Brand New and looking for advice

[danegirl88]

Hello Everyone!

To say I picked my house in a city that allowed back yard hens would be a totally true statement. While not entirely a city girl, I've never kept hens before. I've worked in exotic pet stores and hand-fed my share of baby parrots, and my mom bred cockatiels for a while so I have some general bird experience. Chickens seem to be a rather different creature though, I must admit.

I've found a local breeder that one of my friends (pet store bird department manager and fellow chicken keeper) says comes highly recommended. She has some buff ops and some rocks available, at 4 weeks old. I'm in Virginia, and day time temps are in the 90s and nights are in the high 60s low 70s. I'm going to the farm tomorrow and if they're already outside then my question is mute. I'm planning on grabbing 3 pullets, so they'll sort of have each other for warmth. Would they be okay going outside for small forays with me during the day, and going outside in the coop in about 2 weeks? Picked up a second hand coop today and it needs some beefing up in my opinion, so they'll be staying inside with me I believe for the next few weeks.

What are the most common beginner's mistakes with chicks, keeping in mind they're starting out at around 4 weeks with me. I've read about the accidental drowning deaths. Will they need grit/oyster shell right away? Do they still need to be on chick food (I would assume yes, but figure I'll ask the folks that know). I may not come home with them tomorrow, but will at least go look and play after visiting my local feed store and picking the their and the breeder's brain some

 

[azygous]

Welcome to BYC! You came to the right place for advice. We're chicken lovers here, and we move heaven and earth to keep finding better ways to keep our chickens healthy and comfortable.

At four weeks old and ninety degrees, your chicks won't need hea during the day at all. At night, as long as it doesn't get below 70, they probably won't either, but you could just stick a heating pad in the box with them to snuggle against for the little extra warmth they might require, and you wouldn't need to deal with a stupid, dangerous light bulb.

I would get them a small bag of chick starter, and feed it out then put them on grower or layer if it runs out by the time they begin to lay.

The biggest mistake people make with chicks is in handling them. They tend to grab the chicks from above, simulating the diving attack of a hawk, and it scares chicks so badly, they run away from you the second they see your hands coming at them.

Approach chicks from the side down at their level. A brooder box set on top a table with a side access cut into the box (I detest plastic tote bins, by the way) and that way, you have but one direction by which to handle them, and you aren't apt to forget and do it wrong.

Teach them early on to come to you when you call them by using a verbal cue when you give them treats, sparingly, and meal worms are an excellent treat. Make sure you place a little bit of chick grit on the floor of the brooder so they can handle any thing you give them besides the chick starter.

Getting them at four weeks, you won't have the problems associated with newly hatched chicks, so enjoy your babies! If there's anything else we can help with, just come on back and ask!

 

[GitaBooks]

Welcome to BYC!

If they are fully feathered, they can probably stay outside. After all, when they get to a certain size, they wouldn't be able to cuddle under their mother in the wild anyways. I think my chicks are missing doing so, as they try to cuddle with their mother and she tells them to leave her alone.

Best of luck!

 

[danegirl88]

Thanks guys! My local group that I've been abducted into by friends is having a Backyard Chicken seminar/swap on July 11, so I'm excited to go to that as well.

My second hand coop actually doesn't have any framing at the bottom - just the chicken wire sort of stretched between vertical supports. I am definitely adding some framing and securing the wire to it, but that doesn't do much for protection from the bottom. I know we have voles in my back yard, but don't know if they're a threat? I saw some coops that had wire on the bottom as a sort of flooring - thoughts? I have a 5' chain link fence and have no problems going out there with them but can't afford to have them flying over the fence and running off as my neighborhood is close to a main road. I'm trying to find a happy balance between letting them dig and scratch and have fun to their heart's content and keeping them safe from weird critters (I don't truly even know what a vole is, except that they're apparently responsible for the ground shifting under my feet when I step on a tunnel).

Also, I have dogs. This is going to sound like a gross question, but is grass where dog feces have rested dangerous to let the chickens play on? I obviously would pick up any waste before introducing them to that area, but wasn't sure with zoonotic diseases and whatnot that can cross species lines. Other random question - tons of mosquitoes in my area. Anything I need to do to protect them from any mosquito-borne illnesses?

 

[GitaBooks]

Its good to make sure the coop and run are secure, especially if you might have weasels in the area. Voles, however, will most likely be eaten by your chickens, not vice versa. (chickens love rodents, and voles are around mouse sized, just without a tail. Moles are equally harmless, unless they are defending themselves)

.

