I'm a bad chicken mummy. They've done a lot of free ranging in the Autumn, Winter and early Spring months, and have had a fabulous time, but now it's growing season. And the children will want to play barefoot in the Summer without getting chicken poo between their toes. The chickens have been eating anything that's green, including potato plants and rhubarb leaves, which I'm sure can't be doing them any good at all. My strawberry plants have pretty much disappeared, and I caught one of them eating the lettuce seeds I planted. So I shut them in their run and ordered some netting and various fence pins, and on Wednesday I put it all up to extend the area they inhabit while still keeping them contained. Only they keep escaping! I've been out countless times to shift pins around and check for gaps, but I've not been well and Bellatrix and Hermione do NOT want to be caught when they escape, so I've had to admit defeat. They're confined to their run until I receive some more U pins to hopefully make the fence a bit more effective. They do NOT approve. I don't approve, really. I feel horrible about it. When they see me they start pacing and clucking at me. I really hope this fence does the job because I don't think any of us can face keeping them cooped up in their run until the Autumn. I do have the allotment, of course, but I want to be able to grow things in my own back garden too!