i somehow acquired 2 runaways and i have questions. please help

[Artsy_Teacher]

hello. i’ve just joined because i don’t have a clue about chickens and i now have 2 of them.
they belonged to a neighbor, who is not someone i see very often but friendly enough with. i was told they escaped soon after he got them. i am guessing they are 6 or 7 months old and have just started laying eggs.
for reasons i do not know, they picked me to live with.
they have been in my backyard for 2 months. they are here all day and have been sleeping in a different neighbor’s trees at night.
the neighbor who they belonged to originally, has tried to catch them for ages and could not. but they befriended me and follow me around so he said i could keep them. i call them thelma and louise.
(sorry this is so long)
we got a coop with a little run (we will make a bigger run very soon) and i kept them in there for about 6 days. louise seemed to be taking to it the best. she lays an egg almost every day in the nest box and goes right up at 6:30pm.
thelma had a harder time getting adjusted and was a bit panicked at first. now that she has freedom, she won’t lay in the nest box, but chose the tiniest flowerpot in my greenhouse (that’s a whole nother story) to lay her eggs.
today, while thelma was laying her flowerpot egg, at around 5:30, louise disappeared. we found her in the usual tree (down the street and very high up!). but without thelma! she is never without thelma.
thelma is safe and sound in the coop asleep.
so all of that to ask…
what is the best thing to do? i am sure she will be back tomorrow. neither of them will let me handle them, but they will eat out of my hand. and i can get her into the run with bribes. i just want them to be safe.
but should i lock them in again? for longer?
should i just get them in the run earlier since they will go up once they are in? everything i have read says lock them in the coop for a week or two. does that mean no run at all?
i have been trying to find the answers on my own but i couldn’t find anything specific to this situation. thanks in advance!

You probably have this solved by this point, but I bought a cheap solar “camping” light bulb off Amazon, hung it from the roof of my coop, and set it to come on for an hour at dusk. The girls went to it as soon as it started to get dark. Best of luck!

 

[pollipazzi]

You probably have this solved by this point, but I bought a cheap solar “camping” light bulb off Amazon, hung it from the roof of my coop, and set it to come on for an hour at dusk. The girls went to it as soon as it started to get dark. Best of luck!

thank you for the tip!

 

[pollipazzi]

Those are such fun!

I did add on to my post about why I chose the seller that I did. She maintains tight biosecurity (brought the girls out to us); no ones goes onto her property, possibly tracking disease.

oh! that’s very careful! smart too!
i don't think you'd find that here.

 

[pollipazzi]

there has been a couple of incidents where a neighbour’s cat will come into my yard. including just now.
thelma and louise go into this BA-GAWK frenzy, but they just stand there shouting a lot and don’t move.
i, of course, go out and chase the cat away, but please can somebody help me understand why they do this?

i would think that if you didn’t want something to see you and mistake you for lunch, that you would not want to be calling attention to yourself. and once the something did see you, you’d probably run away, right? at least i would.

also, yesterday a cat was in a tree when all of the drama occurred, so trees would definitely be off my list of places i’d want to hang out.
am i wrong in thinking this way? or is it just another chicken thing that doesn’t make sense?

 

[AntiqueB]

Chickens have alarm calls to alert the other flock members to threats. You will learn them eventually! There are 2: one for land predators, and another for aerial predators.

 

[pollipazzi]

Chickens have alarm calls to alert the other flock members to threats. You will learn them eventually! There are 2: one for land predators, and another for aerial predators.

but the other flock member then just alarms too, and only alarming is happening! no other plan! lol!
how do they survive in the world?

 

[RoyalChick]

but the other flock member then just alarms too, and only alarming is happening! no other plan! lol!
how do they survive in the world?

Well, they behave differently depending on circumstances. They may not see a domestic cat as a big threat. It is not unheard of for chickens to chase a cat off, or even to befriend a cat.
They might have behaved differently if it was a fox.

 

[pollipazzi]

Well, they behave differently depending on circumstances. They may not see a domestic cat as a big threat. It is not unheard of for chickens to chase a cat off, or even to befriend a cat.
They might have behaved differently if it was a fox.

i think the cat today is ok, but the cat in the tree yesterday would have happily ate them, i would bet!
i am forever chasing that one away from the coop at night.
yesterday’s fiasco was pretty hilarious though. it turned into much more than just a cat in a tree.
i can tell you the chaotic story if you like.

for size reference of thelma and louise, this is a photo of them stealing bread from a crow. our crows are pretty big, but still crows. a cat could eat em all. (it’s not a great photo because the crow would fly away if i got closer) the crows are afraid of the chickens though. lol! they always get their bread stolen and are hanging around like…”um excuse me, but could i have my bread back please?”

 

[AntiqueB]

Do tell the story. You have great storytelling skills!

 

[AntiqueB]

By the way, mine send alarms about squirrels on occasion, and often about crows when they mean hawks.

It usually sends a couple of them scurrying for cover before they realize it was false.