I am literally 3 days old in raising chickens. I have have 3 hens for 3 days and the only moment when I am truly happy to have them is each morning when I collect beautiful brown eggs. All the other times, all i seem to be worrying about is "are they happy, are they gonna hate me for not letting them out more often, what are they trying to tell me with their noises, etc". I'm cuckoo! (pun totally intended)
So, here are my concerns and hopefully some people can either put them to rest or enlighten me into ensuring my hens' happiness.
1) Their coop is small, in my opinion. Everybody that has seen it says it is more than enough space, but 1 or 2 of them is usually at the door and of course in my mind she waiting to be let out. So when i'm home and checking on them, i feel so guilty!
2) I just expanded their run area. Big enough for 25 chickens so that is good (250 square feet). Its their playground. They love their mud baths, digging, scratching, etc. The problem (maybe its not a problem, but i think it is) is: my trend is to let them out a couple hours during the day. They will not stay out in their run space all day and come back to the coop at night. On the contrary. They will have a few hours of run space/time and then I put them into the coop. Reason being: I don't want to let them out in their run while I am out of the house bc I built it personally and it is quite ramshackle, so I want to monitor them to make sure they don't get out. I live in an urban neighborhood and don't want to bother neighbors. They're already digging by the corners. Does this mean they want to slip out or are they just choosing a space by the fence to dig?
3) The real problem is I am totally new to this so all my insecurities stem from my ignorance. Am I making problems up in my mind and are they ok or am I making their quality of life not as good as it should be?
Thanks for listening to this bird brain. Hope to hear some stuff!
I am also hoping that after a couple weeks/months I'll feel 100% comfortable with my chickens.
So, here are my concerns and hopefully some people can either put them to rest or enlighten me into ensuring my hens' happiness.
1) Their coop is small, in my opinion. Everybody that has seen it says it is more than enough space, but 1 or 2 of them is usually at the door and of course in my mind she waiting to be let out. So when i'm home and checking on them, i feel so guilty!
2) I just expanded their run area. Big enough for 25 chickens so that is good (250 square feet). Its their playground. They love their mud baths, digging, scratching, etc. The problem (maybe its not a problem, but i think it is) is: my trend is to let them out a couple hours during the day. They will not stay out in their run space all day and come back to the coop at night. On the contrary. They will have a few hours of run space/time and then I put them into the coop. Reason being: I don't want to let them out in their run while I am out of the house bc I built it personally and it is quite ramshackle, so I want to monitor them to make sure they don't get out. I live in an urban neighborhood and don't want to bother neighbors. They're already digging by the corners. Does this mean they want to slip out or are they just choosing a space by the fence to dig?
3) The real problem is I am totally new to this so all my insecurities stem from my ignorance. Am I making problems up in my mind and are they ok or am I making their quality of life not as good as it should be?
Thanks for listening to this bird brain. Hope to hear some stuff!
I am also hoping that after a couple weeks/months I'll feel 100% comfortable with my chickens.
