brooder to coop- Flying away

[gavmonster]

we are moving chicken from brooder to coop this week. Its already 95 degrees. We are raising boiler chickens for 4H. We live in a subdivision so our coop is under our porch so it cant be seen. We did build a 8 foot run for them in the day it has wire on the bottom so they can be in the grass while no neighbors are home. They have to move under porch around 4pm until go into coop at night.

What should I do about dusting? If they are on wire floor.

How can I get the chickens from the coop to the run without carrying them. its about 20 feet away? I want them to walk to the run but afraid they will fly away or will the? I was reading about hurting feet if moved run with wire on bottom. I carry them now to the coop from inside the house. But when I need to move run under our porch trying to figure out what to do with the birds????

I dont leave them outside long because they just sit there with mouth open. Which I read they are hot. How do you get them used to the heat?

It has been a lot of fun raising chickens but wished lived some place different. We have to get rid of our coop in 4 weeks and we just finished building it after days of work.

 

[horsesnchkns]

Gav, I'm no expert here.... But, I"m in Texas and my chickens are pretty dang hot, too. I find them panting in their coop. I don't let them out during the day during the week when I can't be around to supervise... so I take them frozen watermelon slices at around 5pm... the first day they were a bit freaked out, (this weird red thing in my house!) but, now they love it. I think if you feed them that for a couple of days, then by day 3 or 4, put the watermelon in the place you want them to go, they'll go straight to it... it may help to have 'Helpers" if you have them, on either side so they don't try to go one way or the other away from your run. I don't think they'll actually fly... they may flap their wings and come maybe a foot or so off the ground, but they won't "fly away"... As for dust bath, You could put a trash can lid in the coop or run with clean dirt/sand mixture for a dust bath... or something that shape/size.... Good luck!!!!