Chickens were Hurricane Victims too!

[gumpsgirl]

Try putting them on the roost bar after it gets dark tonight. Chickens are creatures of habit and they've been roosting on stumps and such in the wild for quite some time now, so they are going to have to be reprogrammed. It will take some persistence on your part, but they will eventually get it. You just have to show them the way.

 

[Chickie'sMoma]

how friendly have these girls been to you so far? will they come over to be fed or run away from you when you come in?

 

[Kittymomma]

RE: the roost bar--Do you have a ladder or any kind of stair step thing leading up to it? They're big girls and probably won't be comfortable getting up or down without some kind of steps. The 2x4 is perfect and they usualy like the roost high so that is all good, just make them some stairs if they don't have any and I bet they'll go right up.

Sounds like things went really well with the "Great Chicken Chicken Hunt of 2009!" What fun! I'm impressed about how good they all look too. Really healthy looking young hens that will hopefully give you many eggs in the future. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Goldy goes broody for you sometime in the future. Probably not while this batch if still laying fertile eggs, but you can always get some fertile ones to put under her.

 

[La.Mad-House]

We took out the stump and the few other logs...They are ALL on the roost tonight! Didn't need the step ladder either!

They are a little timid...they come as close as 2 ft. from me; when I first go in the coop, they all huddle in a corner...but once I start with food they get pretty close. While I was clearing the logs out, they just moved away from me...they didn't try to fly or panic...they just walked in circles around the fence (trying to avoid me).

Goldie did spend a lot of time in a shallow hole she dug for herself today...all the hens rested in their own holes, but Goldie spent the most time in hers. I'd say at least twice the amount of time.

No eggs...but I'm not really surprised. There's been a lot of changes in their lives during the past 3 days. What should I do if Goldie goes broody? Just let her be? I don't think I can get fertile eggs right now.

Thanks to all!

 

[twentynine]

I got to ask.

Who has been feeding those "wild" chickens? They sure don't resemble any ferile birds I have ever seen. Full feathered, nice and plump, they sure don't seem to have survived on forage alone.

Are you absolutely, positively 100% sure you ain't barrowed some one's free ranging birds?

If not you got a treasure, holsum, healthy birds.
Shucks if I was sure my wife wouldn't make me sleep in the chicken coop, I'd be asking if your aunt and uncle wouldn't want to get shed of the rest. Assuming they were katrina victims they can't be far from me. I am in Ascension parish.

 

[La.Mad-House]

My Aunt and Uncle built a coop and hen house and took in some of the birds about a year after they arrived (they lured them into the pen with cracked corn). They clipped their wings (as their coop has no roof), and bought 2 Buff Orphingtons hens (cause my aunt liked them for brooding). My Aunt then let some of the eggs hatch. Over time, I guess there just got to be so many birds, they just started taking over the place. They keep the wings clipped on the ones they want to keep and the rest fly in and out of their coop.

So I guess technically...they are my family's free range birds! My Uncle had to stop using the automatic feeder because the birds were going through a 50# bag in no time. Now he goes out there and stands over "his" flock while they eat. I did witness birds coming out of the woods and circleing the pen. They were everywhere!

Aunt and Uncle wanted me to get the hens I wanted before they start culling....

twentynine...I'm in St. Tammany!

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Thats how I lost all my chickens a few years back......hurricanes. Not Katrina though....They were already gone by then. One of the problems of living in Paradise. Well if they still alive, they sound tough to me. I would use a roll of 2 X 4 wire.....20 feet should do it and form a quick circle that I would keep opened for an entrance and cover it with deer netting and begin throwing crack corn for a few days, until you get them used to you and the food. Might take for you to make a trail of corn to the cage. If you can corner all or most of them in there, you should be able to completely close it off and the rest should be easy.
Do it mais amie.......full grown chickens just like that.

 

[La.Mad-House]

Hello again!

Does anybody have any idea of when these birds might be calmed down enough to start laying eggs? I know they slow down during the winter months due to lack of daylight, but surely they will lay some eggs right?

I have 2 nest boxes that are 16"x16"x16". They or over one another with a perch for the top one. The bottom one stands approx. 4" off the floor...And they both have sand-filled plastic eggs in them. Every now and then they walk by and look in the bottom one...pick out a piece of hay, peck at the pine shavings and move on. They show no intrest of going in those boxes. I've been watching them to see if they will lay thier eggs on the ground as I suspect they might have done in the woods...but so far...no eggs.
ANY IDEAS?!

Thanks in Advance!

 

[write2caroline]

I find my birds are easier to handle at night. If the opportunity were mine, I would see where they perch at night and wait until they were situated and go in for night ops to go catch them - It might even be fun! Since they don't see so well at night, you might have better luck. I would imagine during day light catching the little cluckers would be futile as chickens are pretty fast and spry. I know mine are next to impossible if they even think I want them to go into the coop and they are fixated on doing their own thing.

Cal
Jax FL

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Just from the look of the pics you posted, it seemed you had girls with pink colored combs. You are looking for red combs for maturity. I think your girls are young. I would agree with possibly 6 or 7 month range, which you might or might not see eggs. I have Rhode Island Reds about that age and I'm only getting 5 eggs a day.......out of a whole lot of girls. If I am right, you are still lucky. That would mean you got them at almost the perfect age, at the perfect price.

You'll get your eggs soon enough. Write on the calendar when you got your birds and then write when you got your first egg later on. Then keep in mind that most of us wait 20 + weeks before we see our first egg when we get chicks. You just got a jump start. I'm in Lafourche btw.

Now I have to say.......go get the rest. Why can't I be that lucky?

Oh yeah....its because the raccoons would have tended to them if they were here.