Our five older chickens.....like to hide in the bushes?

[007Dawn]

We live in the woods for the most part and we like to allow our chickens to free range some during the day. But our five our very curiouse and they take off and like to hide in the bushes, where it is hard for us to get them out.

We live on five acres so we really thought that would make it easy to keep them on our property but they really like to go back to the thickess part of the woods which is the entery way to our nieghboor that is not so nice's yard.

We don't want them going back that far because God only know what he will do with them. We have had problems with him in the past that landed a law suite against him.

So is there a way to encourage the chickens that staying up front is better? Or will we need to keep them strickly caged in?

Another neighboor has chickens and a rooster and they free range and never leave the yard, despite it is a much smaller property! I don't get it?

 

[soctippy]

Sounds like you have a bunch of explorers on your hands! I to had a problem keeping chickens close to home. So now I make a temporary pen with 50 ft of wire fence and step-in t-posts and herd them in to it each day. we try to move this pen every other day, and the chickens love to dig around in the new grass every time we move it.

 

[Davaroo]

This really addresses what is meant when we say, " I have chickens."

Heres a surprise for most people:

Broad scope, breeding-for-purpose has only been done with chickens in the last few hundred years. Really, in the last 150.
It has been practiced, intermittently, for longer, of course. The Romans were known for it, for example - but we know what happened to them!
But, to be frank, the consistency of breeding seen with other livestock has not occured until relatively recent times with poultry.

This means chickens are still half wild and that simply turning them loose is risky. Well, risky if you want them to meet expectations, that is.
If all you want are "happy chickens" running amok and being natural, then letting them loose to roam is fine.

However, if you want "obedient" chickens that stay put, providing you with eggs, meat and manure as they should, then you will want to rethink the whole "free ranging" notion. It is one the most mis-used concepts in poultry husbandry, IMHO.
Instead, as soctippy learned, controlled foraging is most likely a better conceptual image for you.

"Having chickens" means a lot of things to people. Many learn, before long, that it isn't quite what they thought it meant.
So now is your chance! Sit down for a minute and decide what you want from them - and then make that happen.

 

[007Dawn]

We wound up buying them a Rooster that is about 4 months older and believe it or not our girls don't stray anymore. I guess they just needed a man to boss them about and keep them in line. Roo Roo is a good Rooster!

Thank you all!

 

[lambchicks]

Thats cool!