Our city chickens got OUT!!

[sugar pants]

The girls escaped the yard today! I went out to feed them some grapes and they were just gone. My hubby finally found them under the porch of an abandoned house across the alley. He carried two of them home while I tried to baby the skittish one out. He said some lady saw him while she was walking her dog and said "Chickens? Isn the CITY?? Is that even LEGAL??"

Well, it is. So long as they are in your own yard! So now I'm really nervous that we'll get a call from the city on Monday or something. Before this...none of the neighbors even knew we had chickens...the girls are so quiet.

I'm shocked that they got out....and that they went so far!

I don't really need advice...I'm just lamenting. I know what has to be done. Watch them closely, find their escape route and make it unescapable....or build a run for them. I hate to do that...we love having them run around the yard. Can't have them getting out again though!!

I feel like a REALLY bad chicken owner today.

 

[annek]

How about a portable run. They are easy to build and you can move it around the yard. I can't let mine free range so I built a hoop coop in an afternoon. Cost me around 20.00 or so depending on what kind of wire you use. I used chicken wire since they are only in it when I am home and day use only. Mine is 6x8.

 

[Chick_a_dee]

You are not a bad chicken owner! lol... i had to chase one of our hens from half way down the driveway last week, took me almost an hour to get her hopping in the right direction!

And our driveway is half a KM

 

[JennsPeeps]

Our city girls got out last summer when they were about 2 months old and we didn't realize they could squeeze through the fence. They came back when we called them but it gave us heart attacks.

Find where they're getting out & fix it. If you get a call from the city (which is pretty unlikely), explain what happened as well as the steps you've taken to fix it. That's the key part of this.