One of my girls keeps escaping. Advice needed

ozzy chooks

Songster
Nov 28, 2017
103
127
126
Canberra Australia
One of my chickens Velociraptor, the dominant one keeps flying out of the fenced free range area. At the beginning she used to fly on top of the gate, turn and fly back in. I am quite sure it is her way to assert her dominance. But now she gets out.

I tried to put a board on top of the gate but she managed to still get out.

I then replace it with chicken wire, and this worked for few days. I saw her flying into the chicken wire.

But again today she managed to fly out.
Gosh it is tall, 1.80m high.

Is there anything I can do or try? Or cutting her wings is the only solution?

And in that case how do I do it?
There is an article about but it's very succint. Any advice will be greatly appreciated :th
 
I found this online that may help with the clipping if you go that route. http://www.instructables.com/id/Clipping-Chicken-Wings/

I don't free range my birds for their own safety (dogs, hawks) but just wanted to say that when I trim the wings of my indoor conure (tiny parrot) I only do one wing and only do every other feather. That way he can still technically fly if need be for safety, but having only half the feathers on one wing is enough to throw him off balance that he doesn't even try after the first attempt post-clipping. But he's a spoiled parrot with his own bedroom, so I'm sure that may not be applicable to a free-range chicken, but wanted to let you know of that option.
 
Most often I only need to clip (one) wing one time. It will not stop them from flying if they so choose. It will through them off balance, I have had a few escape artists!
I was given an escape artist, she had both wings clipped very heavy, poor girl. With those nubs she still could go 8 feet straight up! I have a very large yard and she never went outside of it.
 
My Ameraucanas got into the habit of flying out over a couple places. I went with the advice I had seen that is based on the idea that they are most comfortable with flying up to the top of the fence and perching, then hopping down. Once I put up obstacles to that behavior, they have so far stopped trying.
On one section I took prunings from the apple trees, long suckers, and wove them in so the ends are straight up and a couple inches apart. On the other fence I ran a few lines of ultrathin braided wire that is superhard to perch on, and so far so good there too. They were perching on the top of this plastic chicken fencing, so I think even standard chicken wire might be enough for them to perch on.
No takers on the eight foot high deer fence around the veggies.
Interesting, they are not flying over the electric poultry fence sections which are fairly low, four feet and less.
 
Darn! That’s one skilled chicken. You’ll have to cut her primary feathers. I’ve never had this problem with sweet little Poison Ivy, so I don’t know how to. If I told you you’d probably end up with blood everywhere. But, there are lots of videos on the internet or sites that will tell you step by step how to do it so you won’t have to sacrifice Velociraptor. Well, if you need any help, jus give me a cluck. I’ll usually be there within a few hours.
 
Wow 8ft is almost 2.5m !!!That's A LOT.
@annagoodspeed I think you are right, so today I moved the chicken wire in a way that Velociraptor can perch on the gate, but after she is forced to get back in.

No escapes today.
I'll see how it goes and I will try to get something for her to perch very high in their area and see if this also works.

Thank you!
 

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