I’m pretty sure you have seen chickens pecking close to the road in rural settings. Maybe you have wondered, “Do chickens ever cross the road?”. I’m here to tell you yes they do!

We never had a problem with chickens getting close to the road or crossing it for that matter! The only time I had a problem was when I went to get the mail. Unfortunately, our mail box is across the street. I made sure no cars were coming and I crossed. To my surprise, Little Roo crossed the street as well! He obviously thought there was a package or a piece of mail waiting for him. Haha, just kidding. Thankfully he never crossed the street again but it did result in me checking the mail at night when everyone is put up.

Fast forward a couple of years, we ended up having one chicken getting hit. The chicken had ended up being our beloved Lemon Squeeze that had been hatched in our backyard, abandoned by the mama hen, and brought up inside the house. I still think to this day it was the neighbor’s dogs in our yard that caused him to cross the street since I had never seen him by the road. I can’t say 100% that it was them but they had been on our property earlier that day.

Months later, we caught several chickens and ducks crossing the road! We always called them back when we caught them or when they were working their way to the road.

One way we reduced the happenings was to allow these chickens to free range later in the day. We free range them an hour or two before having to go up for the night. Stinks, but it lessens the chance of going across the street.

What stopped chickens from crossing the road? There were certain chickens that would cross the road, leading the others it seemed like. After these chickens were hit and killed, the others stopped crossing the road. Now we let them out a little earlier during the day and haven’t had a problem with them.

All the chickens lived happily ever after? No. Unfortunately. Our newest chicks (the ones we brought home in April) have been caught going to the road’s edge. We even had two cross the street! Now they get to free range later in the day and that has helped…or so we thought!

We were inside the house, the chickens were beginning to roost for the night. We were about 30 minutes away from going outside to put the animals up for the night.

Long story short, a man pulled up into our driveway. He alerted us that he had hit one of the chickens (the one that had been born in our backyard). What is most puzzling is that all the other chickens and ducks were either in the back yard or already roosting for the night.

Now we are dealing with a hurt chicken, which I’ll post about separately.

I’m not sure why chickens cross the road. I think they begin pecking and just don’t pay attention, and end up across the road! It’s strange though how we’ve owned chickens all these years and just last year we have been dealing with this.

If you’re having this problem but also want to maintain free ranging, release them towards the end of the day. Also keep a scoop of food handy so if the chickens get close to the road, you can toss food out and call them back. 🐔