Arizona Chickens

NotinOz, sorry about your hen.

MaddBaggins, yay for the egg! Can't wait till my hens are old enough to lay.

AZKat, a "ball of pure, feathery hate"...haha. Yeesh. We here about "mama bear" all the time, maybe "mama chickens" would be more apt.

How can I tell the difference between feed that is supposed to be feed as mash and feed that is in crumbles? I bought a sack of organic grower this weekend, and some of it looks like crumbles, but there sure is a lot of powder. The bag doesn't say crumbles, mash, pellets...nada.

I've read that silkies don't like to roost...I don't have pure silkies (silkie/Polish mix), and the 3 are roosting on the highest support beam in there (~5' tall). They are so small, I'm not even sure how they are getting up there! Well, duh, flying, but still.
 
I have 10 almost 4 week old chicks that I hatched in my class. Since they came home from school they have been spending their days out in the run-separated from big girls unless we are out there. At night they have been coming in to the brooder and heat lamp because otherwise they scream in the run when it is time for bed. Since the 6 chicks(a few days younger) that are with a broody are not sleeping under her-they stretch out nearby her, I figured it is warm enough for this group to sleep outside too. WRONG--they scream
barnie.gif
. Breaks my heart. And when we go out there, they jump on us to snuggle
idunno.gif
. Well I don't want to spend the night with them in the coop so I gave in and brought them in again last night
hide.gif
oops my son had taken the brooder out of his room to clean it. Well they were just as happy to stay in their little transport box and sleep in his room, Mind you it has no lid and is only 4 inches deep. So they snuggled and slept their all night with no heat lamp--makes me pretty sure they could have handled the temp outside (inside is probably cooler) and they just suckered me into bringing them inside because that is where they are used to going to bed. I did try putting them in their transport box(it is a 1 ft by 2 ft cardboard box that is 4 inches deep that we have always used to take them outside to play from the time they were 3 days old) and leaving it in a crate in their run but all they did was panic and throw themselves at the bars
he.gif

I am trying to leave them out longer and longer each night but at a certain point they start screaming to come in. Anyone have some suggestions to help ease their transition to sleeping outside at night?
 
I have 10 almost 4 week old chicks that I hatched in my class. Since they came home from school they have been spending their days out in the run-separated from big girls unless we are out there. At night they have been coming in to the brooder and heat lamp because otherwise they scream in the run when it is time for bed. Since the 6 chicks(a few days younger) that are with a broody are not sleeping under her-they stretch out nearby her, I figured it is warm enough for this group to sleep outside too. WRONG--they scream
barnie.gif
. Breaks my heart. And when we go out there, they jump on us to snuggle
idunno.gif
. Well I don't want to spend the night with them in the coop so I gave in and brought them in again last night
hide.gif
oops my son had taken the brooder out of his room to clean it. Well they were just as happy to stay in their little transport box and sleep in his room, Mind you it has no lid and is only 4 inches deep. So they snuggled and slept their all night with no heat lamp--makes me pretty sure they could have handled the temp outside (inside is probably cooler) and they just suckered me into bringing them inside because that is where they are used to going to bed. I did try putting them in their transport box(it is a 1 ft by 2 ft cardboard box that is 4 inches deep that we have always used to take them outside to play from the time they were 3 days old) and leaving it in a crate in their run but all they did was panic and throw themselves at the bars
he.gif

I am trying to leave them out longer and longer each night but at a certain point they start screaming to come in. Anyone have some suggestions to help ease their transition to sleeping outside at night?
Could it be they are afraid of the dark? Have they had a light (or even ambient light) inside? Mine were afraid of the dark and was part of the hard part going into the coop overnight. I'm a sucker, I gave them a night light.
 
Yes, mine were scared of the dark. I stuck a little 3M battery operated light in their coop--the kind that have a sticky back and you push on and off. It helped. You can get those little stick on lights anywhere.
 
Is anyone in actual *need* of chicken feed at the moment?? If things are a little tight at the moment and you don't mind the Walmart Egg Maker laying feed, I've got a couple 40-lb bags that were given to the animal shelter as donations from Walmart. The shelter gave them to me since I'm the only person they know with chickens. But I'd prefer they go to someone who really needs it. So, not for selling, only for people who need it, please. PM me if interested. I'm in Far East Mesa.
 
Thanks, Demosthine. Looks like the feed I bought was probably mash. Hrrmm. Gonna have to figure out how to feed mash now! My homemade and bought feeders are made for dry food.

eta: browsing through BYC posts, I think I'm just going to use some holes cut in a milk jug for this mash stuff. I can still hang it, and it won't cost anything. My daughter goes through milk like whoa, so easy to replace too. I'm grumbling a bit because I liked pouring the dry food into the feeder and not worrying about it for a few days. Grumble, grumble, extra step in the morning, grrr. No big deal, really, but ugh.

etaa: okay, now I'm confuzzled. Mash doesn't need to be moistened? I can feed it dry? It has been working in the feeder I'm using, but there is a lot more waste--I wonder if the chickens have been looking for crumbles and sweeping out the powder. I have previously feed them moistened, end of the bag crumbles, and they loved it, and I guess preparing fresh, wetted mash isn't TOO much of a hardship for my morning routine, lol.
 
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Oh, and tell me: did I get fleeced? The 50lb bag of organic feed was $33. It's my first 50lb bag of anything but dog food. I just read a thread where people are buying 100lb sacks of feed for $13.
 

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