We have a small flock of chickens. It ranges in number from 2 to 7 depending on circumstances. We had 5 until last week when one of them died. We usually let them out for a couple of hours late in the afternoon when we are home so since I was working from home today I went downstairs to let them out about 4pm. The 2 brown chickens came running but there was no sign of the 2 black ones. I searched everywhere for them but to no avail.
Then I noticed that the shadecloth that we have over part of the run was split. The join had obviously deteriorated in the sun. One of the reasons I put the shadecloth up was to stop the chickens getting on the roof of the henhouse and then using that as a launching-pad to fly out of the enclosure. The black chickens were the main culprits and The Duke had christened them ‘Harriet Houdini’ 1 & 2. It looked like they had lived up to their names and I was not sure whether I would see them again.
I decided to fix the split so I used these fencing wire clips.
About an hour later the 2 escape artists returned and carried on scavenging in and around the garden beds as though nothing untoward had happened. I am hoping that I have solved the problem and they will stay in the run.