Chickens on the run!

I have kept chickens for one year now and let them roam the bottom of the
garden,where they have been happy and never strayed until today!!!

My garden is long and narrow fenced on both sides,gated from my main garden
and at the bottom open ish to farmland(soon will be houses) by ish i mean
there is a 4 ft high mound of soil,brambles etc and my two compost
bays.Today my wife phoned me to say the chickens had vanished,but she
spotted them in the middle of the farm land,she managed to shout them
back.End of problem, until i came home to find they had got round onto my
neighbours garden!I got them back,one of them was hard work!!!
Why have they decided to do one all of a sudden , i thought they didn`t go
far from their hen house ?


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