Help please! Some chicken questions!

[CindyinSD]

Just a couple of things to add:

1. If you’re going to take the advice to restrict them to the coop for a couple of weeks (and it is good advice), make sure they’ve got plenty of room for their size. They can do with a smaller coop if they’re out all day, but if you (or the weather) will be keeping them cooped up, they need more room. Otherwise they can start bickering and picking at one another (just like people only with fewer inhibitions).
2. If the coop is small, it becomes more important to let them out promptly in the morning for the same reason.
3. The first couple of times you put them to bed in the evening, you may need to do some chasing. I did, and my babies had been in the coop for a few weeks. A long-handled fishing net would have been nice to have on hand. Treats in the coop and possibly leading up to the door can make things easier.
4. If you have reason to worry about the cold (for example if this is their first introduction to anything below 70 degrees Fahrenheit or chances of colder temps than expected), you could use an outdoor extension cord and put in a brooder heat source. If it’s a heat lamp, just be very, very careful to secure it well and place it so it can’t get close to anything combustible. If that’s not feasible, they’ll most likely do fine cuddling.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Thank you so much! This is really helping me! One other thing, lots of you said to leave them in the coop for a few days to get them used to it. What do you mean? They LIVE in the coop for a few days without coming out?

 

[CindyinSD]

Yes... they stay inside for (ideally) a couple of weeks. That imprints them on the coop as “home,” the place they go to in order to be safe, sleep, run from scary shadows of raptors overhead, etc.

I see you’re in Nebraska. You’ll be a bit warmer (mostly) than me, but you really need to think about coop size. There’ll be days, sometimes weeks, that they will need to stay inside. Fine for juveniles, but adult chickens are pretty good sized. Our first big blizzard last year had me scurrying around, frantically emptying out the tool shed, building roosts, spreading hay... as I realized that, despite having provided the “correct” square footage, that adorable coop I spent half the summer building was only big enough for a bedroom.

You should have seen me coaxing them with the heifers’ sweet feed (for treats) from their safe little home where they wanted to stay, through the snow which they hate, and the wind (ditto), into the new, strange metal hall that I only just managed to fit out for them maybe half an hour before the storm blew in. They weren’t so sure about all that. They had plenty of indoor time to get used to it, though. Now they love it and I love being able to walk in. The first coop will be a grow-out for future generations.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Thank you! But just so you know, I'm not in Nebraska, that means North East. I guess I left NE and USA together...sorry.

 

[IamRainey]

Thank you so much! This is really helping me! One other thing, lots of you said to leave them in the coop for a few days to get them used to it. What do you mean? They LIVE in the coop for a few days without coming out?

Yup! Precisely! And this is especially important if you expect to let them free range. You'll want them to want to be in the coop come the fading of the light! That's how you make that happen.

And even if you don't plan to let them free range, sooner or later one is going to slip out when a door's open. You'll want that adventurer to want to get back to the coop and her buddies as soon as the first flush of liberation passes.

Another good thing to do is to get in the run and sit with them. Have a jar of mealworms or black oil sunflower seeds. Shake it as you hold out a handful. It's fun to watch who's going to be brave enough to come see what you've got, who's going to find a spot on your knees or your shoulder and who's always going to sit on the periphery snacking on what the other girls toss around. But what you're really doing is making an association between you and that sound and the good stuff. So when one gets out you can grab the jar and shake it as you move back to the door. She'll follow the sound and then you can open the door and toss a few handfuls of treats in as the reward for coming home.

 

[Mrs. K]

If you have a coop/run and pop up door, I do not lock my chickens in the coop for days. They naturally seek the coop once they have slept in it once or twice. So I put them in the coop, and let them come out when they want, sometimes the next night, they are confused, but I put them in the coop again, and they have always figured it out after that.

I think fresh air and sunshine are important for chicks. So I don't lock them inside just the coop. If the coop is small, has inadequate ventilation, could be a chance of overheating.

I leave the pop up door open all night into my run, let them decide when they want to go in and out.

