Lesson Learned - OverEZ coop underparts

[abenardini]

I'm sitting here typing up this message like a dope and hope my chicks eventually decide to come out. We had a sudden downpour with very little warning and my 30 day olds were out in their coop/run combo. Safe from predators but apparently not against themselves. I've kept chickens for many, many years but first time I've ever had a prefab like the OverEZ. It's not a bad coop and I love the idea they can retreat under it when its hot or for "safety" when they see a hawk overhead even though their coop is covered - they still do this when they see the flying hunter's shadow.

Well, it's pouring amazingly outside. I went out when there was a 1 minute break to try and coax them out from under the coop to put them inside the very warm, very dry, very cozy coop. No luck except the friendliest/boldest one and I couldn't get the rest (8 total).

My lesson learned is shared with others that might have this coop with younger birds that still have to be taught where to roost at night. Definitely close off the under coop retreat until they understand where safety actually is. I have the coop raised up a bit on concrete blocks, so the water hasn't fully made it under there yet, and hopefully it won't. There are 3-4 inches of water around in the area outside the run/coop and we do get floods sometimes here (N. Florida).

Once the rain abates, I'm heading back out there to tuck them all away for the night a tad early. Crossing my fingers - wish me luck. :-/

 

[abenardini]

Update: Tiny silly, annoying, crazy, I love my chickens are now safely inside their coop. Rain just took a break long enough they all sauntered out a minute ago and daughter helped quickly shut them away.

First task tomorrow is to chicken wire the entry point on the inside for a few weeks. I've always had coops that are directly on the ground and not raised like this one. I guess a great benefit of a ground coop is that young chicks quickly figure out entry vs having to learn the ladder, which they are fully capable of climbing but they have poor deductive reasoning skills. I should have obviously factored this into my teeny bird brain equation.

Cheers to safe birds and hyper-sensitive humans that are crazy about them when it is probably (almost certainly) an overreaction .

 

[rosemarythyme]

Yikes! Well, since you mentioned flooding is something that happens in your area... don't expect them to know to go in as adults, either. When we get flooding, we lock the birds in the coop until there's enough dry-ish patches for them to safely walk on.

In addition, it's also helpful to train them to come when called. If I shake my plastic jar of pellets or treats and call out "Chook chook chook" the birds will come running. If I throw a handful from the jar, they'll all run in that direction. So you can get them to come out from under the coop, and then redirect them into the coop that way.

 

[abenardini]

Yikes! Well, since you mentioned flooding is something that happens in your area... don't expect them to know to go in as adults, either. When we get flooding, we lock the birds in the coop until there's enough dry-ish patches for them to safely walk on.

In addition, it's also helpful to train them to come when called. If I shake my plastic jar of pellets or treats and call out "Chook chook chook" the birds will come running. If I throw a handful from the jar, they'll all run in that direction. So you can get them to come out from under the coop, and then redirect them into the coop that way.

We picked the highest spot on the back 5 acres and it did stay pretty dry. Very little water made it in the run or under the coop. Whenever we had flooding in the past, mine as adults always would go to the high ground and never had an issue. We'll see what these guys do. During hurricane season one year, the adults had to be let out at least a little and they really loved it because the frogs and bugs were prolific...it was like fishing for them in the bird ankle high water (bearing in mind these were Jersey Giants at the time).

On the calling chook chook thing, yeah I do the same thing....these guys are just young and haven't learned the ways of the force yet. But they will!