Hi, Now my quandary is how do I stop bad free ranging behaviour. I live on an acre rurally but do have boundary neighbours, I have allowed our 9 chickens to free range from the offset and have dealt with issues as they arise such as chickens getting through a fence or hedge into neighbouring properties, fields etc or onto the road or lane etc, or when they start laying in random places ( have you ever had an avalanche of eggs come at you when you are trimming a hedge? I HAVE. ) I've also hit the reset button at times like this by cooping them with access to the run for a few weeks when it gets out of hand till they calm the ..... down, now I have read about only letting them range before dusk, as they cant get that far but my gals are Usain Bolt fast and are across the property and up in one of the other sections of my land in seconds.
My Grandmother used to say a chicken will roam no further than it's site line to its coop, well what a load of tosh grandma! Mine will go everywhere, across 3 acre neighbouring fields, up into part of the village wherever THEY want, yes they always come back and we dont have a problem with foxes as the local hunt sorts that out.
I am starting to find this behaviour aggrivating, no sooner have I fixed a hole, blocked something off , re-fenced an area they have found a new hole or area and they trash everything including garden pots, a stacked stone retaining wall that has stood for a couple hundred years they scratched it out to the point of collapse, short of getting them ankle monitors and asbos what am I to do? This is the UK, we work and dont have time to "supervise" their play time and I dont want to keep them cooped but they are little b.st.rds. Is there a way to curb the bad behaviour in chickens, they are capable of learned behaviour this much is true. But is there a way to get them to stay out of one area, not to dig up plant pots or walls for that matter
and keep them on their patch and the area that the coop is situated is large and perfect free ranging area, its just the grass is apparently green everywhere else.
Or are my chickens just hoodlums.
My Grandmother used to say a chicken will roam no further than it's site line to its coop, well what a load of tosh grandma! Mine will go everywhere, across 3 acre neighbouring fields, up into part of the village wherever THEY want, yes they always come back and we dont have a problem with foxes as the local hunt sorts that out.
I am starting to find this behaviour aggrivating, no sooner have I fixed a hole, blocked something off , re-fenced an area they have found a new hole or area and they trash everything including garden pots, a stacked stone retaining wall that has stood for a couple hundred years they scratched it out to the point of collapse, short of getting them ankle monitors and asbos what am I to do? This is the UK, we work and dont have time to "supervise" their play time and I dont want to keep them cooped but they are little b.st.rds. Is there a way to curb the bad behaviour in chickens, they are capable of learned behaviour this much is true. But is there a way to get them to stay out of one area, not to dig up plant pots or walls for that matter
and keep them on their patch and the area that the coop is situated is large and perfect free ranging area, its just the grass is apparently green everywhere else. Or are my chickens just hoodlums.
Atleast the geese and ducks have boundaries
