LolaCola Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 Noodle, a white star hybrid, is constantly getting into a tree that over hangs into our garden from a public footpath. She seams to go mostly in the evening, but Ive caught her jumping up into it in the afternoon. Tonight, after an awful day, (sick family member) the girls put them selves to bed so, go to lock up, I check the house area bad only to find noodle missing, look up and she's at least 9/10ft up! Couldn't reach her, so got the broom to 'encourage' her down, she screamed so loud! And was looking like she was going to jump over, onto path, it would have taken me 15 minutes to get to the path, so if she did, I proberly would have lost her! Luckily, I got her down, and she angrily went into the coop. Is this normal? I'm very worried abut letting her freerange range now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zakjon-98 Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 Sorry to hear about your day hope things get better. It is totally normal for chickens to roost in trees and it seems that white star/leghorn type hybrids are often good fliers. If you clip one of her wings this may help to stop her from flying so high Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merlina Posted August 10, 2012 Share Posted August 10, 2012 Don't know about normal, but I had a bluebell who liked to get high up in trees and one night when I hadn't realised she was missing, happily roosted up there! The others show no inclination to get higher up than the back of the garden bench (none have had their wings clipped) I got bluebell out of the habit by putting them in the coop a bit earlier for a few nights and after that she would leave the tree and come home for the night Clipping a wing of yours would be another alternative Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 She is doing what comes naturally! Why not try putting them all to bed a little earlier buy luring them into the run with some sweetcorn? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclonetog Posted August 11, 2012 Share Posted August 11, 2012 A friend of mine had 4 Bluebells that spent most of the day and all night up a fir tree in his garden. It was a dream situation IMO. He never had to clean his coop out, they still used it for laying eggs, then back up the tree. Even when we had severe cold, I recorded -19C locally and he was further out in the country they were fine. They tended to roost about 20ft up. Every time I clean my coop out I think of how lucky he was! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LolaCola Posted August 13, 2012 Author Share Posted August 13, 2012 She has had her wings clipped, I done it a few weeks back. The naughty thing is one cleaver chook, she jumps onto the nesting box, then onto the wooden coop, then onto the back fence then up the tree! I wouldn't mind her up the tree, if it was in my garden, but she's basically out the garden and gets panicky when I try to get her down and I terrified she's going to jump down out of the garden, never to be seen again and the feral cats that live in my close also seam to sleep up the trees, and I've seen them take down a massive crow I'm trying to convince DP to build me a wir to solve the problem, so untill then shes under house arrest unless someone's in the gdn with them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
