First set of noobie questions (Now with Pictures)

[no1male]

Well as stated in my original "hi all" post i am full of noobie questions for you all to ponder over

Myself and the wife have never had chickens before and have always heard how home grown eggs are far superior, plus it would be educational for the kids to help look after the chickens.

We brought one of those pre built chikens coops with attached run and after some modification (It didnt even have a door to lock them away at night in the coop!!) we were happy and ready to get the chickens.

We went to our local farmers market and after some frantic bidding, brought 4 ISA Brown Pullets at POL. We got them home moved them in and fell in love with them immediately. Now Bailey, Grey, 19 and Debra (Yes we have named them after characters from Greys Anatomy, House and Dexter lol) seem to be happy there heads are all held high and they are eating, drinking and pooing loads!

We have had them for 4 days now and ore obviouslly anxious for our first egg.

Our questions are as follows:

1) When can we expect eggs (I realise thats a difficult one)

There Comb and Wattles are a pinky colour and not red, is there any thing we can do to encourage them?

2) We are having a very cold winter in the UK at the moment, i have done a lot of reading through the forums and is it a good idea to give them cayenne pepper in their feed?

3) A couple of the Ladies seem to be sneezing but only when they are outside, are they ok? Should we be putting something in their feed or water to help them? Read possibly vinegar or garlic helps? If so what vinegar?

4) We currently have the nest boxes blocked off to encourage them to Pirch, which 2 of them seem to be doing now. We have done this to stop them pooing in their nest boxes. Is this the right way or is there a better way to do it? Is there a timescale to do this or do we wait until they have laid an egg and then open the boxes?

5) Most of the mess they are making seems fine but there is some that seems runny? Is there anything i should be looking for? They all seem really fine and lively and come charging out of their coop like bulls!

6) There water is in one of those plastic containers that you fill up and would last a couple of days (We change it everyday). We have not got a heater for the water but would putting hot water in the container be ok for them? We dont want to burn there little bellys or their mouths.

7) As stated above only 2 seem to be pirching, is the best way still to pick the other 2 up and place them on the pirch and gentley push there bums down?

8) Finally what treats e.t.c. can we give the girls, so not only are they healthy but happy at the same time

Apologies for the above but we have done a lot of reading and looking throught the tinternet, but nothing beats getting advice from people in the know. We just want to make sure the girls are happy and content and also that they start laying eggs lol


Thanks for reading

 

[lauralou]

Lots of questions. I won't necessarily have all the answers.

1) Hard to say when eggs will arrive. Their combs and wattles will become very red before that happens. Sometimes they will wait for spring, and sometimes a move will delay laying also. It's very hard to be patient waiting for the first egg!

2) I don't think the cayenne pepper will hurt them at all. I've been giving it to my flock as a treat. I mix the regular chicken feed with warm water to make a thick mash and stir some cayenne in. The girls love it. For some reason the addition of water makes their normal ration into something new, different and interesting. I don't think it has helped with egglaying at all, though...

3) Please keep a close eye on that sneeze. Chickens don't get colds, they get respiratory infections that can be very serious. They also sometimes sneeze for perfectly normal reasons, so it's a tough call. If they are sneezing after a dust bath, that's perfectly normal. So just keep an eye on it. Look for any signs of swelling on the face, bubbles in the eyes, sounds of labored breathing... Those are bad signs, and might require medication such as antibiotics.

4) and 7) How to teach the birds to perch. Go out to the coop at night and set them on the roost. No need to push their bottoms down. They will settle in naturally. It will take several days for them to learn this, so keep at it. Once they have learned, unblock the nest boxes. It is preferable that they lay their first egg in the box. It's quite natural for them to play around in the nest boxes prior to laying. You can put a golf ball or fake easter egg in the nest to make sure they understand what the box is for.

5) There are lots of different kinds of chicken poo, and you will become an expert on it soon! It doesn't sound to me that an occasional runny poo is anything to worry about. I hope that someone will post a link to the chicken poop page for you. I would, but I don't know where it is.

6) Warm water is good. Hot water, well, that sounds too hot to me.... It's very cold here too, and I remove the water from the coops at night because it will freeze. I refill and return it in the morning.

8) Chickens will eat almost anything! I feed mine table scraps. Nothing too salty though. Mine love meat and veggies. Some people prefer to not feed meat, but it seems right to me. They will eat any bug or worm, or animal small enough if left to their own devices, so I feed meat. They also love warm oatmeal in the mornings.

Good luck with your new ladies!

 

[bantybev]

Very good answers No1male

I think this is the poop page you were referring to
http://www.chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

There is also a good treat chart here

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-Treats_Chart

By the way

and welcome to chicken addiction Lauralou
Might want to start planning another coop soon. You will want more!

It starts with "chick fever", just wanting a little fuzzy butt or two of your own, then escalates to wanting one or two, of only about 10 breeds you see that are just, oh so cool. LOL
Enjoy your new girls!

 

[MareeZoCool]

Hello, and from Ohio!

