[HENrietta]

My hens are unfortunetly not free range, but do have a nice big coup. we have just bought two new ones and they are segretted from our older two. When ever we are in the garden we do let the girls out as they just love it! When could i let my new girls out, without them going off and then facing Mr fox (as we do get alot where we live, thats why they are not free range). They are about 15 weeks old and i am not sure what they will do? My old girls come back at the shake of the corn jar, do i just do this in the coup until they understand they will have some delcious corn! Thanks

[Vember]

Hi Hen

Is the garden area fenced at all? If your worried about them flying you could wing clip, which would slow them down a bit

Mealworms are a good treat to keep them near by. Let them out for a short while, give them a couple of m/worms then walk back to the run shaking the tub. If they're anything like mine they'll come running

If the others come running anyway (for the corn) you might find the others can't resist coming to see what the fuss is about 

Sarah

[HENrietta]

Thanks hon.

[andreadon]

We live on a farm, and our chickens always used to wander over to the grain silos (mouldy, piled up grain, yum...  ), so we surrounded the garden with chicken wire - okay, this sounds like my answer to everything, but we had loads and loads of it lying around behind the kitchen garden wall!
Anyway, it stopped them from going where they weren't allowed.

They don't try to fly over it because they can't see if it's sturdy and they can't see how high it is - it's been like that since last summer and they were out all day, every day for about 3 months and not one attempt at escape.

Worth a try, if you want them to free range within certain limits.