Spoilt chickens????

Invalidation

Weve got 3 chickens and will soon be 'topping up' with 8 ex battery hens. We let our chickens have the run of the garden every 2 days or so for the entire day and they stroll back to their house around 5 ish.. They love pecking the grass and digging out snails slugs and other bougs. Yep they occasionall moan when left in their enclosure, but if they get too noisy I throw a handfull of birdseeds sideways into the pen and they spend hours rooting them out.
We let them out of the chicken house whenever we get up. In the week thats 7.00am but at weekends it can be 9.00am they dont seem to mind. In Summer we dont lock the chicken house so they can come and go as they wish. The pen area is covered with neeting so we arent that worried about foxes.
And Oh Bliss, they started laying again last week.

squelchy69

Yesterday we decided to train our hens. This failed miserably. I left them in their run to moan and get used to it. By 2pm they were so loud I was worried the neighbours may complain and had to let them out - instant quiet! Then after a few hours at dusk, I put them to bed (they still won't go of their own accord!) and silence for the whole night.

Today OH made a longer run, making the original one about 3 times the length. It has a weld mesh lid and sides so we are hoping that the chickens may actually still think they are outside. Not sure how silly they actually are!!??!

Our garden is very small, just a courtyard so is we were to make it any bigger than that we wouldn't be able to have BBQ's or sit out.

Fingers crossed for a slightly quieter day tomorrow.

I'll keep you posted............xxx

lostinrates

squelchy69 wrote: »

(they still won't go of their own accord!)

You can try luring them in following a trail of meal worms or something equally irresistible, perhaps. Or grain, of they get pellet in their feeders. Mine have ME well trained to supply such at times of needing their attention. FWIW you can, and I have, clicker trained chickens. Its good fun, and if you use clicker for dogs it helps perfect your timing and shaping.

Invalidation

You can also put stuff in to keep their interest, like some small logs or stuff

Lotus-eater

Are you feeding them greenstuff in their run? They need lots of it. Have you got enough space to move the run around a lot. It sounds like you may not have.

Daftanian

Try this site for some more help on chickens http://www.downthelane.net/forum/index.php

squelchy69

Our gardens is really small and it's patioed so we have put plenty of straw and grass a conifer cuttings in it.
I feed them plenty of greens as well as their layer pellets.
They seemed much quieter today in the extended run. They woke at 7am and clucked a bit but as soon as I opened the coop ran out into the extention and were pretty quiet. I gave them hanging cabbages to peck and hung cds for them to look at - best place for Eminem I think!!
As for getting them to go to bed alone, we attempted to tempt them in with meal worms. We put them on the ramp and they walked next to it and pecked them off but didn't go up. We ended up having to catch them and put them in again!!

pennib

Your so lucky to have chickens, would love to keep some again. They are such characters to watch.

Mojisola

squelchy69 wrote: »

As for getting them to go to bed alone, we attempted to tempt them in with meal worms. We put them on the ramp and they walked next to it and pecked them off but didn't go up. We ended up having to catch them and put them in again!!

Are you trying to put them to bed too early? Ours have always taken themselves off to their perches - they sleep outside most of the time - when it's their bedtime. This varies throughout the year because they work with the day length. They want to get up much earlier and stay up much later in the summer than they do in the winter.

lostinrates

squelchy69 wrote: »

Our gardens is really small and it's patioed so we have put plenty of straw and grass a conifer cuttings in it.

Conifer cuttings? Bad idea IMO..the sap is sticky and can be uncomfortable for them.

hung cds for them to look at - best place for Eminem I think!!

Cds are hung to scare birds away. Hung for your chickens to look at you are mimmicking the eye of a HUGE predadtor bird. (I hang them high to deter birds fro cherries and Bird of prey when we have chicks about...not to entertain my chickens!) Its the stuff of chicken nightmares! I wouldn't want to go bed when their were monster eyes about either!

As for getting them to go to bed alone, we attempted to tempt them in with meal worms. We put them on the ramp and they walked next to it and pecked them off but didn't go up. We ended up having to catch them and put them in again!!

Once they are at the ramp you throw the worms through the door so they follow them in.