The chicken run

[jayjay]

Haha Today after months of letting my chickens out to roam in a fenced off grassed area to peck and scratch they decided they could fly and as soon as one went over the fence 5ft the others followed. There i was with 5 escaped chickens to catch. Now normally they squat and let me pick them up but today they had none of that. It was like the leader was telling them to run for their lives. If anyone was watching i must have looked like a mad old chicken lady.

Will have to clip their wings but i do not know how. Will this stop them getting over 5ft fence i wonder?

 

[PeepinChicken]

I had to recently clip my Lt. brown leghorns wings, I went out one evening to check on them, I was looking in all they're hiding spots and Rosie was nowhere to be see. My other girls mixed flock kept looking at the fence and peeping, there she was six feet off the ground on the fence....I clipped her wings that night and a few days later she was still able to get onto the four foot gate.

Maybe she needs clipped a bit closer? anyways here's a couple of links. Please read them in order if you never done this before hope it helps.



http://www.chickenkeepingsecrets.com/keeping-chickens/clipping-chicken-wings-why-when-how/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-clip-trim-the-wings-of-your-chicken-to-prevent-flight

 

[jayjay]

Thank you for the info and the links. There were very useful. I have a friend who has just told me she recently done hers so she is going to help me out. The children had fun i know but i really dont want to have to chase them around to get them back in every day. Thanks again i really appreciate the help.

 

[PeepinChicken]

I am glad I could be of assistance, happy clipping lol.

 

[aggiemae]

Some lighter weight breeds can fly with clipped wings so it's best to clip just one wing. Then they will be off balance and only fly in circles and not get enoug lift to get more than a few feet in the air.

 

[ThinkingChickens]

I agree about clipping one wing. Though, my RIR has had her wings clipped and she still gets up on this tree, gets up on the fence, goes down off the fence, under the neighbors gate and into our front yard. Where there's a will there's a way.

 

[jayjay]

Your right about the will and way and my chickens have certainly got the will. They have found their feet or WINGS and intend using them. It all started with a ring leader who i was trying to keep out of the coop because she is broody and has been for 5 weeks. Nothing seems to stop her so i put them all out and shut the entrance so she could not get to the nesting box. She was the first on top of the coop trying to get back into the box. Of course the others just followed.