Skittish Chicken - Anyone else have a White Nova?

[CheekyChooks]

I have 4 chickens who free range in my garden. I have 1 super friendly and soppy large fowl buff orpington that follows me everywhere, taps/sits outside the conservatory if she thinks I am around somewhere in the house and if I lay in the garden, she lays next to me. It is very sweet ... My silkie x light sussex bantam copies her and so she is also a friendly if not cheeky little girl.

I bought two new chickens to join them today. One is a Brahma (she has brown and white stenciling on her feathers) and I can just tell straight away she will most likely be like Molly. After a few chases they were pecking, stretching and laying together like they were sisters seperated at birth and she has already started running to me when I have food. It was totally unexpected because I thought feathers would be flying ...

My question is however that Thelma my new hybrid chicken who I have been told in a White Nova (google says this is most likely a white leghorn X) is quite flighty and a bit of a runner. She has scaled my 6ft fence twice and ended up in my neighbours yard and though she explores everywhere she legs it if you get too close where as Louise the Brahma is very chilled.

I have shut them all in their hen house/run for the night as Thelma kept scaling the fence (usually I let the chickens go to bed in their own time) ... I need her to calm down if I'm to let them free range for 8 hrs while I'm at work all day.

Does anyone know if leghorn/novas are naturally very flighty as it is a worry she will escape and also teach the other chickens bad tricks :S

 

[dianaross77]

Leghorns are notoriously flighty and nervous. It sounds like the white ones are the worst. I'm not sure there is much you can do about that. You might want to try clipping her wing. The light weight birds have the easiest time flying. You might be able to put some netting or wire mesh at a 45 or 90 degree angle near the top of the fence to keep her on your side.

 

[CheekyChooks]

Oh dear. She is a little better today but I didn't have the nerve to leave her free ranging in the garden incase Molly and Mini-Mol chased the new ones and she scaled the fence again. We have a deep slope and wooded area behind us that leads to a freight train track so I can't have her go over there because I will never be able to get her back ... its too steep and dangerous for a person to go sliding around.

I let them out when I got home and she hasn't done it again but she does leg it around in circles if you get too close where as Louise the Braham is sooooo chilled out to say its her second day she has been up to me for bread, grapes, corn etc ...

The guy we bought them off was trying to persuade me not to get the Brahma but another hybrid because they lay so many eggs and was telling me they are still super friendy and docile etc ... but Thelma is definately a worry wart and even Mini-Mol the silkie bantam can boss her around.

She is a gorgeous looking girl but I do worry she will do something silly one of these days .... When I opened the run door this afternoon she went so barmy she konked her head on the door of the coop

... Poor thing ... fingers crossed she will settle soon!