Chickens are domesticated fowls that are from the subspecies of the red jungle fowl. While a rooster or cock is called an adult male bird, an adult female bird is called a hen. There are more chickens in the world than birds. Chickens are very common and widespread. You can keep them as pets.
A lot of chicken owners usually have issues with their chickens disappearing during the day. Your chickens may be disappearing during the day for several reasons, like: being attacked by a predator, a stash of food they discovered somewhere outside their coop, your hen laying eggs, and others.
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There are so many things you can put in place to prevent your chicken from disappearing during the day. You will learn more about that below.
Why are my chickens disappearing?
If you are a chicken owner and you have noticed that your chickens are always disappearing, there are specific reasons why your chickens keep disappearing; some of them are:
- Predators
Predators are the primary reason why your chickens keep disappearing. Your chickens can be attacked by snakes, predatory animals, predatory birds, or even humans who steal chickens. For human thieves, you can use CCTV cameras in your coop to help track humans who steal your chickens when you are not watching. Frequently checking your chicken wire and fencing daily for holes where snakes, predatory animals, and birds can help prevent attacks from them after blocking those holes.
- Leaving tall weeds around your coop
If you have talk weeds around your coop, you are creating a hiding place for predators. Predators don’t like staying in an area where the weeds have been cleared. So, if you have weeds around your coop, ensure you clear it so your chickens can stop disappearing and live in safety.
- No cleaning areas around your coop
Ensure you always keep the area around your coop clean. Remove debris, bins, or buckets that could be tipped over by your chicken trying to roost on it. There are occasions where chickens hide in abandoned buckets or bins, and they end up getting injured or even dying.
- Your hen may be brooding
A hen that is brooding will quickly disappear from its coop. They are very good at hiding in a safe place when they want to hatch their eggs, and it takes them 21 days to do that. If your chicken doesn’t return after a month, it may never return. Do well to provide a safe place for your brooding hens to hatch their eggs comfortably.
How do I stop my chickens from getting out?
Chicken can sometimes escape from their coop. If you are a chicken owner, I am sure you must have had a previous experience with your chickens getting out of their cage.
Do you know that you can stop your chickens from getting out? With these few steps, you can be sure of not having chickens escape from their coop again.
1. Build a higher fence
Building a high fence around your chickens’ coop is an excellent way of preventing them from getting out. Since your chickens cannot fly up in the sky, you provide some safety. You can put mesh or wire fencing on top of your current fence.
You can keep your chickens in a fence that 6 feet or 1.8 meters high. The height of your fence will stop your chickens from getting out and also prevent predators from eating them.
2. Wing Clipping
Clipping the wings of your chickens is another way of stopping them from getting out and helping them enjoy the company of other chickens.
To trim the feathers of your chicken, spread out one of its wings. It would be best if you cut only the primary flight feathers. You will find the primary flight feathers at the front of the wing; they are the longest feathers. Usually, chickens have ten different colors of these feathers.
You are supposed to trim only one wing. It will make the flying of your chicken harder. Don’t cut two wings because clipping one wing creates an imbalance for your chicken.
After trimming, keep the chicken to walk around.
3. Chicken Coop Run Enclosure
If your chickens are constantly trying to get out of their coop, it will be good you get a run for them. The benefits of keeping your chickens in a run are numerous. Some of them are:
- It keeps them safe from predators.
- It prevents them from disturbing your neighbors.
- It offers them free-ranging access to grit, freedom to stretch their wings, fresh grass, and worms.
You must get a run for your chickens so that you don’t have to bother dealing with their fear of predators and them escaping.
Is it safe to leave chickens out during the day?
It is not safe to leave out your chickens during the day all by themselves. It is very risky.
Leaving your chickens out during the day can expose them to predators like dogs, hawks, and raccoons. Raccoons can attack your chickens during the day and not just at night. And raccoons won’t spare your chicken if they sight it roaming about during the day.
You should only free-range your chickens while watching them; if you can’t be there to supervise them, you should lock them up in their coop.
It is pretty difficult keeping your chickens all locked up in their coop, especially if you have chickens that love roaming about, but your chickens should be secured in their cage than have them being eaten by predators.
There are certain things you can do to protect your chickens from predators. Some of them are:
1. Find out the enemy of your chickens
Find out the predators in your region. Are they hawks, vultures, raccoons, dogs, owls, or foxes? If you know who the predators are, it will help you create the best defense system to prevent them from harming your chickens. Most of these predators can be stopped by intensifying your backyard security.
