She won't stop running away!

[Tiffany1804]

I have a newish Hen that will NOT stop running away. Our chickens are free range girls we do have a fence and they so they have about a 1/3 of an acre to free range on with trees bushes and it's also where we have the kids playground set up. None of our other girls have flown over the fence or even tried. I'm not sure why but this new Black Australorp won't stop. We just recaught her last night after she was gone for 4 days. We can't lock her in the coop because it would deny access to the nesting boxes for the other girls. We even clipped her wings this morning and she still some how made it over the fence. She runs around our neighborhood which wouldn't be a big deal if she would come back at night which she doesn't. We usually have to look for her and find her on someones fence perched. I'm getting frustrated at this point. What else can we do?

 

[TwoCrows]

You need to keep her confined to the yard for a while, till she gets the hint that she is home already. So I would make a makeshift area, maybe put in a few other friends with her for a week or two till she learns to stay home. That should break her habit of wandering and should forget. Good luck!

 

[Deedrahsue]

I agree, our chickens are on one acre, and I have to occasionally cage some that run too far from home, because I have one that will lead the flock further lol. When I have caged her for a week or so it stops for a few months and then were back at it. We have not clipped there wings too many predators here in the country, but she does well when confined a bit, I just make a small bowl of food for her and she has her own 4.00 waterer there in the cage. So far so good. Good luck

 

[Fred's Hens]

Some birds are better flyers than others. Strange that trimming her wings didn't keep her in the yard.
Does she have another way out of the fence? Is that fence tall enough? Is she using a half way point, then launching over the remaining portion of the fence?

 

[TwoCrows]

With trimming wings, don't trim both wings, only one. Trimming them both still gives the bird the proper lift pattern to leave the ground. However only trimming one side will make the bird an unstable flyer and she may not be able to fly well enough to get over fences. Although each bird is different and some do learn to fly with one good wing!

 

[exop]

I have seen my chickens scale 6 foot welded wire fence on foot... flapping wings wildly to keep their body upright and taking the fence at a run just like a ladder. It's impressive, but for the most part if they're happy where they are, they stay there. I have one Houdan-Silkie cross boy who didn't seem particular about whether he was in or outside his pen... wherever the food is, was where he'd be. He seemed to regard his own 5 foot fence as a rather casual obstacle and would climb up to the top and hop off at will - going back into his pen whenever he observed his buddies getting treats. He's gotten over this phase and now spends most of his time on the right side of the fence.