As for flying out of the pen, some chickens can certainly fly 5 ft, but most of them won't unless they get really hungry or really bored. I have a couple hens who regularly go over my 4.5 ft tall fence, but the others don't (or can't).
You can try putting up a simple chicken wire or netting roof to prevent anything flying in or out. This is cheap, light-weight, but effective.

As for the dog problem, our chickens are kept around dogs and cats and neither have caused a problem (with their droppings) so far. Actually, it seems the dogs prefer eating chicken droppings until they get sick, not the other way around.

Dogs are so gross.


Best of luck!

 

[azygous]

You bring up a number of issues that need addressing.

Your coop is inadequate. The flooring, if it's indeed chicken wire or the official name - poultry mesh, will be hard on your chickens' feet, eventually causing sores which could become infected. How large is it? If it's a small hutch-style coop, there may not be adequate room for a decent roosting perch and a nest box. Do you have a photo? You should have a minimum of two square feet of coop space per chicken. I would install a solid wood floor, at the very least.

Mosquitos will bite chickens and transmit disease. You're aware of it. I don't know what you can do about it, though.

The same is true about the dog poop. If e-coli is present in the dog poop, and the chickens happen to ingest grass contaminated by it, they can become hosts to e-coli in their intestines. Whether they become sick with it depends on their immune systems.

A covered run would solve most of your problems, and you might even be able to find mosquito netting for it if it's a small one for just two chickens. You should have ten square feet of run space per chicken.

 

[danegirl88]

Oh dear, I'm not very good at explaining things at all - I think I got my terminology mixed up. I suppose the run is what didn't have any protection from potential digging predators (I live in a neighborhood off of a busy street and have never seen a raccoon or fox, it's mainly the stray cats in the neighborhood, but didn't want to assume that they don't exist). The coop itself has a wood floor, and I've put in some linoleum for easier cleaning/sanitation. There is a very low roosting bar in the coop (not sure how useful that is?). I'm planning on buying materials next payday to start a brand new coop from scratch with a covered run (the run here is covered as well, but I'd like a much larger run for the girls). Hopefully it'll be done within the month at the absolute latest. Pics!


After I added framing at the bottom, curling the poultry mesh under the frame.


You can see how low the roosting bar is here...


This is all they have for a roosting area. I feel it's really pretty inadequate but they won't even come up here yet. I've put them up a few times, but they just jump back down to the dirt, which they'd never had the pleasure of playing in before today. It has 2 nest boxes, both about 12" wide. They won't be in this coop long enough to use them, thankfully.

Per your comments, I definitely don't have enough run space for the ladies. I'll be letting them have free roam over my 1/3 acre when I come home in the evening for a few hours. It's so hard to figure out what to do for spacing and sizing, as everyone seems to have their own opinion of what is adequate and what is not. I've seen people with six birds in something as small as this (shudder), and then I've seen folks that say it's too small for 2 birds. It's very perplexing. For the new coop I'm thinking about 3' x 4' roosting space (3' tall in rear, 5' tall in front) in the new coop, with a "stick out" nesting area like this one with 3 compartments. The run will be 5' tall with multiple branches throughout if they feel like perching outside and potentially a grapevine swing, and I hope to have it at least 8' by 4'. I hope to eventually have 6 hens, but it seems even the new larger coop as currently planned would only be adequate for 3 adults if I didn't completely fail at math?

 

[GitaBooks]

Those look like pretty happy pullets. I'm glad you're taking such good care of them.

Yeah, I agree, a larger coop would be nice for them and it helps you not worry as much.
The run idea sounds really great, with the perches and everything. I agree, the run should be something a little bigger, just because hens tend to get bored pretty quickly. They will dig up all the grass and then have nothing to do, and then they may be more prone to arguing with one another. However, if you continue to let them out in the evening this size of run could be adequate. Its up to you and what you think would make your hens happy.

Best of luck!

 

[danegirl88]

So...the coop is going to be made from pallets, and is going to be 4'x6'. The run is finalized size-wise at 6'x10' - I just think these measurements will work out better in the long run. A few pictures to speed things along...also...the "gal" pictured below is supposedly between 5-7 weeks of age, but the farmer really wasn't sure. I'm seeing a bit of pink in the crest...should I be worried I've accidentally gotten a roo?



My dog Cooper is helping me build the coop...unfortunately he's more terrier and wanting to kill things than border collie and wanting to herd things...

 

[GitaBooks]

That's a really cute dog!

I wouldn't be too worried about your pullet turning out to be a roo, as Barred Rocks grow up to be pretty stocky animals. However, I could be wrong. She's a nice looking chicken.


Here are four of our dogs (from left to right) Arby, Cinnamon (my dog as a puppy), Cinnamon's brother, Cedar, and Arby's brother, Rax.