2018 Newbie Chat!

[Anna Ranieri]

Mine are not having it. They are out and refuse to go in the coop. They will stay out in the pitch blackness.they settle down between 8-9pm like clockwork. If I were to put them in at 5- I do not doubt tve rooster would crow more and the girls would fight out of boredom.

They may be the weirdest chickens ever, because they are not giving this darkness a chance at all.

Think it depends on the individual, one of my pullets has put herself to bed a little after 6 pm for months and now clocks have changed she puts herself to bed just after 5 pm because to her its the same time - they don't know about clock changing. - Lilah has gone onto nest box to lay every morning at 8:10/8:15 am since shes been laying, now she's going in at 7:10/7:15 am because again she doesn't understand clock change. Pedro stays out longer now I put the light on for her but still is in bed by 6:00 pm, where as Lilah with lights on, goes in about 6:30, Roo goes whatever time Lilah does and the ducks put themselves in about 6:30/6:45 pm, and I go lock them all in when all are in bed and settled and they don't come out again until I let them out at 7 am (they have constant access to food and water) - in the summer is totally different, earliest anyone goes to bed is 9 pm. -- roll on summer!

 

[Anna Ranieri]

So the clocks went back and of course I'm up and wide awake at the time I normally would be but an hour early now.

So I went and got a slurpee and went and collected a huge contractor bag full of leaves--yes at 4 am I was at the park collecting leaves...lol

Got mine done yesterday, a neighbour has a tree shedding its leaves faster than I can pick them up, neighbour has given me permission to go take the leaves when ever I want. I cut down a unwanted growing birch tree in my front garden, have stripped all the leaves and put them in the run, today I will put the branches through the wood chipper I've got, then I'll use the wood chips for the run floor too. When letting the girls out this morning, 3 out of 4 were reluctant to jump down onto the leaves, Lilah looked scared of them and flew almost the whole length of the run in a bid to not have to land on them, really puzzling because I laid the leaves yesterday and the girls were foraging in them, and walking on them fine!?!?!

 

[llombardo]

Got mine done yesterday, a neighbour has a tree shedding its leaves faster than I can pick them up, neighbour has given me permission to go take the leaves when ever I want. I cut down a unwanted growing birch tree in my front garden, have stripped all the leaves and put them in the run, today I will put the branches through the wood chipper I've got, then I'll use the wood chips for the run floor too. When letting the girls out this morning, 3 out of 4 were reluctant to jump down onto the leaves, Lilah looked scared of them and flew almost the whole length of the run in a bid to not have to land on them, really puzzling because I laid the leaves yesterday and the girls were foraging in them, and walking on them fine!?!?!

They are so funny. Mine were super excited to rearrange everything I did.

I know they can be cautious when stuff is added, after I put the last set of leaves, I threw some peas and scratch in there, so when they came out they were looking for food.

 

[llombardo]

Think it depends on the individual, one of my pullets has put herself to bed a little after 6 pm for months and now clocks have changed she puts herself to bed just after 5 pm because to her its the same time - they don't know about clock changing. - Lilah has gone onto nest box to lay every morning at 8:10/8:15 am since shes been laying, now she's going in at 7:10/7:15 am because again she doesn't understand clock change. Pedro stays out longer now I put the light on for her but still is in bed by 6:00 pm, where as Lilah with lights on, goes in about 6:30, Roo goes whatever time Lilah does and the ducks put themselves in about 6:30/6:45 pm, and I go lock them all in when all are in bed and settled and they don't come out again until I let them out at 7 am (they have constant access to food and water) - in the summer is totally different, earliest anyone goes to bed is 9 pm. -- roll on summer!

My chickens obviously don't have a schedule. One lays as late as 4-5 pm. They are constantly just moving around.

I'm still trying to get them to go in the coop on their own at night. Every one of them are trying to stay in the run versus the coop. Before at least three went in on their own--not anymore. They go in and out of the coop all day long, but at night they want to be outside. I'm interested to see what they do when it's 20 degrees out. I almost think they are going to want to be outside--crazy chickens.

 

[llombardo]

Another question...

Last night Prince was making a different noise I never heard before. It wasier a cooing. I would compare it to lets say a cat purring. He seemed really happy.

Is this him talking to the girls? He started it before I bribed them with treats to go into the coop, but it got louder and continous on e I tossed the food in.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

My chickens obviously don't have a schedule. One lays as late as 4-5 pm. They are constantly just moving around.

