Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[koo2cat]

One of our Pepperpots, Barbara, keeps escaping from the run! They are surrounded by a four and a half foot picket fence and I have removed all logs, straw bales to stop her using it as a platform to hop from. There are no gaps in the fence either so she has to be just flying over the top

 

What do I do? I clipped her wings (on one side) at the weekend and she is still able to clear the fence! I go and put her back in the run and as soon as my back is turned she is out again wrecking the lawn and all my bulbs that are finally making an appearance!!

 

Any suggestions??

[PhilipCaldwell]

hmm, i know people say only clip 1 wing, but i was having the same problem. With one wing clipped they were still able to get over the fence, so i clipped both wings and hey presto, no more escapees

[Chicken Mad]

I have to agree with Philip.

 

One of my Miss Pepperpots Mabel jumped up on 4'8'' fence without problems even with one wing clipped. I clipped the other as well and that has stopped her . The other two behave themselves so they only have one wing clipped.

[stoice]

Is she laying yet? My girls, when they were young had a tendency to be more athletic but once in lay they were heavier or just couldn't be bothered! (Having said that some people's birds are just determined madams!)

[koo2cat]

Yes, she has been laying eggs since April 2008!!! Maybe she is just athletic!

[abwsco]

My Vorwerk can clear 12ft in height easily although rarely does it now. As she's so timid we've never bothered wing clipping because being handled would stress her out so much.

[koo2cat]

Ok, so I have now clipped both wings, one didn't work, checked for holes in fence, removed all things from run to prevent her using them as a leg up ( if you know what I mean!) and she is still escaping!!

 

I wouldn't mind (well apart from the garden getting a bit trampled - amazing how much damage one chicken can do) but she can't get in by herself. The other night I went out to shut them away and it was nearly dark and the poor love was still out crying to go back in

 

How do I keep her in (apart from building a higher fence! The current one in 4 1/2 foot!)

[Space Chick]

Sorry to tell you this, but you have made the wrong move by clipping both wings

 

Clipping a wing puts them off balance, by clipping both, she will be better at flying not worse.

 

Have you tried corn training her? So if you see she is about to jump, shake a container of corn, and then when she comes running, give her a tiny bit, train her not to want to leave, or if she does escape it makes her easier to get back

[koo2cat]

Thanks for your advice and I know you are only supposed to clip one wing but two people on this forum told me to clip the other one as it had worked for them! And as I said I did only clip one wing to start with and that didn't stop her either.

 

I can get her back in the run easily enough with corn but it is a pain to have to keep doing that and I also find the others are crowing more when they see her free ranging and they are not!

 

Really need to keep her in somehow!

[docsquid]

All I can say is when you find out how to, let me know. I have a chook who persistently gets over the Omlet fence. She spent yesterday afternoon in the garage watching DH do welding yesterday until her presence was discovered - not a good idea. I suspect the vet has never seen a chook with arc-eye, and I don't want to be his first case! DH needs to leave the door open when he is welding for ventilation so we need to keep her in.

 

The best we can do is keep offering treats to all of them on "their" side of the fence so it is more attractive to stay put. However Gwennie escapes at least once a day.

[Snowy]

Sadly 4 1/2 foot is not a lot to a determined chook - once they decide that they need to be on the other side, they will do it! I had to put an 8' fence around my veg patch in the end to deter my whitestar. As your fence is a picket fence, could you add a row of chicken netting to give it height? She will find it harder if she can't perch on top of the fence, so a flimsy second layer is better than a solid one.

[Egluntyne]

I agree. I have a couple of chickens who regularly flap up onto the roof of the WIR from a standing start.....easily 6ft.

 

Fortunately they are too dim to fathom out how to get down again and they have to wait for me to nudge them down with a broom.

[koo2cat]

Yes, think I am going to have to put some chicken wire around the top as I can't keep having her escape. She isn't doing it as much with both wings clipped but is still able to get out!

[henriette]

We have had a similar problem in the past and we added a very loose single line of wire all round about 3" above the fence so that it was too floppy for her to balance on. This might not be possible for you though if your posts aren't tall enough. It did work for us though. Mind you, she might have stopped because I threatened her with a ball and chain

Our new WIR is pretty much 2 metres high now and so far no escapees

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I don't think you need anything substantial - some flimsy green garden netting strung between canes would probably do it (and look less obtrusive than chicken wire ).

[Chucky1]

We had a similar problem but with Ducks (I still don't know what they are but the current plump is a "Swedish"). We solved it by adding a 45deg inward incline on top of the fence post and then tacking on that green shade or wind screen mesh. It did the job.