Saturday, December 12, 2009

Escape

Behind my house is a business where one of the chickens - I think Gracie (I still don't know their friggin names, all I know is the bigger one lays her daily egg in the morning and the smaller one lays around eleven) escaped to yesterday. But one of the workers chased her from their yard and fortunately I was out back and he let me know she flew the coop (which is a first for either and I hope not an evolving trend). We talked for a bit about chickens, and although he didn't have any, he grew up with them.

I need to add some fencing to the top of my wooden fence. Someone told me that where chickens can discern the top of a perch (like my wooden fence five feet up) and that they will fly to it, whereas something like chicken wire is much more effective as there is no defined top to it. So basically, the two feet of chicken wire works much better than the five feet of wooden fencing for the chickens in my yard.

The picture was taken an hour ago. The clouds have returned to Bellingham, and it must've been above freezing yesterday, as there was no ice on the chickens' water.

Looks like Tahoe is getting pounded as we speak. After living there for two ski seasons, a four foot dump was not uncommon.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

gotta put a wire roof across... or they will continue to escape now...
OR, stand out there with an axe....

Steve Wilson said...

Have you tried clipping their wings? Just clip one side so they are off balance when they try to fly. Needs to be done every few months since the feathers grow back like fingernails do. Its painless for the animals.

Jeff Westcott said...

I've heard about clipping their wings, and I realize it's painless, but I still do not have the heart to do it. They've only escaped once, but if it persists, I will need to reconsider. Thanks!