We moved the first group of birds to the new pen in the afternoon. In this group there were nine of the smallest Big Red Broilers and three accidental roosters from the pullet pen. The broilers are so large, now, that they desperately needed more space. The pen has almost four times the area of the coop floor so there is plenty of room for them to spread out. Even so, they mostly stay right next to each other. Hanging out at the water cooler also seems like a popular past-time for them.
We hang up a tarp in our outdoor pens because the chickens need shelter from the Sun and rain. This year, as an experiment, I hung the tarp along a diagonal. The idea is to give protection from wind by having the two edges low and parallel the ground, but also have no pockets to hold rainwater and no horizontal section where the birds could roost. Technically, there IS a horizontal section, but it is too high for them to fly up to it and too close to the roof netting for them to sit on it.
The white cockerel decided to seek adventure. Sometime after we left, he got out and we haven’t seen him since. We don’t suspect predators because there were no signs of struggle in the pen. There were only a few feathers outside the pen. So, I think he slipped out through a gap between the netting and the pasture fence that makes the wall, then went for a walk.
We checked around the pen perimeter and fastened down the netting in all the looser areas to discourage the rest of the birds from leaving.
It is said that curiosity kills a cat. I’m thinking in this case, curiosity kills a rooster, too!