Delinquent

Those that follow me know that my chickens were given an ASBO not much more than a month ago. To resolve the problem of thieving in my neighbours gardens an electric fence was installed and this delinquent, who is the leader of the pack, had to be dissuaded from flying.

The fence is effective without electricity as, unable to use it as a perch, they don't bother flying up onto it. To stop the flying I caught the big boy and with a pair of scissors cut all the flight feathers on one wing. By cutting only one wing, the theory is, the bird will unbalance and not be able to compensate as he could with both wings cut... like hell!

Up until now it has worked and where he can't go, his flock doesn't follow. Yesterday he presented himself having escaped his incarceration, knocking at the back door and demanding food, with all nine followers. Having put them all back I searched for their escape route without finding it. This afternoon I found it. Straight over the garden shed. The pesky bird is flying again!

Mmmm.... I'm going to have to close the whole area with aviary netting.