Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

mikeyboy

Hello! Well, I managed to safely get the new additions to the family home in one piece!

I got a White Star, a speckled star and a blue ranger, all lovely looking and seem friendly.

So, last night we got home about 7ish, I had the coop all made up with bedding, water and feeder filled etc. I opened the run and opened the cardboard box I brought them home in against the gap and they (eventually) went in.

It took a few hours before I managed to get them inside the actual hen house itself, they were a little reluctant at first.

I closed them in the house and checked on them about two hours later and they were all sat on a perch quietly.


This morning I let them out at about seven thirty... They soon came out for some feed and a look around the run.

It's raining today so they seem to keep popping in and out of the house and then into the run.. I guess it's best to just let them settle in themselves?


I managed to get a little stroke with one of them, but didn't want to push my luck and scare them while they settle.

How do I proceed? Just keep them fed and watered, check on them regularly and then I guess the main thing is closing/opening the hen house door each day?

I also have a dog and two cats, they are all curious but in no way aggressive... Let's hope it stays like that!

Chickenopolis

Congratulations mikeyboy

I guess you just need them to settle in to their new home in their own time. Are you planning to let them free range?

When we get new additions we tend to clip their wings (ASAP) before they free range .We found this out by accident when one of the Skylines jumped onto the 6ft fence trying to find somewhere to roost at night.It was awful ,as she was not used to people is very "flighty" by nature and panicked when we tried to catch her. She is still very wary of people that she does not recognise 5 years on .

I would recommend that you should try and handle them as much as possible early on, also worm them unless you know that this has just been done. They will sort themselves out but you may get one that "can't find" how to get in at night and tries to roost on anything on the pen that is raised off of the floor. This will pass as they get their bearings but it can raise your anxiety somewhat.

Good luck

Mojisola

Congratulations on your new arrivals! Glad they travelled happily.

As well as giving your chooks their regular food, give them treats and they'll soon start to recognise you as worth getting close to. Chooks seem to have a range of different tastes - try a variety of things and see what yours can't resist.

Gigervamp

All of ours go mad for mealworms!

3v3

mikeyboy wrote: »

... How do I proceed? Just keep them fed and watered, check on them regularly and then I guess the main thing is closing/opening the hen house door each day? ...

When I get new chooks, I keep them to their run/bed for the first couple of days. Reasons: a) lets them de-stress after their change of home; b) gets them used to where their primary food/water source is; c) they get used to my presence/voice/footsteps/scent. I open their door each morning to let them into the run, close it again each evening when they've gone to bed. I remove their food dish at night and replace it in the mornings.

After a couple of days, I open the run door so they can free range. I sprinkle a few mealworms outside the run to encourage them out (I buy them in a big tub from Poundstretcher). I sit very still nearby to let them find their confidence. After about half and hour, if they haven't gone back in to their water/food, I move behind them with my arms outstretched and walk slowly and they tend to run off back through the run door.

Lessons I have learned re free ranging. Unless I have all day to spend in the garden/keeping an eye on them, I don't let them out in the morning I let them out for the final hour or two before sunset so they take themselves to bed without me making a fool of myself "chook-chooking", arms wide trying to encourage them back into the run (there's always one who veers off at a tangent and by the time you round that one up, the others have come out again anyway).

Strokes/cuddles/handling is a gradual process undertaken in the initial stages by stroking them after they have bedded down for the night. That is also the perfect time to pick them up, one by one, to do a weekly health check, or to sprinkle them with diatom.

Treats should be just that: treats. It's very easy to fall into the habit of giving them this that or the other, but all they need nutritionally they get from pellets/mash + free ranging. I use mealworms as [STRIKE]bribes[/STRIKE] treats when I want to train them to do something.

Haven't clipped my girls wings but then the only time they want to fly is when they see me coming down the path with the mealworm bucket and then their flight is aimed directely at me, at head height. Thankfully they land in front of me, not on me.

Final lesson learned: they are all very individual personalities! Some like being touched, some don't; some like eating slugs, some don't. Some can talk the hind legs off a donkey, others barely murmer. Some like to sit next to you, some on you, some really prefer to be more aloof (but love you really ).

Congrats on your new girls. I just know you will have lots of enjoyment (and tasty eggs) ahead of you

Gigervamp

3v3 wrote: »

Final lesson learned: they are all very individual personalities! Some like being touched, some don't; some like eating slugs, some don't. Some can talk the hind legs off a donkey, others barely murmer. Some like to sit next to you, some on you, some really prefer to be more aloof (but love you really ).

This is sooo true!

Congrats on getting your new girls Mikeyboy. You're going to really enjoy them.

pickledtink

The Badger is back. * sigh*
Last year was a nightmare with badger digging and wrecking everything in the vegetable garden. Even when I was reduced to sowing and planting in big hefty tubs they'd be knocked over and smashed and the contents wrecked.
The hens have escaped their enclosure a few times this year and trashed ( naturally) the veg patch. I kept finding busted bits in the mesh fence and wiring it back together but it's been an ongoing problem.
Then I found the real culprit when I went out to shut up their safe inner run which the house is in. The ladies had gone to sleep on their perch which is really high up and I found a Badger inside probably having eaten any eggs. I've been noticing lack of eggs and signs of broken shell or dried egg in their nest box. The coop is a small converted shed and their nest box of choice is an old plastic Royal Mail box on the floor under a low shelf to keep poo off and give a bit of privacy.I can give them less freedom and only let them out when I'm here but the ongoing damage to the fence is the real problem.
Badger is busting through at the same spot every night no matter what I do. Although I'm making sure they are shut in safely early enough it means I have to fix the fence every day to stop them getting out which I don't have time to do as a living has to be made also! It's cutting down their time out and about and they are 'not' happy. Also the fence is getting shredded and I really can't afford to pay a bloke to come and redo it all. Money is a real issue now. This morning I found badger had burrowed right under the fence at a different spot so have spent most of the day filling it in and bunging bricks on it and hauled an old iron gate up to reinforce the original weak spot.
I know we are all supposed to love Badgers and they are protected but the vegetables along with the eggs are my main food source. Last years damage meant the usual freeze down was meagre and didn't last. This year the girls and badger between them have made this harvest pitiful added to which my entire tomato crop of hundreds of healthy fruit has just been wiped out by blight.
This isn't just hobby veg/chickens to me so frankly I'd bash the stripe faced one over the head with a spade if I had the choice. He may be doing what comes naturally but all this work and no food means so am I! Does anyone have any suggestions of some sort of deterrent? Anything I can sprinkle round the outside of their fence to put him off? Sonic? Lights? Do those fox capture boxes work and are they allowed? Probably not I suppose. What with losing my little hen and eating pretty meagrely this summer with no prospect of anything extra to see me over winter I'm feeling like giving up right now.

ljonski

http://www.pamela.mynott.btinternet.co.uk/garden.pdf
This isof some use from the badger trust , but you may have to root around (forgive the pun) and google badger deterrent on google.

pickledtink

Thanks. Have already googled it to death this year and last but the only real option seems to be an electric fence all round which I just can't afford nor would i want to keep everything out.

splodger_seedswapper

i went up to the woods today to see my dad - and an old broody hen that had been sitting for a while - has just "delivered" 10 lovely chicks - beautiful balls of fluff they are :T:T:T

anybody keep guinea fowl ? we have 3 - and i think they are hilarious :j