I love chickens! In fact, I have chickens in my backyard, but sometimes they get out of their coop. Which can be pretty annoying. If you notice that they are getting out this might be a sign that they don’t have enough food or water. They should have access to both at all times. If they are still getting out check around your house to make sure they are not laying eggs in unwanted places. After that you should try and find where they are getting out of the coop and block it as soon as possible. If they are still getting out continue re-enforcing the spot that they are getting out of and keep looking for new spots that they might be getting out.

I have about 25 chickens and they eat and drink a LOT! We have one, three-gallon container and four one-gallon containers for their water, which seems to be enough for them. Even with that much water we have to refill them every other day. For their food we have a container that can hold forty pounds of food. Which we only have to refill every two weeks. If they don’t have enough food or water, they will be more tempted to go out of their coop to try and find it.

There are a lot of problems that can occur if you chickens are laying outside of the coop. For starters, they will probably be hard to get to because chickens like to lay in enclosed small spaces. For example, our chickens started laying under our house. Not only, will they be hard to get to, but they will most likely be bad because you didn’t know about them and they have been sitting out. To test if they are good, you can put them in a tub of water, and the ones that float are bad and the ones that sink are good. if you have a rooster and you notice that your hens are laying on their eggs longer than usual you might want to expect chicks in a couple weeks. To keep them from wanting to lay there you can open up the space or block it off, just remember if they can still get out of the coop, they might just find a new spot also out of the coop.

If you build your own chicken coop it is almost NEVER perfect. In our chicken coop we had seven places that they were getting out of, and we are still fixing it up. Finding spots that they are getting out of is pretty difficult, you either have to watch and wait or look around the coop for places that they are probably getting out of. For us we found that the first method took longer but was more effective. After you find a spot that they are getting out of I recommend using chicken wire. It is a bit difficult to work with, but you want something that will be able to fend off predators. I use chicken wire for the low spots and other things (like sticks, rocks, and zip ties) for the higher spots.

I wish you the best of luck through your chicken journeys. Here is a website where you can get more information about chickens, Raising Chickens 101 – Chicks, Breeds, Coops, Tips | BackYard Chickens – Learn How to Raise Chickens . Remember with great chickens comes great responsibility!