What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[Nicho]

Hello all. I have recently bought myself a second hand eglu and I am already hooked on my 3 chickens.

 

I have a little problem though. I have built a pen to allow the girls a larger area of the garden to roam but not taking over the garden (it is about 10 square metres). I have fence this with a fence about one metre high as my neighbour has chickens and he has a similar size fence in his garden. The chickens have all had their wings clipped but Penelope keeps escaping.

 

Every night, between 7:30 and 8:30 she hops the fence and roams around the garden. She does not try to escape at any other time and once she has been returned to the pen, usually takes herself straight off to bed. I do not want to totally enclose the girls when they are out of there eglu run but wondered if anyone has any ideas why she is doing this and what , if anything I can do about it.

 

I would rather not have to keep waiting for her to escape each night to go catch her before I can settle down. I already have a 2year old boy who is enough trouble on his own at bed time without him watching out of his window laughing at us chasing a chicken around the garden.

 

Any ideas, tips, comments or thoughts would be most grateful.

 

Many thanks

Nicho

[keyhole kate]

Cant help sorry just count yourself lucky I have a naughty Pilkie who has taken to flying up on to my 7ft fence and then down over into next doors garden today she was nibbling there new veg plants however I managed to entice her back though little minx

[Tutti Frutti]

Welcome Nicho! How new are your girls? Seeing as it's an evening thing, she could be figuring out her bedtime routine and is searching for somewhere to roost. 5 out of my 7 girls did (or are doing!) the "looking up for somewhere to roost" thing - it took between 2-4 weeks for them to figure it out that the Eglu is way more comfy

[Nicho]

We bought the chicks a couple of weeks ago, I was told that they are about 4 months old. We have only had one egg so far.

Will she stop escaping then once she has settled in? She has taken to going back in when I open the gate so it is getting easier to get her back - no more chasing around the garden.

[coco]

One of my ex batts Lola used to escape on a regular basis and could usually be found wandering round the street or in next doors front garden, she doesn't seem to do it anymore. If any of them do escape they tend to stay closer to home and can usually be found in the veggie patch. I think its something to do with settling in.