I moved to a new-to-me property and "inherited" a coop/run, which was good because it meant I had an automatic place to put chickens. They were the first things I bought for my new digs.
When I moved them from the brooder to the coop they were 40 days old; now they're 51 days. Nice healthy chicks. I lost 3 to a snake?? I thought right away; then I brought the little brooder INTO the coop and started shutting them up in that during the night. Didn't loose any more that way.
THEN I lost a couple (over a few days) -- they just disappeared. Didn't have a clue what happened -- they were just GONE.
This Monday I let them all out for the morning; then I heard a peep-peep and scratching from somewhere INSIDE the big coop. Every body else was out in the (enclosed) yard. I started looking. Finally I found the chick. There was a space in the far corner open between the joists about 4"x 10" that extended from the top nesting boxes down to the floor about 4 FEET. Down at the bottom was the live chick, as well as the body of the other missing chick.
I tried every way I could think of to reach the chick in that cramped, hard-to-get-to space. Rakes and brooms didn't work. Balled up chicken wire lowered down she would just jump off of. Grabber tongs wouldn't reach all the way down. I tried about 2 hours and temporarily gave up to think a bit on it.
We'd had 3 ceiling fans installed last week and the trash was still in the empty living room. In one of my rounds around the house, I looked at those boxes and a light bulb dawned! I'd fill up the hole with styrofoam!! I went out to the coop with a bunch of packing and started tearing off chunks and dropping down the hole. I was also hitting the chick and she'd squawk in protest but it didn't hurt her. And she couldn't have been LESS interested in eating it!!
It worked exactly as I expected! She climbed up as the mountain of styrofoam filled the hole until I could reach down and get her! Then I filled in the rest of the hole to about 1 foot of the top and then packed wads of chicken wire tightly in the remainder of the space.
Now we have a pullet named of course Lucky!
When I moved them from the brooder to the coop they were 40 days old; now they're 51 days. Nice healthy chicks. I lost 3 to a snake?? I thought right away; then I brought the little brooder INTO the coop and started shutting them up in that during the night. Didn't loose any more that way.
THEN I lost a couple (over a few days) -- they just disappeared. Didn't have a clue what happened -- they were just GONE.
This Monday I let them all out for the morning; then I heard a peep-peep and scratching from somewhere INSIDE the big coop. Every body else was out in the (enclosed) yard. I started looking. Finally I found the chick. There was a space in the far corner open between the joists about 4"x 10" that extended from the top nesting boxes down to the floor about 4 FEET. Down at the bottom was the live chick, as well as the body of the other missing chick.
I tried every way I could think of to reach the chick in that cramped, hard-to-get-to space. Rakes and brooms didn't work. Balled up chicken wire lowered down she would just jump off of. Grabber tongs wouldn't reach all the way down. I tried about 2 hours and temporarily gave up to think a bit on it.
We'd had 3 ceiling fans installed last week and the trash was still in the empty living room. In one of my rounds around the house, I looked at those boxes and a light bulb dawned! I'd fill up the hole with styrofoam!! I went out to the coop with a bunch of packing and started tearing off chunks and dropping down the hole. I was also hitting the chick and she'd squawk in protest but it didn't hurt her. And she couldn't have been LESS interested in eating it!!
It worked exactly as I expected! She climbed up as the mountain of styrofoam filled the hole until I could reach down and get her! Then I filled in the rest of the hole to about 1 foot of the top and then packed wads of chicken wire tightly in the remainder of the space.
Now we have a pullet named of course Lucky!
