Given a flock of Black Marans

[feathermaid]

Sorry I'm so late responding to this...

My wife and I were talking this morning and wondering if we should let them out in the day time. The tractor seems small for these six birds. We can open the coop in the day when no one is home. Our dog has other ideas about it when we are here .

They are not laying eggs yet. Pretty confident they weren't at there last place. They were in a coop with around 20 chickens. Half of them were roosters. We are trying to get them as comfortable as possible to get them to lay. We also don't know the age so that probably plays a factor as well .

The place we got them has two more tractors and a coop. I can have all if it. All I have to do is go get it .I'm thinking about using it to build a coop and keep expenses down. Whatever I do I need to have it finished before summer sets in.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, the tractor you have is small, but they'll be ok staying in for a week or so, as @21hens-incharge mentioned. You want them to be able to know where home is, especially when they do get let out later. Keep in mind that chickens like to roost in the highest place possible at night, so getting or building a coop that's raised off the ground or has high roosts inside will encourage them to go there when the sun sets. Also keep in mind that when you get a new coop, they'll still need another week inside to realize it's their new home again. That would be great if you could reuse materials to build them a bigger house! And also building a larger attached run would give them more space to hang out when you're not home. There are important things to address when letting your chickens out freely in the yard, and other things if you plan to keep them locked up. Here's a couple more articles that go into detail:
Key Points to Successful Free Ranging

Keeping Chickens Without Free Ranging

It really might be a good idea to introduce your dog (on leash) to the hens while they're safely inside the tractor, teach him/her the "leave it" command and give very high value treats (like small pieces of hot dog or roasted chicken) as a reward every time your dog looks away or acts uninterested. The goal is to take away the mystery of these fascinating clucky-flappy new creatures and make other stuff seem more appealing. Every person who's ever believed they can just keep dogs/chickens separated forever ends up having tragedy down the road. Untrained/unsocialized dogs are notorious chicken killers. This link has some ideas to help:
How did YOU train dogs to leave chickens alone

Sorry about all those reading assignments... but you came here for advice so... TaDa!! I hope some of it can help you. And make sure to enjoy your new birdies!

 

[Saintbubbles]

Sorry I'm so late responding to this...

Yes, the tractor you have is small, but they'll be ok staying in for a week or so, as @21hens-incharge mentioned. You want them to be able to know where home is, especially when they do get let out later. Keep in mind that chickens like to roost in the highest place possible at night, so getting or building a coop that's raised off the ground or has high roosts inside will encourage them to go there when the sun sets. Also keep in mind that when you get a new coop, they'll still need another week inside to realize it's their new home again. That would be great if you could reuse materials to build them a bigger house! And also building a larger attached run would give them more space to hang out when you're not home. There are important things to address when letting your chickens out freely in the yard, and other things if you plan to keep them locked up. Here's a couple more articles that go into detail:
Key Points to Successful Free Ranging

Keeping Chickens Without Free Ranging

It really might be a good idea to introduce your dog (on leash) to the hens while they're safely inside the tractor, teach him/her the "leave it" command and give very high value treats (like small pieces of hot dog or roasted chicken) as a reward every time your dog looks away or acts uninterested. The goal is to take away the mystery of these fascinating clucky-flappy new creatures and make other stuff seem more appealing. Every person who's ever believed they can just keep dogs/chickens separated forever ends up having tragedy down the road. Untrained/unsocialized dogs are notorious chicken killers. This link has some ideas to help:
How did YOU train dogs to leave chickens alone

Sorry about all those reading assignments... but you came here for advice so... TaDa!! I hope some of it can help you. And make sure to enjoy your new birdies!

Thanks for the great info. Reading and learning is why I'm here.

We let them out around five this evening. We have a large, fenced in yard. They went exploring for about an hour and we cleaned the coop and moved it. The wife who was skeptical at first is now fascinated with them. They went back in with no problems.

 

[feathermaid]

Thanks for the great info. Reading and learning is why I'm here.

We let them out around five this evening. We have a large, fenced in yard. They went exploring for about an hour and we cleaned the coop and moved it. The wife who was skeptical at first is now fascinated with them. They went back in with no problems.

Awesome!
My husband was skeptical at first too, but now he thinks they're hilarious. He also thinks it's just crazy that they automatically know when it's time for bed and go tuck themselves in for the night!