Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

All it takes is putting them up on the roost one or two nights - they figure it out really quickly! If these are your first chicks, I wouldn't worry about it - they will start roosting when they're old enough. The only reason I have to train mine now is that I have a LOT of birds and the juveniles get intimidated by the older birds and lack the confidence to compete with them for roost space. But once I put them up there for a night or two, they get the hang of it and after that they get up on their own. If you add chicks in future years, you might need to help them gain the confidence but without older birds to intimidate yours, they will start roosting when they're ready, without any training.

 

[JiltdRoyalty]

I have a forum question. Where is the setting button to mark the threads that I have read?
Thanks in advance, Chad

 

[chicken danz]

I have a forum question. Where is the setting button to mark the threads that I have read?
Thanks in advance, Chad

Up at the top and below the posts there is a button that says Subscribe. Just click on it.
HEChicken I've never trained a bird to roost. Many of my birds due to their weight, prefer to sit on the floor. But I have multiple coops and places to put birds in various stages of growth so I can see if they are all going in one coop it would be necessary. I can't even remember what it was like to have just one coop.
I'm trying to get back down to less and less but it's a hard thing to do.
Why is it that when getting more housing and pens and reducing housing and pens both take gobs of work and building. Doesn't make sense!!
I had another really busy day yesterday but didn't get any more garden planted like I hoped. I guess it can wait until it dries up. I moved hundreds of birds around. I've still got some very overcrowded pens for sure. I had one more brooder pen to get cleaned up in the house but ran out of time and I couldn't hose it out in the rain during the evening anyway.
Unfortunately we got a pounding rain instead of a light one like I had hopes would happen. That means a really muddy clay mess out there without all that much benefit for the garden and grass. It will all run off. We live way too close to a creek so everything runs to the creek. Except of course around the house. The gutters never get cleaned cause I am too unstable to be up on a ladder doing much. DH never thinks about these things. So the water pools at the corners of the house and ends up leaking into the basement at the floor/wall seams. The sump pump is running full time this morning which is another concern. Sure hope it keeps up. Before I bought this house the basement was finished and they had mold issues. They hired a company to come in and "fix" the problem. Obviously they weren't as experienced as they believed. The put in metal posts all around the outside walls, I assume to keep them from shifting. However where they cut into the concrete and refilled it they didn't seal it or use hydraulic cement. So when the water level raises it leaks at every one of those places. How dumb can you be? If I had been the one to pay them I would have made sure they got it fixed right.
The biggest problem was that I had a home warranty on the house for a year but that year we got very little rain so until the warranty was up I never knew there were problems. Same way with the septic system that was covered. No rain.. no problem. It needs a bunch of tile septic line replaced from the house to the septic tank. It's a major expense and means tearing up the yard and driveway to fix it.
That's life I guess. Maybe some day.
I've got so many birds I need to get sold. Hopefully this week I'll find time to put up some new postings and move some of these.

 

[JiltdRoyalty]

Next question, lol! My chickens will be inside the coop at night and the run only during the day. Still just planning in my head, but I need opinions on the use of "chicken wire" for the run. The run will be 8' tall and 8'x10' in size. The coop, of course will be as secure as Fort Knox. Probably should add that I'm a general contractor and electrician.

As always, thanks!:cd

 

[HEChicken]

HEChicken I've never trained a bird to roost. Many of my birds due to their weight, prefer to sit on the floor.

Those are the ones I would train if it were me. Many of mine are big, heavy birds as well but they can still roost. What I've found is if I let them sit on the floor, the bedding gets very wet in that spot, which leads to issues with odor. So I train them to get up on the roosts instead, which spreads out the poop throughout the coop, meaning I don't have to clean it out as often. It typically only takes a night or two with juveniles, for them to learn to get up on the roosts. If yours are adults who have always slept on the floor, it might take a few extra lessons. You might also check that your roosts aren't too high. The big, heavy birds can injure themselves jumping down if they're too high, which might be another reason they haven't voluntarily learned to roost by now. My roosts are 3' off the coop floor, which becomes less as the bedding layer builds up. I lowered them to this level after finding I was having issues with bumble foot when the roosts were higher.

