Acorn's Escape

Backyard Poultry

Escape from the Coop

Destroying the grass isn't the only problem we had with our new pen. All those runs were made with wooden frames at the top. And to a chicken, a horizontal piece of wood equals a perch. Chickens have wings, after all, and they can easily fly five to six feet high if they have somewhere to land. So, essentially, we had fenced in our flock with a ring of perches. However, interestingly enough, six of the chickens did not even catch on to this idea at first. Only Acorn, the little adventurous acrobat, decided to try out the new perches. Did you spot Acorn in the photo above?

Acorn the Acrobat

Once up on the frame, a bird could easily tightrope it all the way around the run, and jump off the other side to . . . freedom! In fact, Acorn seemed to take great enjoyment simply in pacing the various bars on the tops of the runs, as though keeping watch on the rest of our flock. But soon enough it got down on the other side, off to make mischief elsewhere in our garden or flower beds. Still have a ways to go with this idea . . .