- Sep 18, 2015
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What a great story! I can almost see them running to their little crate home, LOL.
One of the good thins about this breed, as you've seen, is that they are highly trainable. Once you decide upon a new home for them, just put them inside and leave them there for 2-3 days. Give them their feed and water in their new pen and it will quickly become "home". Once you open a door for them to exit to free range, you may have to help them find their way back home for a couple days, but they figure it all out pretty quickly. The biggest challenge for my flock was using the ladder to their pop door. All they each wanted to do was stand in the doorway and look around, but not descend the ladder. I literally had to push their fluffy butts out the door, and then put them back on the ladder to push the back in the door. The first was to make the connection was hilarious as he kept running in and out, making all kinds of a fuss and encouraging the rest of the flock to follow him. He eventually succeeded, but watching them watch him was very entertaining for me.
You have to be a chicken person.... like that saying "You had to be there!" Loved the stories.... the day after I moved the coop (today) it rained all morning. The way these chickens are acting you would think I had put them on the moon. I moved them from the front field to the backyard. Isn't that where they belong? HaHa Anyway it was pouring rain.... I had on knee high muck boots and a longish tshirt trying to sort out these chickens that don't know enough to come in out of the rain. They act like the coop doesn't exist. I can't believe how much this has affected them. Last night they just stood at the old coop location. It looked like they were waiting for a bus. Sometimes I think I must be crazy!I can easily relate to both stories!
When my chicks are around 1-3 weeks (& it's a hot summer day), I start bringing them to the grass during the day & return them to a brooder in the garage at night. They get used to being carried back & forth. The grass time is spent in a simple chicken tractor. Usually around 4 weeks old I can no longer carry all of them at once & make multiple trips. Some of them will follow me; others must be carried. The real fun starts at 8wks when I move them to the coop. I lock them inside the coop for a day so they can explore while the big girls are outside. The flock & newbies get used to each other quickly because they have always seen each other through the tractor's mesh. The newbies must be added in the darkness of night. So as far as they're concerned, they go to bed in the brooder & wake up in the coop. When it's morning & I let them out, the newbies run straight to the chicken tractor. For their protection, I close the door to keep them inside the tractor. At night when I open the door, they must either be carried or heavily coaxed to go to the coop. This is when you'll see my daughter & I running around the yard swooshing our arms while chasing chickens. It takes a good week before they're trained to walk from one to the other. In the meantime, our neighbors get some entertainment. Each day the tractor gets moved about 4 ft, so it's usually near the previous day's location. The fun comes when I must move it to a new section of grass. All the newbie fly out of the coop & head for the previous location. When they arrive & fail to see the tractor, they run around in circles like crazy. Eventually one smart girl finds it & teaches the others. Sometimes they return to the coop & try again before finding it.
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