I'm still trying to get them to go in the coop on their own at night. Every one of them are trying to stay in the run versus the coop. Before at least three went in on their own--not anymore. They go in and out of the coop all day long, but at night they want to be outside. I'm interested to see what they do when it's 20 degrees out. I almost think they are going to want to be outside--crazy chickens.

Lol, you have unique chickens! I don't lock mine up, the little coop door is always open. They go in around 6 pm now, which will be 5 tonight. I don't know when they get up because I don't get up that early! They do have an east facing window in the coop so I'd guess they get up pretty early. When I get up they're always out in the run.
I found something out in another forum that I didn't know. Age wise, my chickens will start to lay in the middle of winter. I'd always thought that they would actually start in spring because of the short days. But I found out that in their first year, they lay when their hormones tell them to, regardless of the time of year. But only their first year. So I should have eggs this winter! I will watch for eggs but wait and see...sometimes there are conflicting opinions here and the truth is hard to come by, lol. And of course, all chickens are individuals.
I put leaves in my run yesterday, luckily. It's supposed to rain all day here. I got some beautiful yellow leaves from my neighbor's yard, lol. He didn't mind that I raked them up, haha.

 

[llombardo]

Lol, you have unique chickens! I don't lock mine up, the little coop door is always open. They go in around 6 pm now, which will be 5 tonight. I don't know when they get up because I don't get up that early! They do have an east facing window in the coop so I'd guess they get up pretty early. When I get up they're always out in the run.
I found something out in another forum that I didn't know. Age wise, my chickens will start to lay in the middle of winter. I'd always thought that they would actually start in spring because of the short days. But I found out that in their first year, they lay when their hormones tell them to, regardless of the time of year. But only their first year. So I should have eggs this winter! I will watch for eggs but wait and see...sometimes there are conflicting opinions here and the truth is hard to come by, lol. And of course, all chickens are individuals.
I put leaves in my run yesterday, luckily. It's supposed to rain all day here. I got some beautiful yellow leaves from my neighbor's yard, lol. He didn't mind that I raked them up, haha.

I may test not locking them up next summer, when I can pitch a tent and sleep out there with them..lol I'm hoping to build a bigger coop attached to the run, so they have more room in the coop and in the run. I want to build the coop big enough for the rabbits to be in there instead of in the run.

If I leave it open they will never go in at night, never.

I think most people would think my run is secure, but I still worry and if something got in I would feel completely guilty. There really is nothing else I can add for security purposes that I can think of.

 

[llombardo]

So how can I get Prince to go through the flaps on the door? I put them up to keep wind out. All the girls use it, he is the only one that won't. Now he may come out if forced to(haven't tried this yet) but he won't go back in. It's pouring rain and all but one of the girls went in the coop. One of them stayed out with Prince under the activity center/umbrella.

I tried tossing treats in, making a trail and all of that go go in and come out--nothing-nada-zilch.I have tried one flap at a time and that worked for the girls--now what? I need to know he will go in if he is cold.

This is the door

 

[PNW_Peepers]

DH and I did a thing this week....
we needed a permenant home for Pig. Once our two young pullets are old enough to defend themselves I’m going to put them into our large coop. I’ll in turn switch two of our adult barred rocks into this new aframe tractor to be with Pig.

We found an old port window antiquing
that was the perfect touch. What do you guys think?

 

[CannedMonster]

Awwwwww heart warming picture - Frodo is stunning!
Just out of curiosity, how old is she? - Lilah was 18 weeks when she hatched Roo, is that young?

Wow! 18 weeks?! Most pullets aren’t even laying that young.
That’s less than 5 months old.
I’ve heard Leghorns will start laying that young but I don’t know about broodiness that young.
Pippin is probably about 7-8 months I think.
I don’t know for sure as I didn’t raise her from a day old chick and my friend really doesn’t pay much attention to their ages except in years.
Thanks for your compliment on Frodo.
Sadly, he’s not in nearly the prime condition he was in when he went to live at my friends property.
I’m really not happy about that but I can’t blame her because the other rooster I gave her, Hector (a dark Brahma bantam), is doing fine.
He is a perfect rooster. I should’ve kept him!
I’ll post a photo of Frodo when he lived with me:

As you can see he has good color in his comb and wattles and he was a bit thin as he’s always been a very active little cockerel but he wasn’t emaciated as he is now He was probably only 4 months old in this photo. His feathers have grown out a lot more now at about 9 months.

4 months

As for Pippin...she’s going to have to wait to be a mom.
I don’t trust her hormones yet as she constantly switches boxes and sometimes doesn’t even sit on the (fake) eggs.
I pick her up several times a day and put her down in the run so she can drink and eat. But she very quickly goes right back up to the nest.