Next question, lol! My chickens will be inside the coop at night and the run only during the day. Still just planning in my head, but I need opinions on the use of "chicken wire" for the run. The run will be 8' tall and 8'x10' in size. The coop, of course will be as secure as Fort Knox. Probably should add that I'm a general contractor and electrician.

Your skills will sure come in handy! The run doesn't need to be 8' tall unless its just what you prefer. Chickens benefit more from the available area on the ground as they don't fly much, so you really only need the run to be tall enough for you to walk in their comfortably. 6' is sufficient for most people, 7' if you are a basketball player

Chicken wire is great at keeping chickens in - not so good at keeping predators out. Though most predators are more active at night, foxes will hunt by day and others will also try by day if they find they can't get to them at night. Raccoons can reach through chicken wire and entice a hen to come over to it, then pull its head right through the hole in the wire. Your best bet is hardware cloth. It is more expensive, but will give you peace of mind. And, as a contractor, you know its usually cheaper to do it right the first time than use the cheap stuff and then have to redo it with the expensive stuff later on anyway

 

[JiltdRoyalty]

Been thinking about that since I posted just a few minutes ago! I think I'm going to go with the half inch hardware cloth up to the 4 foot Mark and then chicken wire above that. This is a project that I probably won't start for at least a month. Lots of time to plan this out my head and then put it down on paper!

Thanks for the advice!

 

[chicken danz]

Quote: HEChicken I have no roosts in my new building yet. In the chicken houses that have roosts, most are about 16-18 inches tall. I can't put them taller because these monster birds can break their legs if they jump from higher roosts. I haven't come up with the right material or design for the building yet due to the inside pens being chain link. I could make stands for roosts but that would be labor intensive and very expensive for 14 individual pens. Eventually I'll get it all worked out.

Quote:

Been thinking about that since I posted just a few minutes ago! I think I'm going to go with the half inch hardware cloth up to the 4 foot Mark and then chicken wire above that. This is a project that I probably won't start for at least a month. Lots of time to plan this out my head and then put it down on paper!

Thanks for the advice!

Your pens only need to be tall enough for you to walk in. I do recommend however that you put good quality netting over the top to protect your birds from owls and hawks. Most of my pens have 2 X 4 welded wire as the base. Then I either add hardware cloth or chicken wire on the bottom couple of feet to help protect the area near the ground. It also helps to bury some wire at the base and or line the bottom of the pen with some heavy rocks or something to deter digging.
I'm a little confused by your statement that they will be in the coop at night and in the pen only by day. Do you mean they won't have access to the coop during the day?

 

[Trish44]

@JiltdRoyalty the bad thing about chicken wire too is that eventually it will rust & start breaking. My main coop run has chicken wire all around because my coop has an automatic door that closes at night plus I have two Great Pyrenees to watch over everything & often they're right outside that run anyway. I'm probably looking at replacing that whole run eventually, but I hope it lasts for awhile yet anyway. I wouldn't make your run too tall or you will have problems getting anything on top of it. Like HEChicken said, you just need to have it tall enough to be able to walk in there.

My hatch is still ongoing & I have a lot of chicks in my brooder again. This year I have hatched more chicks than ever before, it's kind of crazy. I have two big brooders & one smaller one now with chicks & even overflow out in the garage in rabbit cages with bigger chicks. I'm going to be cutting back on some breeds after hatching season. I just don't need to have as many as I have. Oh & one duck hatched two days early today & more are pipping, so I had to hurry & move those eggs to the hatcher. I was going to move them today anyway.

 

[JiltdRoyalty]

Chicken Danz,

I probably wasn't clear or misspoke. Yes, they will still have access to the coop during the day.

Also, here are some pics from today.

 

[Trish44]

@JiltdRoyalty that Barred Rock at the front in the bottom pic is definitely a rooster. I can't see the other one well enough to tell on that one.