Consolidated Kansas

[lizzyGSR]

When I am home during the day, I open the gate to the duck run and let my birds free range. In the past, my DH and I have had problems with wild birds getting into my duck run and not being able to figure out how to get out, despite the gate being wide open. We've had wild quail and pheasants in there multiple times. Today was a first. My DH found a turtle dove in the pen. It had apparently exhausted itself trying to figure out how to get out. He caught it, showed it to me, and then released it.





On another note, I have noticed that my drake seems to have bare spots. I know some of you might think mites, but none of the other birds show similar symptoms. I have noticed that my white chinese goose tries to "break up the fight" when my drake services one of his ladies. I hadn't really worried about it before because I figured it was only temporary behavior during breeding season. However, today, I caught one of my embden geese on top of one of my Khaki Campbell ducks pulling feathers out. I ran outside and chased the goose away, but now I'm worried that this could become a problem. The 9 ducks, 2 embden geese, and 1 white chinese goose share an 8'x4' duck house every night. Any thoughts or suggestions on this problem?

 

[jhammett]

I am in Valley Center Kansas. Hello All... I need help geting my 20 chickens out of the laying boxes and on to their roost!!!!!

 

[HEChicken]

I am in Valley Center Kansas. Hello All... I need help geting my 20 chickens out of the laying boxes and on to their roost!!!!!

Glad you found us. I just left you a reply on the article where you asked me the question directly! You started out big with 20 - in not time you'll be inundated with eggs

. What breeds do you have?

 

[jhammett]

I think mine are mostly RIRs. I bought hatching eggs from a gentleman in Garden Plain he said they would be RIRs, Buff Orpingtons? and a mix of the two. I have red chickens white chickens and black chickens... Heck I don't know what I have... I have yet to figure out which are roosters and which are hens.. Not sure how to tell until they talk. I am hoping to be inundated with eggs. I have a line of customers already. My birds are 7 weeks old so it will be awhile. I only paid 12.50 for 5 dozen hatching eggs and got 21 to hatch. I lost one bid after hatching.

Ill try to find your reply in the other post.

 

[HEChicken]

I think mine are mostly RIRs. I bought hatching eggs from a gentleman in Garden Plain he said they would be RIRs, Buff Orpingtons? and a mix of the two. I have red chickens white chickens and black chickens... Heck I don't know what I have... I have yet to figure out which are roosters and which are hens.. Not sure how to tell until they talk. I am hoping to be inundated with eggs. I have a line of customers already. My birds are 7 weeks old so it will be awhile. I only paid 12.50 for 5 dozen hatching eggs and got 21 to hatch. I lost one bid after hatching.

Ill try to find your reply in the other post.

His name wasn't Irvin by any chance was it? Several years ago when I lived in Wichita I had a hen go broody and with only hens, I needed to find some fertile eggs. Irvin in Garden Plain kindly provided me with some fertile eggs and out of those my hen hatched 7 chicks. I still have two of those hens today. He said he had about 300 chickens and multiple roosters and had no idea what would hatch out. I have one that looks like a Production Red and one that looks like a Buff Rock, complete with yellow legs, but who knows?

Here is my reply on the article:


Quote:

One thing that will help is if the roost is higher than the nest boxes. They want to roost as high as they can get so they will prefer the roost as long as it is higher. In the case of my coop, my roosts were higher but the younger chicks were intimidated by the older birds on the roosts and that is why they were crowding into the nest boxes to sleep. For a couple of nights I picked them up and put them on the roost, after covering the nest boxes so they couldn't get back in them after I left, and that was all it took.

Welcome!

 

[jhammett]

I don't remember his name my wife brokered the transaction and we didn't meet him he wasn't home we dea

lt with his wife.

Thanks for the input I do have roost that are higher than the boxes and some lower i have a ladder type roost made with 2x4s leaning against a wall. They roosted there awhile but then switched. I think I will follow your lead and close the boxes off for a bit. I many even take some extra welded wire and make a wall to keep them off the top of the boxes as well. just gets messy when they get up there





.

 

[sharol]

How old are they? Are the roosts higher than the nest boxes? My girls like to be as high as they can get, and putting the roosts above the top of the nest boxes worked like a charm.

Welcome.

Edit: Note to self. Read the thread before you jump in.

I am in Valley Center Kansas. Hello All... I need help geting my 20 chickens out of the laying boxes and on to their roost!!!!!

