Hi! I just had a question about chickens? I'm not getting any until far into the future but I love the floofs so I'm curious. Do they need to stay in an enclosed area, or can they just be outside free roaming your yard if you are outside with them? I'd imagine they'd wander too far off or get into trouble with wildlife or cars but not sure? They run fast if it ran off wouldn't it get lost and you can't catch it?
Hiya!! I’d love to talk about chickens!
Okay, so you definitely don’t need to keep them enclosed - they can roam around your garden and it’s a lot lot healthier for them; they can peck around and just generally feel freer. Just make sure your garden fence is secure.
What I’d suggest is taking them to the vet to get their wings clipped professionally for the first time. You can clip their wings yourself later (because they do grow back) but you need to know how to do it properly first or you’ll hurt them, and I highly suggest getting help from someone else while you’re doing it too. Clipping their wings doesn’t actually hurt them if it’s done right, just like clipping a dog’s claws doesn’t hurt them, but you mustn’t do it too short. So asking the vet to do it the first time around is best. And you shouldn’t clip all of them, which is a misconception, you just need to clip the top of the ‘primaries’, but there’s plenty of info out there.
After a while, you probably won’t have to clip their wings, they just know where their territory - where they are safe - is. I mean, there’s a chance you wont need to clip their wings at all, but if you can never tell how adventurous a chicken will be, they all have such different personalities, so best be on the safe side. We don’t clip our chicko’s wings anymore, and they can jump up onto the washing line (and like to perch on it for some reason because they are adorable idiots), which is as high as the garden fence, but they don’t try and jump over the garden fence.
Also, if you live somewhere you know there are animals like cats, or foxes, etc. I’d close them into their run/hutch at night, but you’ll have to wake up early to let them out again. Fair warning, though: they can be a pain in the arse to catch sometimes.
Lastly, make sure you adopt rescue chickens and do lots and lots of research beforehand. Best of luck! xx
