How do you put a roost in a chicken tractor?

[crazychick26201]

Hello folks! I am new to raising chickens. I have 4 9 week old buff orphs. I am becoming very attached to them. I have lost a lot of sleep at night since we let them stay out at night in their tractor. It does have hardware cloth on the sides and doors, and 1 x 4 welded wire on the bottom. I stressed until my husband enlarged our electric garden fence to include an area for the chicken tractor. We plan to move it within this space every 3 days, but don't have room to move it more than 6 times. It is an a frame tractor with a small coop on one end. We put one roost in but only 3 chicks will fit on the Roost so one always sleeps below. Since the sides are sloped, how can we add another roost easily? I think it will be me doing it because my husband has reached the frustration point. We planning to build a coop and run and have the plans. But this is much more stressful than I thought it would be. help!

 

[Belinda7]

I am also new to raising chickens, and I also put wire on the bottom of the cage because my neighbor who has raised chickens had an entire flock wiped out by wildlife going in over or under the wire ( she had an open top in the run area.) Since I did not want all my chickens to disappear, the coop is completely enclosed in wire!

But I do wonder if the 1 x 4" wire on the bottom is any problem on their feet? Any comments about wire on the bottom of the cage??

They free range all day, so really there is not a lot of time that they are in the coop, and none of the wire is sharp or pointy - it lays flat on the bottom. (The walls have a much smaller diameter wire than the bottom, and a solid wood roof.)

I had to keep putting them in the nesting area at night for a few evenings, (mostly because with myself being the mother hen I was worried they would get cold if they didn't stay in there!) but as soon as it started to chill down, they would ALL stay in the nesting area under the warming light all on their own I found!. And now they go up on their own and stay in there all night.

The nesting area where they sleep, is layered with pine shavings, and also has some roosts in it. I put them in the coop in the evening, and they tend to usually leave the run, and head up to the nesting area to go to sleep soon after being put in the coop. I've noticed that they tend to sit down in the shavings, and sleep wherever they land...none of them sleep on a roost. At first I thought that was because they wanted to stay in the warming lighted area of the pine shavings. But it has been warm enough at night now, (I live in Michigan, so I have to check the weather daily to make sure it actually will be 60 degrees or more at night) that they really don't need the warming light anymore (they are 9 weeks old now and fully feathered.) They are still sleeping in the pine shavings rather than going to sleep on a roost. I'm guessing that they know what they are doing!? Any comments about that? Is it important for them to be on a roost at night? Is there something else I should be doing?

 

[crazychick26201]

How do you get them in the coop in the evening? Yesterday one of the girls ran out of the tractor when I had the door open and it took us a while to catch her. She was completely freaked out. Can anyone assure me that putting them inside our electric garden fence was a good idea?

 

[Belinda7]

My 6 chicks are 9 weeks old and when I want them to go back in the coop, I go to where most of them are, and start saying, "Come on chickie - chickies....." as I walk toward the coop... and they follow me to the coop, and then when we get close, they usually race ahead of me to be the first one in! (Like there's a prize if you are the first one in the coop! LOL) Only one time have I had to pick one up and put it in the coop. They let me pet them, but they don't especially like being picked up, so perhaps that is motivation for them!

 

[Belinda7]

I let them free range from early morning to evening on my property. They usually don't stray too far away from the coop...however, they do often hop up on the porch off my study to see what I am doing...which I don't really like, because I don't want them pooping on the porch! So I verbally "shoo" them off and they usually will go back to near the coop realizing they are not welcome there. They all usually stick relatively close together (as flocks do I imagine.) So when the majority have gone in, if one is straying, I just wait a couple of minutes and when they seem to realize they are out there all by themselves, and I think also hear me calling "Come on chickie chickies..." .....they head for the coop on their own. My advice is to get a routine, and they seem to follow without any fuss in time.

 

[crazychick26201]

Thanks, Belinda. By the way, I am a new chicken keeper in West Virginia. Materials were delivered today to build a garden coop. Go t the plans from Backyard chickens . Meanwhile they are very happy in their tractor. But tonite I checked and three on the roost, one on the floor. MOne girl is at the bottom of the pecking order. I can't tell them apart anymore so I am not sure which. I really suspect one is a rooster. It has much bigger feet than the others and was the last to develop tail feathers. Tomorrow we plan to drill another hole in the a frame side of the coop to intstall another roost. My chicks have not free ranged yet but I think you are right about establishing a routine. I hope to do this within the next couple of weeks.

 

[Belinda7]

I am also a novice. I am amazed at how quickly they have gotten so big in such a short time! But I was thinking that because they free range most of the day, and they get plenty of exercise during the day that the chicken tractor would be just fine for them as a coop. If they had that as their only place to move around in it would be way too small, but because they free range, I am not worried that they don't have room to exercise during the day, so I wasn't going to build them another coop...one of the reasons being that a coop would be permanently stationed, whereas with the chicken tractor I can move their location every day....which I like so much better than cleaning up chicken poop! (LOL) I'm not sure what you mean by a garden coop, but you might want to learn from my mistakes. I had noticed some grubs in the garden while I was turning it over, so I got a "bright idea" and started letting them go into the fenced in garden on a regular basis hoping they would eat grubs and fertilize my garden....I did not notice them finding a single grub, but as my garden began to sprout, they most certainly found anything I had planted...so they are not allowed in my garden anymore...the fence was originally installed to keep the deer out, but there is now chicken wire about a foot up around the perimeter at this point......

 

[crazychick26201]

What kind of treats do you give them? Mine love those dried mealworms. They also gobble up clover like its caviar, which is so funny because it is growing in their chicken tractor all the time. they just love to be hand fed it. I read on the forum that most chickens love bananas, but mine won't touch them.

 

[Belinda7]

You can buy a plastic ball that the meal worms go in. As they move the ball the meal worms fall out, so they start rolling the ball around in a frenzy! It's hilarious!

 

[crazychick26201]

Where did you get the ball?