Arizona Chickens

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

The BYC Arizona community! So great, warm, and loving! So much fun to go through 16 pages of posts since Thursday!!!

 

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

Yay!!! Y'all look great!!!

 

[Novaleigh]

So I have been letting all my chickens free range all day to peck and scratch together for the past week, both the bigger chicks and the smaller chicks together. Twice now, I have had to herd them into their seperate respective brooders at dusk. I have 1 bigger brooder/coop for the bigger chicks, and a smaller brooder for the smaller chicks. Why two brooders? Because Kentucky (my red star sex-link) is a dominant one and likes to peck at the smaller chicks when in an enclosed area, such as the coop/brooder. She doesn't do that to the chicks her age though, and doesn't do it when they are out and about in the yard. Two nights ago, I was late getting home. It was dusk. I wondered to myself, what did they decide to do? When I got home, I went straight to them. Guess what I found? They were all neatly nestled down for the night in each of their own respective brooders! WOW! Tonight is the second night that they corralled themselves in their own brooder, waiting for me to shut the door for them for the night.

I love my chickens! They make my life so easy

 

[Arpey]

So I have been letting all my chickens free range all day to peck and scratch together for the past week, both the bigger chicks and the smaller chicks together. Twice now, I have had to herd them into their seperate respective brooders at dusk. I have 1 bigger brooder/coop for the bigger chicks, and a smaller brooder for the smaller chicks. Why two brooders? Because Kentucky (my red star sex-link) is a dominant one and likes to peck at the smaller chicks when in an enclosed area, such as the coop/brooder. She doesn't do that to the chicks her age though, and doesn't do it when they are out and about in the yard. Two nights ago, I was late getting home. It was dusk. I wondered to myself, what did they decide to do? When I got home, I went straight to them. Guess what I found? They were all neatly nestled down for the night in each of their own respective brooders! WOW! Tonight is the second night that they corralled themselves in their own brooder, waiting for me to shut the door for them for the night.

I love my chickens! They make my life so easy

I wish my little fluff bombs would learn to go to bed at night. They start squawking in a group when the sun gets low, then SCATTER when I get close to help them into the coop... I'm getting quite adept at catching flapping chicks!

 

[kevs-chickadees]

Eggs go into lock down tonight, just wondering what everybody else does as far as where they put the eggs. On the screen, or something else?

 

[LarryPQ]

Cut the bottoms of an egg carton and stick them in that. It gives the chicks something solid to push against while hatching, and keeps any with extra fluid from accidentally drowing themselves.

It also makes it easy to count # hatched.

 

[kevs-chickadees]

Arpey, have you tried putting a light in there for them? Mine use to do that and now they just "go to the light".

Then I just shut it off when they have made their sleeping arrangements.

 

[kevs-chickadees]

Cut the bottoms of an egg carton and stick them in that. It gives the chicks something solid to push against while hatching, and keeps any with extra fluid from accidentally drowing themselves.
It also makes it easy to count # hatched.

Thanks! Styrofoam not cardboard right?

 

[LarryPQ]

Either will work. Styrofoam won't absorb the humidity though...

 

[Novaleigh]

Now that you mention it...that is a fantastic suggestion! I keep my heat lamp on 24/7. I bet the light had something to do with it.

Arpey, have you tried putting a light in there for them? Mine use to do that and now they just "go to the light".

Then I just shut it off when they have made their sleeping arrangements.