 

[chicken danz]

When I am home during the day, I open the gate to the duck run and let my birds free range. In the past, my DH and I have had problems with wild birds getting into my duck run and not being able to figure out how to get out, despite the gate being wide open. We've had wild quail and pheasants in there multiple times. Today was a first. My DH found a turtle dove in the pen. It had apparently exhausted itself trying to figure out how to get out. He caught it, showed it to me, and then released it.

On another note, I have noticed that my drake seems to have bare spots. I know some of you might think mites, but none of the other birds show similar symptoms. I have noticed that my white chinese goose tries to "break up the fight" when my drake services one of his ladies. I hadn't really worried about it before because I figured it was only temporary behavior during breeding season. However, today, I caught one of my embden geese on top of one of my Khaki Campbell ducks pulling feathers out. I ran outside and chased the goose away, but now I'm worried that this could become a problem. The 9 ducks, 2 embden geese, and 1 white chinese goose share an 8'x4' duck house every night. Any thoughts or suggestions on this problem?

Lizzy are you sure that is a turtle dove?It looks like a ring neck dove to me. It could have come from someone's aviary or something. If it comes back to eat you will know for sure.

I am in Valley Center Kansas. Hello All... I need help geting my 20 chickens out of the laying boxes and on to their roost!!!!!

Welcome. You have answers so I won't add more. Just join in the group.

How old are they? Are the roosts higher than the nest boxes? My girls like to be as high as they can get, and putting the roosts above the top of the nest boxes worked like a charm.

Welcome.

Edit: Note to self. Read the thread before you jump in.

Thanks Sharol! Made me laugh. I have done that too many times!!! More often than not though other people answer while I am typing.

Well I wanted to go to Emporia today to do some much needed catch up shopping. But I was waiting to see if this fencing guy was going to call and come down to do an estimate. Instead later in the afternoon I got a call from another guy who he had contacted. I think this is going to work great. He spent a good deal of time talking to me and said the soonest he could do my fencing was about May10th. Then I explained about my dog getting shot and my birds getting on the road. He remembered he has another job in Waverly and thinks he can be by here next Friday or so. How awesome that would be. He said he could at least get the posts set that day.
He's willing for me to buy my own materials but he did a rough estimate on the phone and it's over $3000 less than the previous estimate. I really will do some scraping to come up with the funds but I can make it happen. I am so happy. Just having one side of my property fenced off will make a world of difference.
I am thrilled. I have searched for months for someone who would fence at a reasonable price. I don't even care how lame it looks as long as it is secure.

 

[HEChicken]

I don't remember his name my wife brokered the transaction and we didn't meet him he wasn't home we dea

lt with his wife.

Thanks for the input I do have roost that are higher than the boxes and some lower i have a ladder type roost made with 2x4s leaning against a wall. They roosted there awhile but then switched. I think I will follow your lead and close the boxes off for a bit. I many even take some extra welded wire and make a wall to keep them off the top of the boxes as well. just gets messy when they get up there

That is sounding like the same guy as it was the same when I went to get the eggs - he wasn't there and I dealt with his wife. Small world.

I had the camera outside anyway, so I decided to try to take a pic of the closed off nestboxes. Unfortunately, the ordinary lens on my camera is inop so I had to switch it out for the super-dooper zoom lens - which makes it difficult to get good pictures of things that are closer than a mile away. Hopefully its enough you get the idea. I just used a couple of nails and tacked them lightly in at the top. The photo shows them in the "down" position, covering the entrance to the box. When I want to open them, I just roll the feed back up and tuck the end in behind the nest box, which holds it open:

 

[Trish44]

I am in Valley Center Kansas. Hello All... I need help geting my 20 chickens out of the laying boxes and on to their roost!!!!!

Welcome jhammett! There are quite a few on here in the Wichita area & surrounding towns. My young ones tend to sleep for a bit in the nest boxes, but the older hens show them where to roost usually. In your case though since all of yours are young, you don't need the boxes for awhile, so you can close them off like HEChicken said. It is nasty to have to clean them out after they sleep in them every night.

Lizzy, that was a really pretty dove, I'm glad it was OK & got released again. I love hearing the calls they make.

It's just been a nasty cold, wet day here all day. I had to go get feed anyway because I was totally out, so I had to go get it in the rain. It hadn't been raining really hard until I left to go get feed, of course. The bags got kind of wet, but I managed to get them unloaded & empty them before it soaked in too bad. I'm glad to have that task done again for a month.