I'm far from anything considered wise in chickens, BUT I do love my hen & Roo! I mix some LAYER MASH in with the chicken scratch/feed, and my lil' girl got right to work clucking and laying(after a week or two) No hurry, I was eggcited! I also treat my birds with some raw oatmeal. They love it. Pork is another favorite treat - cooked,of course! Please enjoy your birds, life is so interesting in the coop!

 

[damselfish]

Hi & welcome,

You've already gotten great answers, just wanted to add a couple of things...

You didn't mention what you're feeding as a base feed, you'll want to make sure it's a balanced chicken feed intended for laying hens, usually referred to as layer pellets or layer crumbles here. Some wait for the first egg to appear before moving to layer feed but it's also OK to start it a bit early (not for tiny chicks though, apparently they can't process the extra calcium).

Chickens will be happy to clean up most every vegetable or fruit scrap you have, with some exceptions. They don't seem to like citrus, for instance. Experiment! The treat table is great, but I have found that many times my chickens will simply ignore the things that are supposed to be bad for them. For instance, our potato peelings get dumped out with the rest of the compost materials, but the chickens won't eat them. Mine also think broccoli is icky, but some on the board have chickens that enjoy it.

Mine love cracked corn, millet and black oil sunflower seeds, but I think of them as candy or dessert...not to be eaten in large quantities but great for treats or coaxing them where you want them to go.

It's good to feed their eggshells back to them for the calcium. I don't usually give mine meat scraps but that has more to do with not wanting to attract other animals...I'm sure the chickens would love them and it would be a good source of protein to balance out other extras.

If you have pics you can post them and people might be able to give you a better guess on age and likely laying dates.

Have fun!

P.S. Whistle or make a particular noise when you have treats, and soon you will have chickens that come when called. Do not feed treats right outside your house door unless you want chickens standing on the stoop pooping each day and staring through the door.

 

[no1male]

Thanks for the great reply's

Below are 2 pics of the chickens one also having my British Bulldog Kacey being nosey.

One of the Chickens

2 of the Ladies and a very nosey Dog

We are feeding them Layers Pellets and also give them Corn and tid bits from the Kitchen in the afternoon. They are eating really well and are drinking as well.

Wow looking at the Poop lost, looks like the girls Poop is well within the "normal" range, puts my mind at rest

Hope you can tell more from the pictures, if you want me to take different ones then please let me know.

Really Really appreciate the help

 

[JimWWhite]

These are Red Sex Links, also sometimes called Red Stars, Ginger Queens, and Gold Comets. They're a hybrid and they are the very best layers of large brown eggs you can get. I have 19 of them and we live here in NC and we've been getting 17 to 18 eggs each and every day since Nov 1st. And we've been having an awfully cold winter here with snow, sleet, and very cold days and nights. They're wonderful birds, very hardy and very people friendly. We got ours as 18 week old 'started pullets' and by the time they were 22 weeks old right on the button they started laying. Large, Extra Large, and sometimes Jumbo brown eggs. Can't beat 'em. Get yourself some more if you want eggs!

 

[highcountrychickens]

Ohhh... you're done like dinner! Just like the lot of us!! Congratulations on your wonderful new family addition!

As for your questions, I'll float a few thoughts...

First, about the eggs - really, I hate to say it, but patience is the name of the game right now. You can do all kinds of things to encourage them along, but keep in mind that they have gone through an enormous change, which however well they have landed (incredibly so by your enthusiasm and care!) it has still been incredibly stressful for them. Give them a chance to settle in for a couple of weeks - plenty of love and kitchen scraps for treats (I heard strawberries may cause issues with laying, but strooonngglyy suspect it is a wives tale) Mine are stupid for grapes, unsalted peanuts, bread and the like - and they will positively mow me over for cornbread or right now, lettuce (frozen tundra where I live since October - they'd give anything for a good warm sunny dustbath!) Once they have had time to settle in, yes, a bit of cayenne pepper in some cracked corn soaked overnight has been the kick starter that has had the best press.

As for the water thing - really, other than keeping it clean, and making sure it isn't frozen solid, I wouldn't worry about it. They will surprise you with how incredibly hardy they are. In the heat of summer, it might be nice to float ice in the water for them, but others can tell you better than I can about managing birds in the heat (-30 f. advice I can do - anything over 80 F is out of my league)

As for the nest boxes, yes, blocking them out of it at night is a good idea. They'll figure out how to perch, but when mine were still teenagers, I put them on the perches when I went to close them in for the night. I don't know if it helped them - but it made me feel better

Good luck, have fun, and welcome to BYC - you're going to find this is an incredible resource of like minded folks who are as excited about all of it after years and years of keeping chickens as you are right now. THanks so much for sharing your excitement!!!

btw... LOVE the PIX!!

 

[usschicago1]

Quote:
The Look On her is so priceless!

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Oh what a good bulldog! IS this his first time seeing them? If so he's a good boy! Took loads of training to get mine to do that LOL WELCOME! Watch for "the squat" and you will have an egg shortly after. Takes them a while after moving, that I know. My newby didn't lay for 2 LONG months after I got her.