Padovana Chicken Roosting in Tree

[Auntbessy]

Hi all, I live in Brittany, France. Last week I added two Padovana chickens to my flock. They all live in a large enclosed area with lots of trees but have a large coop that all of the chickens go to at night to go to bed apart from the new Padovana's !!- Every night I am having to go down to track them down and get them out of the trees and pop them in the coop. I just don't know where or not to leave them do what they want and are happy doing. The trees they are roosting in are within the run but I am worried that they may fly out of the run and end up in the garden. I have 5 cats and whatever else is travelling through the garden at night - garden is about half an acre - is this a normal trait for this breed of chicken ? They are so friendly, calm and tame I would hate anything to happen to them ! Any ideas on how to stop this ??? All help greatly appreciated !

 

[Perris]

I'd never heard of them before, but if Wikipedia is right they are a very ancient breed, which suggests to me that they have good survival instincts and roosting in trees is a normal and natural trait for them. One of my Swedish Flower hens is a tree hugger too, and Shadrach has had to deal with so many of them in his Spanish flock that he's devised a device to get them out!

I let my first flock (SFHs and CCLs) roost in the trees, and everything was great for a year. Then a fox got them - some picked off the branches (they didn't roost high enough) and some on the ground when they came down too early in the morning. I don't let them sleep out anymore. You will have to decide for your birds. Good luck!