Moving Day!!

[marlo1968]

So today the little 5 week old chicks moved from the seperate day-time / night-time quarters into their own little coop and run, inside the big girls run. We'll see how their first night goes. I had to go out and make them go inside tonight, poor little things. I think I scared the peewaddles out of them all. I didn't think to put a door in the run area so that I could get to them...silly me. Luckily they were all bunched up very close to the pop door. I had to reach through the pop door from inside the coop (the roof lifts up like a lid) and grab them one by one and pull them through the door. Oh my what an ordeal!!! The squawking that went on, the screams....I mean can you imagine, a great big hand (to them anyway) jumping out of that dark cave, grabbing your sister and dragging her back in, her screaming all the while, then it comes back....again and again....

I was laughing so hard it took me 3 tries to get Little Roo in, he's quite the fighter too!! Oh my....so on tomorrow's to do list is put a door into the run, not sure they'll ever want to go through that cave door again!!!!

Will post pics tomorrow of their new little home, they just got too big for the water trough they were sleeping in. They can fly over the top and get out, plus it just wasn't enough room. Now they have much more room, eventually they'll like it, I hope. Hopefully in 3-4 more weeks they can join the big girls flock in their hen house. I will be doing research on how to fully intergrate (sp?) the young ones with the older ones. If anyone has ideas or methods that worked for them I'd love to hear it. I have 8 pullets and 1 roo that will need to join the big girls.

 

[wcstory]

First I placed the little girls in a separate pen in the main coop.

Later, I used plastic construction fencing that had holes big enough for the little girls to run through, but not the big girls. Some of the bigger gals were unwelcoming and nippy, but overall it went well.

 

[gram of five]

Hey Marlo, How did the round up go last night? I remember last year how stressful it was for us to get the little ones in the coop every night. Some nights they would huddle under the coop out of our reach and we had to very gently use a "butterfly net" to get them in. Finally they began going in themselves, we would be so proud of them. Now we leave them to decide for themselves. They are in a large run and some sleep out in the fenced run on a roost and some sleep in the coop. Their choice. But, when they were small and it was chilly, we had to round them up and bring them in the coop every night, but it only lasted a couple of weeks before they found their way in.
Hey, love your name, my daughter's (40) name is Marlo.

 

[marlo1968]

Thanks for the ideas,
wcstory, I like the construction fence idea, just may change to that, currently I have their mini-coop fenced with chicken wire which means they have to run the guantlet to their escape hatch to get away. The construction fencing would allow them to escape at the earliest possible point.

gram of five, thanks for the butterfly net idea. The way their mini coup is constructed it is only a temp until they are big enough to join the whole flock but I didn't think to put in some sort of door so that I could get to them if necessary.
......my screen name is a mix of my first and last names....


Here is the escape hatch door, For right now it's only open for ventilation, soon they'll be able to venture out while I'm there.



Here is their door into the mini run



The roosts....



the other end with the pop doors




getting a treat....bread




BTW...they were all safe and sound happily chirping away when I went out to let them out of their house at 6 this morning....not a thing wrong.....success

 

[marlo1968]

GUESS WHAT!!! The chicks went into their little hen house all by themselves, they were inside when I went to put them in!!!! Yippee!!!!

It only took one time of putting them inside, and now they do it on their own. Feel like a proud momma....LOL