5 week olds

[Bcoz18]

I am very new at this chicken thing and had a couple questions some may have been answered somewhere but question
1) I know scratch is more like a treat to them. I just put them outside starting on Sunday and want to put some down at the bottom for them to get. I have 6 birds how much should I put at the bottom? Maybe a handful for all 6 birds?

2) since they are eating scratch should I be giving them chick grit? I put a handful of scratch on Sunday and haven’t given them anymore. I put in a litttle bowl about 3 tablespoons of chicken grit and it was gone within 5 hours. I read on other sites like a blog that if they eat it to fast or too much it could back them up.. can someone please give me more information on this.

3)We hand built their chicken coop and my husband decided to have 6 nesting boxes for 6 chickens. From again what ive been reading you really only need 1 nesting box per 4 chickens..do you think all 6 nesting boxes will be used?

4) we have the coop and then a closed in run that’s covered. It’s a pretty large housing unit. But we also have a little bit wired off like a free range but not our whole backyard and some of it is grass and then has some gravel mixed in. Should we till the gravel part to get the gravel out and plant for grass!?

 

[Wezdin]

Welcome to BYC!
#1 Handfull sounds fine to me.
#2 That's fine, the grit will stay in their crop, if they are free ranging there is also not as much need to give it to them, they will get it from the ground.
#3 Probably not, but leave them there anyway. All but 2 of my hens in one coop lay in the same 2 boxes, they will even pile on top of eachother to lay. I once had 5 chickens in 3 boxes!
#4 there is no need to till the gravel, and planting grass is futile, it will get destroyed. They do like dirt to dig in though.
Hope this helped!

 

[rosemarythyme]

1. I rarely give out scratch but you don't want to overfeed it, so for 6 birds I'd give them maybe 2 Tbsp a day at most.

2. They possibly gorged on it because it was something new. You don't want them loading up on nothing but grit, but I would keep a little bit available for them. Maybe put out a small amount each day/every couple of days to slow down their intake?

3. Unlikely they'll use more than 1-2 boxes but no real reason to remove the extras either.

4. Planting grass is an exercise in futility. I wouldn't bother removing the gravel either. I would get a pile of wood chips and put them aside to age a bit, then as the chickens start tearing up the gravel area start putting in layers of chips as litter to control mud, poop and odors.

If you happen to be in a super arid climate, sand is also a possible option.