Hello

[Chickens-2016]

Hi I have two new chicks and live in California -- Sacramento!

 

[limited25]

Nice to have you join us. What kind of chicks do you have?

 

[Chickens-2016]

I have amercana and Astralorp both are very nice chicks. I left them out in the coup all day and they seemed to really like their new home. I have not left them over night yet. They still have a few baby fluff (feathers) still so I bring them in at night until 1 week from now hoping they may bet all their feathers developed.

What types do you have?

 

[limited25]

I have 4 RIR hens and a RIR rooster, but chicken math is finally getting to me after a year. Am wanting some bantams but haven't found them yet ... just 3 pullets of 3 different breeds. All are pets but wanting some that I can hold ... some that don't belong to the rooster. LOL He will let me pick them up without attacking but tries to herd them away and stands between me and them. So will have to build a new coop but it can be a lot smaller than the one we have now.

Your breeds sound very nice.

 

[Chickens-2016]

Too funny. How did you handle transitioning the chicks to the coup? Especially at night?
I am having a bit of a difficult time when leaving them out at 6 weeks. They seem as though they get cold past 8pm.

Trying to get Apollo and Rocki to stay out all night in the roost.

 

[limited25]

Shouldn't be a problem leaving them out at night. Cold isn't so much of a worry as heat is. Lots of people on BYC putting their chicks out quite early ... but since they almost have their feathers, could wait until then I guess. How old are they?

Our chicks were 3 - 4 weeks old when we got them, which is the standard around here. Kept them in a small coop in the garage. Had a race to get the real coop done before they outgrew the one in the garage. Took them outside and kept them in a dog cage during the day ... like you are doing ... and they loved it. Got where the rooster started struggling every time we put them in at night, because he didn't want to go back to the garage. Put them in the coop the minute it was done. Had to sit them on the roost 2 nights in a row before they would go up by themselves (have a ramp to the roost but they seldom use it anymore). It went very smoothly.

Our biggest threat here is (and was) hawks, so just had to make sure the coop very secure.

Another good website you might like is the-chicken-chick.com It has a lot of info and good videos which are short, informative, and entertaining. Taught me a lot ... actually found that website before this one.

Apollo and Rocki are cute names. Our rooster is named Reggie, hens: Honey, Mattie, Hilde, and Hermoine. Hermione is AKA Tricky ... she is very clever.

 

[Chickens-2016]

Thanks for the info. I will check out the website!

So what about heat? It was 89 degrees today, it was dry heat....? My coup is in the sun, but there is shade; although not enough, I ended up putting a BIG Umbrella over the coup today because of the heat. Any suggestions? Ice water? How do you handle heat with your chickens?

Thanks for mentioning this I was going to ask someone about heat....

Debra

 

[limited25]

When a chicken is too hot it pants and will hold it's wings out from it's body to try to cool off.

When it gets too hot here we have a mister that we situate so that it hits in part of their run. At first they did not like it, but later we saw them walking through it willingly and they like it quite well now. Think it helps a lot. We put out watermelon for them. Tried the ice bottles others recommended but ours ignored those ... but different things work for different people (and chickens). We have a tractor coop so try to park them in the shade, or cover their coop from the sun.

Just put keeping your flock cool in summer in the search column will show you what everyone else is doing. There is also an article on it on that site I sent you.