Chicken bedtime, and other freaking weird quirks!

[techbsmith]

Not if it's installed so it's flat to the ground, and the grass is allowed to grow back up thru it....then it becomes nearly invisible and the animal will start digging where the wall meets the ground.
Sometimes you need to mow the grass really short, or even take up the sod, and use some landscape staples to get the mesh to lay flat so the edge is not visible to a digging animal, or becomes a tripping hazard for humans.

I cut/removed the sod around my run, laid the apron down on the ground and covered back with the sod I pulled up. After a few weeks, I couldn't even tell I'd disturbed the sod and the apron is well hidden.

I used hardware cloth and some concrete reinforcement mesh I had left over as the apron - so there's actually two layers with the hardware mesh on top. It runs down from the walls of the run, bends at 90 degrees and goes out 2' from the side of the run.

We've got some prolific diggers where I live, so I may have went a bit overboard


By the way - the pic of your EE just about made me cry. She's beautiful and reminds me of my sweet girl.

 

[TAM Farm]

You could move them after they roost for the night. Put the I'm the coop where you want them. After a few days they will probably automatically go into the coop at bedtime. It worked for mine at least.

 

[Chickassan]

I see one wee thing not mentioned and it could be bad but it is easily fixable. You need a lock or a more complicated latch on your egg door. The way it is now a raccoon could get inside with little effort.

 

[PeppersPeeps]

I see one wee thing not mentioned and it could be bad but it is easily fixable. You need a lock or a more complicated latch on your egg door. The way it is now a raccoon could get inside with little effort.

It has a carrabeaner clip in it usually. The coop didn’t even have the latch for the nesting boxes when I got it. Good eye though! It was the least secure part of the coop and the latch was installed before the chickens ever went out.

 

[Ljc01]

Nice looking birds. I would say that if your run is predator proof, there is no reason they can"t sleep out there.

 

[PeppersPeeps]

Nice looking birds. I would say that if your run is predator proof, there is no reason they can"t sleep out there.

Thanks! I think they’re quite pretty too!

The ladies have been putting themselves to bed for the last few days!! I’m pretty sure it was my fault for giving them “yard time” too late in the day. Now they in their run by 7, and have been putting themselves in the coop around 8. Yay!
(We’re still working on tweaks with the feeder. It’s a process).

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Not if it's installed so it's flat to the ground, and the grass is allowed to grow back up thru it....then it becomes nearly invisible and the animal will start digging where the wall meets the ground.
Sometimes you need to mow the grass really short, or even take up the sod, and use some landscape staples to get the mesh to lay flat so the edge is not visible to a digging animal, or becomes a tripping hazard for humans.

When you install your wire apron use a garden tiller to till about two inches deep. Install the mesh about one inch deep then tamp the lose soil down and water. Once the grass regrows on the outside of your run your wire apron will be invisible, you can even mow over it without issue.

 

[Boonie Stomper]

The same heat wave is here as well. Interestingly my big girls are coming into the coop early ... perhaps to chow down and drink up after a long afternoon free ranging with sparcer bug and other foraging finds due to the weather. Then they are on the roost just as I'm venturing out thanks to the temperature dropping.

So my little ones which have cowered in the coop nooks and crannies upon the biggies returning to the home base now have their outside time with me watching over them and a chance to fill up themselves. It would seem the younger ones 3+ months have better low light vision than the mature ones.
Well past the old ladies' roosting, the youths are exploring and pecking.

 

[PeppersPeeps]

8:02 and they’re in for the night! It was my fault all along! They are early birds, not night owls. I had been keeping them up past their bedtime!