Patridge bantam chicken poorly foot?

[half dozen]

People who let their chickens,are your gardens fully secure? ours is open at one end onto a field! I let the girls play in omlet netting and let the odd one out when supervised but I would love to let them all free range under supervision but am frightened that they will all leg it in different directions!

[Daphne]

we have post and rail with stock fencing to about 3 foot and various bits of hedging. But at the end of the garden its rotten old fence posts with bits of coloured wire and baler twine looking onto a golf course (bet we're popular). I wouldn't say its secure! However I only let the girls free range when I'm home and I tried them out under supervision first. They don't have clipped wings but they don't fly much. It probably depends quite a bit on the character of your hens.

[half dozen]

probably be very much trial and error then!!I will have to try when we are all at home at once so there are plenty of people to catch them

[jools+6]

ours are out all day . 6' fence to a 5'wall between us and nasty neighbours a rickety job about 5' to 6' held up by ivy and shrubs between us and lovely neighbours . the neighbours who are moving at the back , again 6' fence but with a 3' wall on our side . all safe touch wood no escapees yet (famous last words ) ill be haring round the estate looking for them now i've said that

[ali-s]

We are surrounded by fields and the Yorkshire girls love to forage in the fields. Our boundries are just a couple of strands of barbed wire (broken in places) and a few fence posts. The garden goes onto a lane which is completely open. I have tried blocking that bit off with the Omlet netting but the girls either get over, under or through it somehow and OH keeps driving into the netting when he swings the car onto the drive Sunday they went on a little jaunt down the lane towards the Castle, much corn was scattered to get them back home.

 

I don't think they are trying to escape, more the grass is greener, the corn more golden and the frogs (in the Castle moat) more tasty on the other side.

[eggs]

Our garden and fields are not - secure post and rail and hedging with the odd fox spotted. I bought 50m electric poultry netting and it has worked very well. No escapes and more importantly no losses to the blinking fox.

[Gamebird]

My girls used to free range (until the foxes decided they would make a tasty meal) and I naively thought they would stay together but they all went in different directions and the braver they got the further they went.

 

They are now safe behind 50m of electric fencing and free range all day without any problems.

 

If it wasn't for the fox problem I don't think it matters how far they roam because they would come home to roost but I like to know where mine are at all times.

[beach chick]

what gamebird says!! exactly the same for us. and the added bonus is you can walk round the garden without stepping in chicken poo...

[Gamebird]

what gamebird says!! exactly the same for us. and the added bonus is you can walk round the garden without stepping in chicken poo...

Thanks Beach chick, forgot to mention that huge bonus.

[half dozen]

can I ask how easy the electric fencing is to put up? we have just got some omlet netting.I have had them free ranging for the last two nights but yes all disappear in different directions and trash the garden I love em though x

[beach chick]

hi half dozen - we found it quite easy, but def a 2 person job. there is also a process of trial and error involved unless your land is totally even. gamebird's looks MUCH better than mine, hers is all square and taut and beautiful, while ours is a bit up and downy with extra posts in places where it sags, and extra guy ropes etc. but it does the trick!

I THINK if you already have omlet netting that you can buy the bits to electrify it? we only had 25m of omlet netting, and the dog had lambasted it quite severely, so we bought the whole kit and caboodle of 50m new netting, battery, extra posts etc - it has prob come to about £290.

 

bonus: chickens are contained, from time to time we have left them all night without even shutting the run doors. no poo elsewhere. darling Labrador now gives them a wide berth.

 

just remember, if you go for it that you have to leave the electricity on all the time, as otherwise Mr. Fox will bite holes during the night, even if the chooks are locked up. we had to do a quite major repair after just a couple of nights...

[half dozen]

thanks beach chick x might be something we get in the future.The garden is very flat so should be managable! The girls are enjoying the new accomadation of the stable at the minute,an ideal move this week after this weather

[beach chick]

stable sounds great, my next move is to get either transparent shower curtains or corrugated sheeting to cover the runs, plus bungee cords (we have 2 eglus and basic runs inside the leccy fence).

when they were completely freerange the rain never bothered them because there was always a convenient bush or shrub to hide under; now I find them standing pathetically under the omlet sunshade when its really bad!

when the banties and light sussex first arrived, they spent a week in the wendy house with chicken wire stapled over the doorway and I only closed the door at night - they were fine, warm and dry, but the floor has never recovered - chipboard doesnt seem to like chicken poo, and water being spilled on it... a stable sounds much better!

[Happybunny]

We have 3 pekin bantams at the school where I work and they free range on the school field all day and they don't go all that far and are always together. One of them is a cockerel though so perhaps he does the herding?!