A chicken's typical day?

[cjstanman]

Hi - I'm a first time chicken mom with 6 BRs who are just about 7 weeks old. They've been outside for 3 weeks in our chicken tractor and are doing fine. Recently we had very bad rains and the coop part of the tractor got a little wet on the inside (design flaw has been fixed, ha ha!). No biggie - I cleaned it out, no one died and everyone is acting okay, not acting sick or anything.

But it made me think - what's a typical day for a chicken?

I think these guys are like teenagers. When I show up, they act like they haven't eaten in weeks - even though *there's still plenty of food* in their feeder. And they sleep - a LOT.

I've got 2 boys and 4 girls and at least one of the boys is starting to act all bad-a** and macho. It's funny as anything! He also managed to make the first escape from the tractor (poor communication during the move with DH, that too has been fixed). But he's back in there and they are all clucking away.

What do your babies do?

 

[shelleyd2008]

My chicks are all free range, except the real itty-bitties. They free range with mom during the day, and go back to their tractor at night. Most all of the chickens spend most of their day scratching and pecking, with an occasional dust bath. I have some that are about 5 months old, that scratch all day long, and come running when they hear the lid of the feed barrel being pulled off. And the little pigs have food down all day!! I do have 6 baby silkies, and 3 baby BTW japs, that are about 2 months old I think. They come out of their tractor in the morning, scratch around and investigate for a while, go back to the tractor and sleep, then do it all over again. But they do sleep a lot as well. But they are just babies. My little babies with their mamas don't seem like they ever stop searching for food. You would think they are starved to death!!
Do you give yours any treats? My dad has some young chickens, about 6-8 months old, that have always lived in a coop and run. They have gotten used to getting treats (tomatoes, cucumbers, bread and whatnot) thrown into their run, so whenever they see someone coming out there, they all run to the front of their run to see if there is anything good coming. They always act like they're starved, but they always have food! Chickens are just silly most of the time!

 

[cjstanman]

I have just now started giving mine treats - just a little bit of scratch about every 3rd day, and twice I gave them a bit of yogurt with chick feed sprinkled on top. At first they didn't know what to do with the scratch, but they caught on. And the yogurt is just silly to watch, ha ha!

I'd like to let mine free range, but we have two outdoor cats plus we're way out in the country where there are a lot of natural predators, so in the coop they stay.

 

[shelleyd2008]

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I can understand that. We are also way out in the country, in Kentucky no less, almost nothing but country here! We have a dog that runs loose, and she is pretty good about keeping wild animals away. I have only lost 5 chickens since letting mine free range full time, and that was becausee of a puppy we have. I didn't realize that she was the reason they were disappearing, until I saw her with one in her mouth. She has since been tied up, poor thing. I haven't tried giving mine yogurt yet, I am not sure about making it, and keep forgetting to buy some. Do you make your own? I know miss prissy has a recipe for it in the recipes forum. I'm gonna give mine scratch this winter. Right now they get cracked corn once in a while, but that's it. Mine were getting tomatoes, cucumbers, and watermelon from the garden, but the garden is done now, so they don't get much. Unless my little boy gives them the bread from his sandwich or something!

 

[mtnhomechick]

Quote:
I can understand that. We are also way out in the country, in Kentucky no less, almost nothing but country here! We have a dog that runs loose, and she is pretty good about keeping wild animals away. I have only lost 5 chickens since letting mine free range full time, and that was becausee of a puppy we have. I didn't realize that she was the reason they were disappearing, until I saw her with one in her mouth. She has since been tied up, poor thing. I haven't tried giving mine yogurt yet, I am not sure about making it, and keep forgetting to buy some. Do you make your own? I know miss prissy has a recipe for it in the recipes forum. I'm gonna give mine scratch this winter. Right now they get cracked corn once in a while, but that's it. Mine were getting tomatoes, cucumbers, and watermelon from the garden, but the garden is done now, so they don't get much. Unless my little boy gives them the bread from his sandwich or something!

When you go grocery shopping you could ask the produce manager if he has any old produce for your chicks. I have gotten lucky with that and usually it's good enough for people consumption but of course it goes to our girls. Yesterday I got 4 heads of lettuce, two bags of salad mix, a tomato, 3 cukes, a bunch of red and yellow peppers , brocoli and mushrooms. It was a whole big box. I give them some every day and keep it cool in the garage in a box while it lasts.

A friend of mine used to raise chickens and she went to the bread store everyday and got old bread. They love bread.

Otherwise, I give them layer crumbles and oyster shell twice a day, grass clippings .......and of course fresh water daily.

Hope this helps.

 

[mtnhomechick]

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack this post. My chickens basically scratch and peck all day. Wait to be fed and love to be held. And of course make my breakfast.

 

[LilBizzy]

My chickens free range all day. They are not in a fenced yard(yet). Their typical day is waking up before the sun comes up. Roosters start crowing, and like a snooze alarm, crow every 15 minutes till a human comes and lets them out.
Then they go to work. They are self taught landscapers. They go to each of the neighbors yards and take care of pest control, weed removal, and , of course, fertilizing.
After finishing in the one neighbors yard, they all go to another neighbors yard, and the rooster crows until that neighbor brings out treats. After treats is nap time. After nap time they landscape another neighbors yard. Then another nap. Somewhere during the day, they will take a dust bath. They play games, too. One is " make the neighbors dog bark". The other is "chase the cats, birds and squirels". The most popular game is " chase the chicken that has something in its beak that may be a good bug, or may be a piece of dog poop"; also known as chicken football.

 

[mtnhomechick]

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[Lobzi]

My babies life:
We all awake to Roo and his cock a doodle doing starting about 5-5:30 (not too bad Id say). When it light enough I go out and sing good morning to them, open the pen and the both come tumbling off the roost and out to great the day. I clean up the pen and get more food out for them while Roo chases Chickie for some nuggie.
When Im done and head in, Chickie follows me and we have some Mother-daughter time in the morning while Roo continue to crow. Oh yes, Chickie and I get in on the crowing too, us in the house and Roo from the yard.
I get some worms and we all go outside together and they have a worm fest. I then sneak away in hopes that they will forge a little before I have to pen them up and leave for work.
They probably sleep, dust bathe, and forage around the pen all day until I get home and let them out. At that time, they are often calling for me and anxious to come out an play in the yard.
They do so until dusk when I go out and tuck them in. Usually they get at least one more worm fest before heading for the roost.
The only change is on the weekends when they are free longer to play in the yard because Im around the house more.

 

[Chickenaddict]

A typical day around here is 6 am wake up to the lil rooster living in my garage crowing away along with the 2 serama roosters in the basement, 6:30 i finally open the garage door in hopes to get the rooster to can it! 7:00 am let the chickens that live in the coop outside out to free range, they stop for breakfast then head up to the front of the house where they spend the day digging ankle breaking potholes in the yard and shower the driveway with poo as they shred the rest of the hostas for an after breakfast snack. 11 am is hen wrestling time... alll the hens want in one nesting box at the same time which can last 2 to 3 hours depending on how fast they can squeeze the eggs out. About 3 pm they get bored so they look for other things to get into like digging the landscaping rocks out and kicking them into the grass to add a suprise to the mowing experience. By the time i get home from work they tackle me for treats and i spend the remainder of the evening schmoozing with them.