Letting hens out causing behavioural problems?

[Gwip0102]

Hi everyone.

We are new to keeping chickens. We have 4 girls, various hybrids from a breeder.

We are in the uk suburbs, we have a nice large back garden but have regular visits from foxes so can't free range the girls fully.

Our intention was to give the girls at least an hour a day of outside time when we could supervise them and they do seem to love this.

We had a few days where we could not let them out and one of them has had her feathers pulled (this may have started a couple of days before they were closed in). We have applied some wound spray and fitted beak bits to the suspected attackers.

We have been advised that this could be due to the frustration of not being out of the run (8ft square) and that we should stop letting them out at all. We want the girls to have time out as they do clearly enjoy being there and it is a great experience for us also.

Have others suffered from this problem? In sure we are not alone.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Gwip.

 

[cnicho05]

Hello,

A neighbor down the street had the same problem when she began to let her hens out during the day (2-4 hours/daily). Everything was fine for the first few weeks until one day the hens began to claw at the fencing in their run and at the sides of their coop. When she spoke to me about this problem she was having I suggested it might be a result of them wanting out during the day.

She resolved the problem my extending her run from 4'x5' size to a 8'x10' size. This made a HUGE difference for her six hens and the behavior they had. Next, she placed into the run several areas where the hens could explore such as a hill of dirt, a buck covered with dirt (when on it's side it acts like a cave), several rubber balls, etc.

Overall, she noticed a big difference in the attitude of her hens. They began to leave the fencing alone and no longer tried to escape.