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.

Here is the finished result.

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.