AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Well as the title says....... this morning i was leaving for work and there she was.... a wet chicken just walking through the yard, all by herself...
Of course i almost freaked out and thought of every bad scenario that could possibly have happened for her to be walking around by herself so early in the morning. (no i didnt let them out).

So i went to investigate......

All the other 4 chickens were in their coop thinking i was going to let them out now that i walked up there....

I did a quick search of the pen to find out where she got out and couldnt find anything.... so put her in and went to work.
This afternoon i went to go back for a better look and to check for eggs and feed them etc...

and i noticed there was 5 DEEP holes inside the pen in different areas of the pen, but ALL right on the fence line. the deepest would have been over a foot deep. because i could see the bottom of the fence wire... i dug down and buried the bottom of the wire to at least a foot down under the ground. but none of those holes was where she got out (at least i dont think so) because there was also bricks on the outer side which run almost the whole of the outside of the pen, and none of the holes reached the outside world..... YET ! they just digging straight down !

so then i kept looking for a escape route .... nothing !!! she couldnt have flown out. there is a roof which is very secure. she couldnt have dug out. i coudnt see any exits.

The ONLY possible way out that i could see was IF she somehow flew on to the top of the door and scaled her way across the top of the door and squeezed her fat body through a small gap in between the door and the fence. but i find this VERY unlikely. because she wouldnt have been able to walk across the top of the door unless chickens know how to side step. and she most likely wouldn't fit through the hole there anyways ! which is as big as if you made a circle with your two hands touching each other. but thats only if you stretch the roof netting apart. and i am sure a chicken couldn't do that, let alone know there is a small gap there in the first place. because you cant see it and the door and roof netting meet and the wooden stake sits right in front of the "gap" too which would be in the way making it impossible to slip past.
the door is ALWAYS locked closed. but not pad locked or anything.

Maybe i cant count and forgot to lock her in ! - also doubt it... i always count my chickens.

maybe someone let her out - also doubt why they would only let 1 out.

She was very wet and very hungry when she got put back in. and i found a hole in the plants which look like she made a nest like thing there. she plants and squished and parted perfectly like a chicken slept or relaxed in there.

There was 3 cats in our yard when i got home last night at 9. so i hope they didnt harass her if she was outside at that time.

oh i also did NOT get an egg today... maybe she is the one laying them and didnt today because she wasnt in the pen. or maybe the others missed her and didnt lay because she got to be outside and they werent !


have you ever had a mysterious escapee ???

Yes I have! Our Isa brown Peaches used to escape all the time and we could never really figure out how because just like yours she couldn't fit through any of the fencing, the door was always closed tight with bird netting around it, we have wire stopping her from flying out from ontop of the chook house because she loves to spend time on top of it. We kept blocking holes and she would still get out! They can side step. I see Peaches do it all the time. I would say your girl flew out. Check for high holes?

They can also fit through smaller gaps then you would think because all the holes we could find we thought, no way too small! Yet somehow we could come home and find her munching away on grass.

I think if someone let her out your other girls would have been too.

As for your holes near the fence line, it's the same with ours. They dig and scratch at it. Why I don't know.

Isa's seem to be highly intelligent. Hope you solve your escapee problem!

Hello BFLF,

From my experience with Peaches our Isa brown, she is the escape artist in the flock. Such ingenious strategies on how to fly the coop. I too on a few occasions had come home to find Peaches scoffing weeds, grass and bugs to her little hearts content when I had not let the girls out. I was mystified as to how she had escaped. All the gaps seemed so small but she could slither under a gap of no more than two inches high.

The only way I solved how she was escaping was a stake out. To sit and watch how my little Houdini was getting out. After she had escaped three times I thought I had plugged all the escape routes until one day I came home and she was out again. She had flown onto the coop roof then jumped onto the balcony decking above (as my chookies are underneath my front decking) in a desperate bid for freedom. So more chook wire and some plastic sheeting was required to stop our escapee.

One thing is for sure, these Isa browns are loveable mischievious little chookies with great personalities and from their perspective, the grass is always greener on the other side.

Good luck with your stake out.

They dig and scratch holes in their pens to dust bath in.

If they are penned in all day, they know where the gaps in the fencing are, what else have they got to do with their time than plot an escape route, They can squeeze through the smallest of gaps, where's there's a will there's a way.

Maybe they watched Chicken Run and she's their Ginger?

Mr. Rooster dug his way under the chicken wire and fencing into the neighbour's veggie patch. Wheezy when free ranging would fly on to the Aframe then into the neighbour's garden, the grass is always greener, well actually she has a manicured lawn and lots of mulched garden beds he like to scratch in. He'd fly back on to her tree and back over the fence again home.

there is no way she got out through the roof, it is VERY secure. MAYBE she got through where the door is but i still find it near impossible for a chicken to achieve.

she hadn't got out today.... so maybe it was a one off ??? i dont know...

but yes i agree.... they are VERY mischievous. And often very naughty too !!! but i guess they are only doing what chickens do best ! and that is being a chicken !!! ...

I have a wire floor, on my chook coop, and no holes in it..
one day, I go up to see Cocoand Caramel and Caramel greets me along the way?????
there were no oles in the coop, and I make sure every single one of them is in before I lock them up.
Isa browns are incredibly inquisitive and smart, and hopefully at least a few can escape the slaughter of the caging...
sorry- I just had to bring that up again

Weird that, isn't it....

I'm sure i counted 5 when i locked them up.... I remember it was after the naughty girls "visited" the neighbours house and then they got put in the naught pen... lol.... Then the next day they didn't get let out as i had to work ALL day until night so i know they weren't out that day.

I dont know. Anyways a few cable ties to tighten some places up and hopefully she wont EVER get out without permission again.

I worry for their safety ! appears to be lots of cats loving our yard at night ! every time i come home from somewhere late at night there is a few cats in the yard. I wish people would be responsible and lock their pets up at night ! annoys the crap out of me. and i don't know who they belong to.