Your Chickens & the ROAD

[jmeeter88]

For those of you that free range, how do you deal with your chickens going near the road? Are they instinctively afraid of the road or what?

 

[HennyPennies2007]

uh... no... chickens will indeed cross the road and be smashed.

 

[ScoobyRoo]

Heck NO!! I wish mine would stay away from the road. I'm afraid they will get run over. There was a thread just recently posted about this issue. Some suggest keeping the Roo penned up so the ladies will stay near. My ladies go with or without him!

 

[ScoobyRoo]

They may become 'chicken patties' if they don't look before crossing!

Sorry, not funny.

 

[silkiechicken]

I'm lucky, my birds don't venture down the drive way enough to reach the 5 lane highway that is bumper to bumper during rush hours. If they were closer though, I don't doubt they'd get hit by a car. They barely fear the cars that do come in our driveway and take their lovely time getting out of the way. I've driven past some so close that I could open my door into them, not to mention how they hang out under cars till the engines turn on.

 

[jmeeter88]

Hmm, looks like I'm going to have to pen them in next year... I have a feeling that they are going to eventually be brave enough to venture towards the road, and then... into the neighbor's yard!. We'll see though.

 

[gritsar]

I'm lucky. My chickens would have to travel a quarter of a mile, across two cattle guards and past a herd of cows to get to anything that even remotely resembles a road.
The only vehicles on our road are ours, the neighboring farmers checking on their cows, and the mail carrier. We are all aware that there may be chickens crossing.
I did find my chickens one day headed down the "hog path" to the neighbor's house. This would not have gone over well because she has commercial broiler houses. I hurriedly shoo'ed em back towards our place. The neighbor agrees to do the same.