2. Bury chicken wire.
If you already have a chicken run that doesn’t have chicken wire buried in it, you should because a lot of predators dig under the run to attack your chickens. While hardware mesh helps to keep predators away, chicken wire will keep chickens secured in their coop. So, it is not enough to have chicken wire in your run; you should secure it more from predators by attaching hardware mesh to it. Buy a hardware mesh that is within 2 to 4 feet deep around your compound.
If you are using a chicken tractor instead of a run for your chickens, apply the same procedures. Cover the bottom of the tractor in hardware mesh to stop predators from digging their way to eat your chickens. For those who have chicken tractors with chicken wire, over time, when your chickens step on those wire floors, their feet get cut, so e sure you continuously monitor their feet for injuries.
3. Cover your chickens’ coop
For chicken owners who live in regions where there are hawks and owls, you will need to cover your run.
You can cover your run with chicken wire as it will aid your chickens’ visibility and also protect them from predators in the air.
You can use a tarp sheet to cover your chicken wire to give them both share protection.
4. Increase visibility
If you have bushes around your coop within 45 to 75 feet, ensure you cut them down to create more visibility for you to spot predators and get rid of them. Areas with fewer bushes will prevent predators from going close to your run.
5. Block any holes that will create accessibility to your run.
Ensure you go round your coop to check for access holes then find a way of blocking them. Don’t trivialize any hole you see around your cage because predators may take advantage of them to harm your chickens. Check your coop at least twice a month for any form of forced entry by any predator. Make sure you leave out holes for ventilation but ensure predators don’t take advantage of those holes to gain access to your coop.
6. Collect the eggs your chickens lay every day
Many predators like snakes and rats break into your coops most times to get eggs so, collecting your chicken eggs daily will discourage them from attacking your cage.
7. Don’t forget to look at your coop every night.
Ensure you don’t forget to lock your chickens in their coop every night. Make sure intelligent animals cannot open the locks you use like raccoons.
8. Get motion sensor lighting
Fix solar-powered motion-detection lights in your coop to alert you when predators attempt breaking into your cage. The lights usually get turned on when it detects funny movements around your cage. This light can usually quickly chase a predator away.
How to get a chicken to come back?
Most chicken owners have had issues at some point in their lives that they had to chase their chickens to return to their coop.
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If you have chickens, instead of chasing them around all the time, you can train them to always come back to their coop.
One thing you must know about chickens is that they can get used to taking something up as a habit, and once you train them to understand where their coop is, they will always come back to it every night.
So, how can you train your chicken to come back to its coop?
- When you first adopt your chickens, allow them to stay in their coop for 1 to 2 weeks.
- Practice opening their coop and allowing them to come out at the same time every morning.
- Please sit down and watch how your chickens will come back to their coop.
- When they enter their coop in the evening, close the cage at the same time every evening. Then, offer your chickens treats for returning to their cage every evening. Also, feel free to feed them before they go to bed. Giving them these treats as rewards will make them look forward to returning to their coop every evening.
There are various effective ways you can use to get your chickens back in the coop. Some of them are:
- Ring the dinner bell
You can use a dinner bell to help get your chickens back to their coop, primarily if you constantly feed them in their cage. Ringing the dinner bell with your voice will make your chickens know that it’s time to go back to their coop to collect some treats from you. The hearing ability of your chicken is more robust than that of humans. It takes a few days for your chicken to get used to your bell and voice that calls them to enter into their coop every evening.
Keep combining your voice and the bell to command your chickens back into their coop until they get used to the bell, and you don’t have to use your voice commands again.
If you observe that a predator is around your chickens’ coop and you need to quickly catch your chickens and presence them safely in their cage, or a veterinarian needs to administer some medications to them, there are ways you can see your chickens even if they are in the coop. Some of them are:
2. Your hands
You can only use your hands to catch your chicken when you are in the same cage. When you try using your hands to grab your chicken, don’t pull at its wings or tail feathers. Behave like a hen that wants to mate with your chicken when you try to catch it with your hands, approach it from the top and push it down slowly on its back before you carry it back to its coop.
3. Using a poultry pole
You can quickly get a poultry pole from any agriculture store around you. You can use a poultry pole to carry your chickens fr their feet into their coop.
4. A landing net
For a landing net, you have to be very careful while using it, so you don’t end up getting their wings, beaks, or feet tangled. Use a large landing net and not a small one to prevent injuring your chicken.
Conclusion
There are many ways you can prevent your chickens from disappearing. Giving them enough treats when they return to their coop is one of them and many others you read in this article. So, if you have issues with your chickens always disappearing, applying those tips on your chickens will be helpful.
You can train your chickens always to be back to their coop every evening. You need to be patient with them, especially if you just adopted them.
Make the run of your chickens comfortable and reinforce them with equipment that will protect them against predators.
Your chicken let is worth protecting from any form of harm within and outside its coop.