Basque roo (his names Dizzy). Sweetest little thing in the world, although he has his problems, he was born with only one eye and turns in circles when he eats but other than that he's great.

A few weeks ago I decided to move him into the main coop as he was the only chick to hatch out of his bunch and was in with the Coturnix that hatched at the same time and was just getting too big to stay with his quail buddies. All was well the whole day but when I go to close up the coop for the night what do I hear? BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Here comes Dizzy running for me, soaking wet since it was raining. Ok, into the brooder to warm up, kept him in for a couple of days to make sure he didn't get sick and out to the coop again.

I go out to the dog runs to give the feed everyone and BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! out comes Dizzy racing for me right beside one of the dog kennels. SERIOUSLY DIZZY?! Lockup time buddy, sorry. Thought all was going well, but 3 days ago you guessed it! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! DIZZY PLEASE! OK, Fine, you can stay with the meat chickies that hatched out last week.

I know there is a small space between the ground in the coop and the door but it shouldn't be big enough for him to squeeze through. I'm just lucky that nothing got him and that when he hears me he comes running. Other than the stress of trying to keep him safe I love how friendly they are. Maybe when the meaties go to the chicken tractor he will stay put!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Mine make their dustbaths along the fence. I have to keep vigilant and fill them in every time they start to extend under the fence.

 

[top of the hill]

lol, I've got a pretty similiar set up and have noticed the girls digging around the edges of the fence (they are still young - almost 3 months). I've thought to myself that they were trying to dig their way out but then shrugged it off and decided that they were only digging for bugs.

I never actually thought it was possible for a chicken to dig a tunnel, until I read this post! Perhaps I should start thinking about giving them some quality free range time!

 

[bustermommy]

My dogs cannot be trusted around the chickens (killed 2 before) and one day I was out filling the chickens' water and feed and the dogs start getting a little excited and I see one of my hens running around OUTSIDE the run.

Grabbed the dogs, locked them inside.

She was running around trying to get back in, but one of the other hens was sitting in the hole she had dug. She tried to sit on the outside, put her head through the hole so it was in the run and pretend, but I wasn't fooled and I don't think the dogs would have been either. It was pretty funny though.

She finally came around from the back of the run, rejoined the others who were now out of the run and they all went back in together. Now there are bricks on the bottom at the sides.

 

[Whitney13]

I never thought chickens could tunnel out of their pen. I always thought you had to worry about what came under you pen to get in, not out.
I want to give my girls some free ranging time but there is a hawk nest right above the run and we have a coyote that lives somewhere really close by, so for now they stay in the run hopefully.

 

[chickyboomboom]

Quote:
That's hilarious. Sneaky trixie chickens. Oh, don't mind us, we're just dust bathing! While the humans look away they dig like a prison break!

 

[turbodog]

Quote:
Good Lord, a chook version of Stalag 13. I never knew they could dig tunnels. Gonna hafta watch for that.