- Oct 6, 2011
- 2
- 0
- 7
G'day, from a new chicken owner of about 3 weeks now. I live with my husband and 4 dogs on an acre property in a rural area of Tasmania, Australia. We have 8 chickens (2 x gold laced wyandottes, 1 x welsummer/wyandotte mix, 1 x silver pencilled wyandotte, 1 x columbian buff wyandotte and 3 lang shans); we have 1 rooster (lang shan) - all beautiful birds and, we are finding, with some interesting personalities (we have two porcelain dummy eggs we place in two separate nest boxes, yet each time we collect our eggs both porcelain eggs are together! At first my husband thought I was tricking him, 'til we realised it had to be one of the chickens doing the moving!
CHICKENS NOT GOING INTO COOP AT NIGHT: It has been interesting to check out the information provided on the BYC forum - our chickens have a good sized outdoor run, with the chook house having its own smaller enclosed wire mesh area. Currently we are finding that at night the chickens are moving from the outdoor run into the meshed chook house area, however they are not going up the ramp and into the house and onto the roosts.
For about a week now, after nightfall, we pick up each bird and put it through the 'front door', though even once inside they choose not to go onto the perches, instead sitting on the sawdust floor. Thinking the perches were too narrow from what they have been used to (they are about 9 months old and have been roosting on a 4 x 2 size plank) we installed wider perches; they have still stayed on the floor even though we have tried a number of nights to place them directly onto the roosts.
Last night before nightfall we placed a light within the coop after deciding that the interior of the house at dusk has been frighteningly dark for them, thus stopping them from going in. Although we had to still manually pick them up and put them through the doorway once it got dark, when my husband went to the coop later to switch off the light he found all but one sitting pretty on the perches . From reading the forum notes tonight it looks like we are on the right track with having a light inside the house. They don't seem to mind being manhandled each evening, and certainly through the day in the run they appear to be the happiest of birds; they are all laying really well (the nest boxes are inside the chook house so we know that it is not the house itself that they don't like); admittedly the interior through the small doorway does look ominously dark at dusk and someone on your forum did mention that chooks don't like the dark and will not enter a pitch black roosting area.
We will persevere and see how we go. We get spotted quolls here, a nocturnal australian native-cat type animal that loves chickens and if given half a chance to get into a chicken house could easily destroy the whole flock; so we want to make sure our birds are beyond its reach and safely locked away inside the chicken house each night. We have not only tiled the chicken mesh area flooring, but have also installed wire mesh under the tiles in order to prevent it entering the house.
We only got our rooster today, a gorgeous shining black lang shan with bright red upright comb; he received a lovely welcome from the girls who all knew him as we got all our chickens from the same breeder. It has been a delight to watch them all together in the main run today and to hear him crowing!
Look forward to referring to BYC in future for information and guidance on keeping happy and contented chickens!
Cheers
CHICKENS NOT GOING INTO COOP AT NIGHT: It has been interesting to check out the information provided on the BYC forum - our chickens have a good sized outdoor run, with the chook house having its own smaller enclosed wire mesh area. Currently we are finding that at night the chickens are moving from the outdoor run into the meshed chook house area, however they are not going up the ramp and into the house and onto the roosts.
For about a week now, after nightfall, we pick up each bird and put it through the 'front door', though even once inside they choose not to go onto the perches, instead sitting on the sawdust floor. Thinking the perches were too narrow from what they have been used to (they are about 9 months old and have been roosting on a 4 x 2 size plank) we installed wider perches; they have still stayed on the floor even though we have tried a number of nights to place them directly onto the roosts.
Last night before nightfall we placed a light within the coop after deciding that the interior of the house at dusk has been frighteningly dark for them, thus stopping them from going in. Although we had to still manually pick them up and put them through the doorway once it got dark, when my husband went to the coop later to switch off the light he found all but one sitting pretty on the perches . From reading the forum notes tonight it looks like we are on the right track with having a light inside the house. They don't seem to mind being manhandled each evening, and certainly through the day in the run they appear to be the happiest of birds; they are all laying really well (the nest boxes are inside the chook house so we know that it is not the house itself that they don't like); admittedly the interior through the small doorway does look ominously dark at dusk and someone on your forum did mention that chooks don't like the dark and will not enter a pitch black roosting area.
We will persevere and see how we go. We get spotted quolls here, a nocturnal australian native-cat type animal that loves chickens and if given half a chance to get into a chicken house could easily destroy the whole flock; so we want to make sure our birds are beyond its reach and safely locked away inside the chicken house each night. We have not only tiled the chicken mesh area flooring, but have also installed wire mesh under the tiles in order to prevent it entering the house.
We only got our rooster today, a gorgeous shining black lang shan with bright red upright comb; he received a lovely welcome from the girls who all knew him as we got all our chickens from the same breeder. It has been a delight to watch them all together in the main run today and to hear him crowing!
Look forward to referring to BYC in future for information and guidance on keeping happy and contented chickens!
Cheers