Mrs k

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Good morning everyone! I had a bad night worrying about my chickens. But thanks for all the tips! I have decided I'm not going to chat them in the coop for a few days. They already seem to like it. This morning when I opened it up they stayed in for a while before coming out for breakfast. That means they are not afraid of it. Right? If they all raced out right when the door was opened, that might mean they don't like it inside. Right? Well, anyway, I'll see what they do tonight when it's time for bed.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The outside of the coop is just as new to them as the inside. The hesitation to go out wasn't so much about them liking the coop as them not being sure of the outside. It sounds like you may have an adventurous group with them going outside that quickly. I've had some that took more than a full day after I opened the pop door for them to venture outside, but it sounds like you are feeding and outside. Yours had an incentive to go out. Personally I don't force them, just open the pop door and let them decide when they are ready but it can be hilarious watching the first one build up the courage to go out. As I said in my earlier post we all do these things differently.

It is possible when it gets dark they will go back into the coop on their own to sleep. Mine usually don't but yours might. Each brood is different and your set-up is different from mine. Usually mine bed down in the run. I wait until it is getting dark and pick them up to lock them in the coop. If it is dark where they are it is usually not that hard to pick them up. It can help if you have been handling them too.

I have had chicks go into the coop on their own after putting them in just once. I had a coupe that took three weeks of putting them in each night before they got the message. Usually it takes about a week before all go in. My usual broods are around 20 chicks, I think yours is only six.

Don't think something is wrong if they don't go in on their own. Don't think something is wrong if they do. Each chicken is an individual with its own personality. Each flock has its own dynamics. That's part of what makes chicken TV better than anything you on see on cable, antenna, or anything else. They are living animals, you don't know what they will do.

 

[CindyinSD]

I’m sure they like their coop. Chickens aren’t hard to please. TBH, they’re likely afraid of the outside. Anything new really sets them off. Mine stayed inside their first one for a week with the door wide open all day before I managed to coax them out. I had put them in at five days old so it was pretty much all they knew. It’s a great little coop for babies or maybe half a dozen hens. Was described as appropriate for 12. By someone in TX. Even in Texas that might be a stretch, but definitely not in SD. Somehow the inevitability of winter confinements didn’t even occur to me! (sigh)

My poor meat birds spent the windy, cold night in a chicken tractor. I hardly slept at all, what with constantly checking that their tarps were still on. It’s SUPPOSED to be spring. Can’t take them back inside. Everything that could hold them is too small. The tractor is big for them which at the moment isn’t a good thing. Soon, though, it will be small for them. I tarped it all over save a couple high vents and hung brooder lamps. Chickens are tough. Way tougher than I am! I’m buying ground anchors and more bulldog clips and two more heat lamps today... ridiculous, this weather we’re having. I should have thought of this, but we are always learning. Here they are on a rare sunny day:

Trust me... your girls are lucky birdies to have you for a “mom.” They’re gonna be a happy bunch of hens with a caring lady like you to look out for them. Don’t let yourself stress over this. People have been raising chickens forever, and under some very tough conditions. I know people who just give the chickens the run of the farm/ranch and let them completely fend for themselves. I would imagine that would make finding the eggs interesting.

My dad did that job as a kid... I’d forgotten until this moment. That was in Kansas. They were very poor (it was the depression and even by that standard they were poor). They didn’t even feed the chickens. The poor birdies managed fine on hay, bugs and spilled grain, etc., apparently. They probably ate better than the family. Like I said, chickens are tough. You’ve got this. You and your babies are gonna do great!

 

[Ridgerunner]

My dad did that job as a kid... I’d forgotten until this moment. That was in Kansas. They were very poor (it was the depression and even by that standard they were poor). They didn’t even feed the chickens. The poor birdies managed fine on hay, bugs and spilled grain, etc., apparently. They probably ate better than the family. Like I said, chickens are tough. You’ve got this. You and your babies are gonna do great!

I had that job as a kid on a farm in Tennessee. I remember climbing up the side of a 10' high corn crib to get to a nest on top in the hay loft above. I have no idea of how many nests I never found. The only time we fed the chickens was we'd toss them a little corn if there was snow on the ground. I imagine in Kansas your Dad used wheat if that is what they grew. We did bust the ice open on the pond so the horses, cattle, and chickens could drink.

We can't raise chickens that way because we don't have the forage available that was there on the farm. Predators are a big issue for most of us when it comes to free ranging. Your chickens are going to be pampered. If you saw a broody hen raising her chicks you'd understand jut how tough those chicks can be.