Found a chicken! Need help

[Katelynvaughqn]

Hi, we recently moved to a new home and found a large chicken in our woods. We have captured her and given her a coop. She is free range around our fenced in back yard and is comfortable around our dogs. I know nothing about chickens. She recently stopped going in her coop and will only sleep on my back covered porch on my patio furniture. She also played an egg on our couch. I thought she may be too old to lay. We have had her 3 months and she hasn’t laid. I would love any general advice on chickens and advice to get her off my back porch. We love to have her close but she poops everywhere

 

[Jakemedic]

Maybe post a message on marketplace and see is someone around you has chickens they would be willing to take in the girl. Or get some more so she won’t be alone! Chickens are the best! Welcome to the forum!

 

[TooCheep]

Well, thank you for taking care of her. There is a lot to learn about chicken keeping, so expect a lot of feedback.

• Some pictures of your coop/run area would be helpful. There are many reasons she may not want to spend much time there. Please post those pictures here.
• Please update your profile and include your general location. Many questions/comments will be dependent on your location and climate, so that will help us help you.
• Chickens are flock animals, so she may want to be closer to you because she is lonely and doesn't have friends of her own type. Once you learn some more, you might want to think about adding some friends.
• Hens generally reduce/stop laying in winter, when they molt and when they are stressed, so it isn't surprising she hasn't laid much. She may start laying more regularly in the spring.
• Please give us some info (and possibly pictures) about her food/water setup, so we can verify you are handling that side well.

Welcome to BYC. People are friendly and helpful here. You've come to the right place for help.

 

[Katelynvaughqn]

Well, thank you for taking care of her. There is a lot to learn about chicken keeping, so expect a lot of feedback.

• Some pictures of your coop/run area would be helpful. There are many reasons she may not want to spend much time there. Please post those pictures here.
• Please update your profile and include your general location. Many questions/comments will be dependent on your location and climate, so that will help us help you.
• Chickens are flock animals, so she may want to be closer to you because she is lonely and doesn't have friends of her own type. Once you learn some more, you might want to think about adding some friends.
• Hens generally reduce/stop laying in winter, when they molt and when they are stressed, so it isn't surprising she hasn't laid much. She may start laying more regularly in the spring.
• Please give us some info (and possibly pictures) about her food/water setup, so we can verify you are handling that side well.

Welcome to BYC. People are friendly and helpful here. You've come to the right place for help.

 

[Katelynvaughqn]

We live in Arkansas. We give her 5-grain scratch and she has a feeder and water thing in her coop. She usually isn’t in there but I cleaned everything good and put her in there to see if she will like it again. She is usually running around the yard. She has given us 5 eggs since last Thursday.

 

[Katelynvaughqn]

I also give her greens and blueberries as a treat twice a week

 

[Penpal]

Agreeing with getting her friends. They should have the same temperament as hers. The same breed if you know what that is. She needs at least two flock mates.

 

[TooCheep]

OK. Here's what I'm seeing based in your picture and feedback. I'm sure others will chime in.

• Given how many eggs she's laid, she must be less than 2 years old. Egg production declines after 2 years.
• That appears to be a fairly standard mass-production coop. Good news- it functions and the hardware cloth should provide pretty good security. Bad news- packing as many chickens in there as advertised is cruel. They always advertise space based on how factory farms cram in chickens. Here are the standard numbers quoted for backyard chicken keeping to minimize aggression due to overcrowding.
  • 1ft of roost/adult bird
  • 4sqft of coop space/adult bird
  • 10sqft of open (run) area/adult bird
• Just from eyeballing that picture, I'd say that coop is probably good for 2 birds, but check using the measurements above.
• The bottom of the run in that coop will get very messy as they poop in there and rain water gets in there. I'd bag up a bunch of dead dry leaves and use them in the bottom. They'll keep things odor-free and comparatively neat. You can toss in additional leaves as the chickens scratch them up and break them down. Keep some extra bags of leaves that hopefully will last you until next fall.
• If/when you get any additional birds, please do a search on BYC on how to introduce new chickens to a flock. The introduction can be very nasty if you just throw another bird in there.
• Food is a complex subject. I'll put that info in a follow-up post.

 

[TooCheep]

About food for your girl:

• Scratch grains aren't generally considered the most balanced/nutritious feed. They are fine as a treat (~10% of food). They definitely aren't providing enough calcium to support her egg laying. You will likely be seeing thin-shelled eggs sooner or later as she drains calcium out of her bones to supply the eggs.
• Chickens don't have teeth. Instead, they eat small pebbles (grit) that end up in their gizzard and help to grind the grains, plants, insects and other food before they move on in the digestive system. As long as she is allowed to "free range", she'll be able to find her own grit. If she is locked in the coop/run area, you will need to provide her some grit in a separate dish (on the side). Grit is cheap to buy and will insure she is getting the most out of her feed.
• Most modern chickens have been bred to lay *a lot* of eggs, so they generally can't get sufficient calcium naturally. The original wild jungle fowl only laid 10-15 eggs/year, so they were able to keep up with the calcium needs. I recommend you buy oyster shell at the store and offer it in another dish "on the side". Do not mix it with her feed. She'll naturally eat at much as her body needs to keep her bones strong and produce good quality egg shells.
• Now, for the part that generates arguments. There are two main ways that backyard chicken owners feed their chickens. Using layer feed vs. flock feed + calcium. Although layer feed sounds like the right answer to feed egg layers, I've become convinced that is most often wrong. Please buy a bag of flock feed for your chickens as your base food. The scratch, berries, etc are fine for treats (~10% of food).
• If you want to understand the layer feed vs flock feed + calcium debate, I wrote a very long post for another user that you can read here. It gives the pros and cons for each.