They flew the coop!

[Wizbop]

My 12 week old girls flew up on top of our tractor coop last night and one by one jumped (about 2-4 feet) on top of our backyard fence and then jumped off into our way back yard! Grrr. . . Now, what? We moved the coop out into the middle of the yard (away from the fence) , which is not where we want it. I think we're going to need to clip the wings of these birds. I like to let them free range for most of the day, but we live in the city and while we have a well-behaved dog (for the most part, as far as chicken-eating goes), I can't swear to that about my neighbors' dogs. My chickens are getting bigger and stronger and I think they saw that big green area of grass and they obviously figured out how to get to it. I have read up a bit about wing-clipping and I think we need to do it being city-dwellers. Is 12 weeks too early?

 

[homesteadingcowgirl]

here's another thought... There is a "phase" in which baby chicks can fly and hop around quite well. Older birds can and do as well, but in my experience, after a certain age most don't make the same crazy jumps due to their weight. This of course depends upon breed personality, etc... My birds will fly high to roost but not for a whole lot else. If there is someway to thwart their attempts that might be a better solution for you

 

[Whisper]

Clip their feathers and see if that helps. It helped me a lot with my heavy breeds while they were jumpy. It has not helped AT ALL with my Leghorns and White Faced Black Spanish. The Leghorns can leap, from a standstill, the five feet to the top of the coop.

So! We spent this afternoon running twine all across the edge of their pen, from fence to fence, to keep them from jumping up. It's NOT the ideal solution but it's cheap and it's all I can do today. Later I'll buy some mesh to put across the top of the run. Too broke today, oh well. This should at least keep them from leaping straight up onto the roof of the coop-- it's hard to leap up when there's a bunch of ropes running across your flight path. Hopefully it will work! If not, the neighbor's Lab is going to get a snack sometime, when one of them falls off the durn fence.

But wing clipping does work with heavier birds. And then once they're adult, they'll be too heavy to fly anyway!

 

[scubaforlife]

Trim just one wing, they will fly out of balance and really don't like it. You can try to discourage them getting on the fence by using streamers or something like that.