My chickens are teenagers now, at sixteen weeks of age. Technically, they could begin laying eggs in another month; however I have been told that this will probably not happen until spring since we are heading into winter. My girls were becoming more bold and less content to remain confined within the 1200 square foot yard that has been their home in recent weeks. I had placed a gate at the top of the porch steps to prevent them from accessing it and proceeding into the front yard. Ivy is always the instigator of their mischievous maneuvers and she began to perch on the gate in the mornings shortly after being let out of their coop. She was soon joined by the other four. After a week or two, I began to hear Ivy jump down from the gate onto the porch. Several times I had to go out and tell her no and send her back into the yard; but soon they all figured it out and made a beeline to the bird feeders, where they feasted on seeds dropped by the birds.
It became second nature then, for Ivy to also fly up to the top of the four foot fence railing and hop out. Marigold and Buttercup soon caught on, as well. Last week, they became almost wild chickens, running all over the place, into the vacant yard to the east, the vacant lot to the south, and all around the house. I was growing more and more exasperated, not knowing what to do. They had begun to ignore their chicken feed because they were filling up on bugs and bird seed. I was stressing out about them getting into the road or getting caught by a dog. I worried that the neighbors would complain.
This week, I finally came up with a plan and began adding a layer of fencing and netting above the existing fence, making it much too high for them to fly out. When I previously had chickens, I lived in the country where allowing them to completely free range was no big deal. Now, I worried that when they begin to lay eggs, they may choose a spot that I would be unable to find, rather than using the nest boxes that I have built for them. My first chicken was more or less wild and it took me ages to discover where she had been laying her eggs. When I finally found them, there was a pile of about two dozen, which I simply had to bury because they may have been spoiled. This happened a few times until I finally enticed her to use the next box, with the help of a fake egg.
During the course of the week, while I was working on the fencing, Ivy and her cohorts managed a couple of escapes. They did not go far; however, because one or two of them had not figured the way out. I love that they wanted to stay together and even in her desire for freedom, Ivy would not desert her sisters. Hopefully, as winter approaches and the urge to lay eggs becomes strong, they will be content to remain close to home. For now, they are safe and I can only hope that this teenage rebellion will pass.
