Chicken Escape

Things have been working pretty well with the new fencing arrangement for the chickens.  Most of them seem happy to stay inside the fenced off area close to their coop.  However there are a couple that have made several attempts to escape the fenced area to spend the day in the yard and garden.  The first couple times I caught one of them outside the fence I trimmed back the flight feathers on one wing.  That seemed to keep things good for a little while.  Then one day I came home after work to two escaped hens and the rooster on my front steps.  I was not happy.  They had spent the day scratching up several of my newly planted beds and had removed the new mulch that I had just spread around my raspberry plants.

I decided that was my cue to move them on to fresh ground with their pen because apparently they were bored of where they were.  I took the morning to slowly scoot the coop to it's new position in the yard.  The pen was then moved to cover the other half of the front of the yard.  I am moving the pen incrementally around the yard in hopes that I will be able to plant a pasture mix in the areas that have already been tilled up by the chickens.  In this position they will be sharing the pen with the chicken tractor that is currently housing the littles.  I am hoping that this arrangement will make them more tolerant of the young chickens when they finally get integrated into the rest of the flock.  When I moved the fencing I made sure to make the fence lines nice and tight so there were no low spots that would be easy to fly over.  I also tied some of the fence poles to stakes to help them keep a tight and tall fence line.  So far it seems to be working.  I just hope that it will still work once the chickens get bored of this new area.