Chicken Tips - Take a Tip, Leave a Tip

[CarolJ]

Along the line of making the coop big enough for YOU to go inside . . . make sure there are no hiding places that you can't reach because the chickens WILL go there and you won't be able to get them out.

Choose a treat (meal worms, cracked corn) and a word/phrase (Here Chick, chick) to train them to come when you call. This is a BIG help in managing them.

 

[nickie]

I wanted to add to the treat call... It really impresses the heck out of your friends and your big brother... And they get to see the silly chicken run.

 

[lonesomerider]

For next summer, if it is again hot as you know where:

My 100 or so DP chickens free-range on 3 acres of mostly wooded pasture. When hottest (95 - 114 for weeks on end), they gathered on a lightly shaded knoll not far from a hydrant. Daily, hooked up a sprinkler for an hour that put out a 25 foot circle of coarse spray (on a rural water line and it's EXPENSIVE). They stood around under the spray, then hunkered down on the damp ground for the rest of the day. Only had to do it twice in one day once.

At night.....coop didn't cool down. Locked them out 24/7 so they roosted along the outside walls on a pile of landscape timbers. (Nest boxes moved to north exterior wall of coop under a big oak tree.) Put my very best guard dog out with them, and turned a security light on so it shown about 30 feet out, on the ground between the building and the area where predators would/could come from. Dog bedded down between the birds and the circle of light, and did not loose even one from either heat or predator.

For rabbits: Six NZW meat rabbits in shaded all wire 1 x 1 (1/2 x1 floors) welded wire cages with tall 2 x 4 frames with cage bottoms 4 feet above the ground for air flow and some protection from any visiting dog, inside the 6 foot high chain link yard fence. At 100 degrees, wet them down completely with a soft spray from a hose (water lines only 2 feet deep, so eventually all water was almost lukewarm...no chance of shock). Put a 1 gallon jug of ice in each cage and did not lose any of them either. Repeated daily for weeks. After a week or so, they did not run from the spray....turned their butts to it....and laid stretched out without moving so I could put the jugs against their sides....and stayed there. Didn't lose any of them either.

Did lose two 3 day old litters when the heat first hit. Removed most of the hair from the kits, but the does pulled more and I did not check for that......knew better; my fault completely.

Hope this helps somebody if/when we get the heat again.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

Quote:
I'm planning on adding newbies in the spring. And I'll introduce them slowly. But I had a question about putting them in at night w/ the other hens. Do they then assimilate better the next day? Or do you go out first thing to make sure the are not fighting? Or do the older hens wake up and look over at them and just wonder, hmmm, how did I miss you last night? Oh well, welcome.

 

[ll]

I'm certainly no expert in the subject - but can offer this tidbit of info.
If your newbies are the same color/size they will notice less.
If the newbies are really different - they will be more noticeable.
I also changed the food & water dishes so they all went out together to a new breakfast area.
I also added a new log to the run and a big stump so it was different with more places to "sit".

Quote:
I'm planning on adding newbies in the spring. And I'll introduce them slowly. But I had a question about putting them in at night w/ the other hens. Do they then assimilate better the next day? Or do you go out first thing to make sure the are not fighting? Or do the older hens wake up and look over at them and just wonder, hmmm, how did I miss you last night? Oh well, welcome.

 

[henney penny]

Quote:
I'm planning on adding newbies in the spring. And I'll introduce them slowly. But I had a question about putting them in at night w/ the other hens. Do they then assimilate better the next day? Or do you go out first thing to make sure the are not fighting? Or do the older hens wake up and look over at them and just wonder, hmmm, how did I miss you last night? Oh well, welcome.


They will notice that they are new so you have to check on them ofter the first day to make sure they are not getting picked on to bad,some pecking and chasing might occur it just depends on you flock.

 

[critterrun]

WHAT DO YOU THINK !!!!

I am starting to let mine out to roam together first

more room to get away

they are in pens next to each other

so I hope when I rearrange the pens to just one big one for the winter
it will work out better

 

[Backyard Hencam]

Use astro turf to line nest boxes. You can shake it out when it gets dirty or squirt it with a hose. The hens don't care that it is plastic and not "natural". So much easier to keep nest boxes and eggs clean!

 

[Tanichca]

Quote:

now THAT is some cool and useful advice!!

Er... hmm, stainless steel bowls (each one is made of a single hollowed out block of steel, sold at some pet stores) make really good bowls for travel and show cages, as they are so heavy that the birds can't knock them over!

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

Quote:

They will notice that they are new so you have to check on them ofter the first day to make sure they are not getting picked on to bad,some pecking and chasing might occur it just depends on you flock.

Thanks. I'm rather nervous but I'm down to just the two hens and really need to add more. One's a Buff Orpington and I will be adding BO's so I'm not worried there. It's my Alpha hen who's a big bossy Jersey Giant who worries me. But we'll take it nice and slow. I want to raise them from day old chicks so there will be plenty of opportunity for them to see them and hear them and meet them over a 2-3 month period before they are ever really put in together and left alone.