Why? Because the intrepid Doris (who is the biggest chicken, ironically) constantly kept flying over the top. She was shameless about it. She even did it when I was sitting in the run with them, as if she was showing me what she could do.
But, being a bird-brain, she would then spend all her time outside the run either sitting by the gate or pacing up and down next to the netting, desperate to get back in again! It never occurred to her to try flying back in again, or to make the most of her freedom and go exploring.
The overhang keeps her in now, but they are allowed out to free-range for hours pretty much every day and they absolutely love it. This is why we didn't want to clip Doris's wings - if they are free ranging and a dog runs in we wanted her to be able to fly to safety in a tree.
Note the single brown feather on Kiki's side.
Doris has the longest neck and when she is curious about something she stretches it out like a giraffe, it's too funny. Here it is about half stretched - yes, it gets longer than this!
While free-ranging they ended up under the trampoline for a while, silly birds.
We are absolutely loving having chickens. We're on squat watch, checking to see which bird shows signs of doing the egg squat in preparation to start laying. How exciting that first egg will be! I have my money on either Marble or Doris. Only time will tell.
In the meantime we are just enjoying them as pets. Before having chickens I didn't know that they constantly make little sounds, like tiny soft little chirrups, squeaks and mutters. It's very soft and sweet and so nice to listen to.
