My hen keeps escaping

[hens4life]

I have 7 hens, 2 barred rocks, 2 light Brahmanas, and 3 EE's they are all lovely except the barred rocks, they can be aggressive

when I got them I had one dog, who gets along well with them! My backyard is around 50x55 feet and we put up a fence splitting the backyard I half, half for the chickens and half for my dog. My dog likes to go everywhere, so we put in a little swinging door made out of chain link fence and attached it to the other part of it, where it swings and she can get in the other side with the chickens. She loves being with them! ( also a big dog ) but one of my chickeys have been watching her and so she learned how to push OPEN the swinging dor and walk right out into the other half any ideas on how to stop her? Any info would be great, I'll try to add a photo in the comments

 

[MySweetChickens]

a latch on the door may help

 

[hens4life]

@MySweetChickens I cant, my dog has to be able to get through at all times

 

[sunflour]

IMO you need to secure the separation and not allow your dog access to the chickens and vice versa. There are so many folks who have lost their flock to their own "friendly dog".

 

[hens4life]

the part that swings is about 1/4 of the fence starting from the and is about 3-4 fet long and 2-3 feet high. My hen Cinnamon pushes through at the bottom left corner

 

[hens4life]

Here is our little culprit, sweet as can be but a little escape artist, after she escapes she goes and lays with my dog ( Daisy ) in her dog house

 

[hens4life]

IMO you need to secure the separation and not allow your dog access to the chickens and vice versa.  There are so many folks who have lost their flock to their own "friendly dog".  

This is what I have been thinking about doing, we are not wanting to take any risks! But in a few weeks we are fencing in all of our place which will then be about 200x200 ft and then fencing them both apart, think they can make it 3 more weeks?

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC!

 

[drumstick diva]

Do you think if you covered the chain link swinging door with something(I don't know how) like dark plastic - your hen wouldn't realize the door is still there. It's bad when I can't even out think a hen. She is a real smarty pants. I think that is so neat that she goes into the doghouse

 

[mymilliefleur]

Hello and Welcome to BYC! Glad you joined us! I agree with the other members, you need to block off so that the hen won't get out!