I love my chickens, but.... Why?

[User395221]

I am just wondering if you were not joking when you were asking all the "WHY'S"?
You sound a bit discouraged, frustrated and overwhelmed with your flock?!?

Nah, I was kidding. If I didn't want them pooing everywhere and tripping me over and grabbing the veges and all of that, I could just keep them confined to a yard. They're cool (except for sleeping in the nest boxes, that we need to fix)

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Nah, I was kidding. If I didn't want them pooing everywhere and tripping me over and grabbing the veges and all of that, I could just keep them confined to a yard. They're cool (except for sleeping in the nest boxes, that we need to fix)

They are greedy grubbers

mine grab the veggies too. I put greens in a suet basket and I get mobbed while I try to fill it, of course I could take it out of the run and do it, but I love being surrounded and hearing the chatter.
They even climb into the poop bucket while I'm cleaning the run and coop, like they are checking to make sure I'm not taking away something important

It's all a learning experience and I really do enjoy mine.

 

[jak2002003]

Thanks for your post.. brought back memories for me of when I kept my Amber Star chickens.

They always hung around on the front porch pooping everywhere.

They would wait till someone left the front door open or opened a window.. and then they would all rush into the living room to watch TV.

Anyone coming into the garden was greeted by a flock of 10 chickens rushing towards them and surrounding them.. then escorting them to the house, trying to squeeze past them through the front door.

I keep Japanese Bantams now.. they are much more refined and polite.. and they stay around their coop area.

Guess different breeds are different.. I know the Amber starts were more like pet dogs than birds.

 

[User395221]

They even climb into the poop bucket while I'm cleaning the run and coop, like they are checking to make sure I'm not taking away something important

I was trying to empty the cat litter and they were all "ooh, ooh, what've you got for us?"

 

[aart]

LOL!

I put a hinged plywood cover on my nest bank that covers the nest openings and the perch in front of them,
put it down late in the afternoon after laying is done then open in it back up after dark when I lock up the coop.
Works a charm! Only need it when integrating new pullets.

 

[User395221]

Thanks, it shouldn't be difficult to rig something up, but I've got other things I need to do... The chooks have had their quota of time and effort providing them with the comfort to which they are accustomed. I wish they'd just be like chickens you hear about online, roosting on their perches, laying nicely in their little boxes provided for the purpose....

Interestingly (interesting to me, at least) they used one nest box and slept in the other 2. The nest box they laid in wasn't full of poo, just a couple of eggs.

I think they are re-creating how it was in their old house. That one's small(er) and I don't think they ever used the perch in there. There is also no separate nest box, the laying "spot" was just one section, where the fake egg was. The frustrating thing is that I got them this bigger house thinking they'd love the greater room and they are just happy all scrunched up in a corner. Never mind, as long as they're happy. I wonder what the new little girls will do when they go in the big house. Probably pick a different corner and scrunch up there.

I got my watering "do-dads" in the post yesterday, and the mounting brackets for their feeder and waterer so that should save some of the hassle with them knocking things over by excavating around them. They are now attached to the wall and I've got a big container for their water as well as the other waterer so I don't need to worry that they've drained the water, knocked it over, filled it full of garden, etc.

 

[User395221]

me again....

Today, I made a flap to close off the nest boxes. I just went down there to put them onto the roost and they were all huddled together in the corner next to the nest boxes. I put them on the roost, but most of them jumped off and went back to "their" corner. One of them actually hunkered down the way they should, she might stay up there, another girl was standing up there, and the other 2 were back in their corner.

If one stays up, might the others copy her and get up there, too?

 

[aart]

I skimmed back, forgive me if I missed it, and didn't see this info:
How many birds?
How much roost length?
Age of birds...are all bird the same age and raised together?

Did you put them on roost after dark? That will work best, if it's good and dark they should stay on roost.
Hmm.... summer there so have to stay up too late?

 

[User395221]

They are 4 isa browns, I'm not sure of their age, I adopted them all together. They've recently moved into a new house from a different one. I don't think they perched in the other house although there is a perch in there. This is their new house, the perch is probably about a metre by half a metre (3 ft x 1.5??).
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...nd-a-new-house-how-to-manage/30#post_16372641

I went up there just as it was getting really dark. It was dark, they had gone inside, but it was about 10 minutes off being completely dark. (it gets dark about 8 I went up there about 10 to 8)

 

[shortgrass]

LOL reminds me of mine...

They are sure they figured out exactly where that human with the goodies comes from...

And they "mark" their spot accordingly lol; I figure it's so I can step in it right before going back into the house

Many times feeding and an accidental birdie punt, or a "BAWWWWK" will alert me that I'm standing on somebody's toe, and I ponder, "WHY do you have to stand sooo close?!"

They don't love me; they're using me as a "feed dispenser"


As far as the nesting boxes, my roosters do that, always roost in the top of them.. I let him stay over there since he at least stays on the top and nobody uses the top in that house anyway

The other coop has had quite the upheaval, though. I added 16 chicks this summer, and the original 4 over there had to teach them how to roost and trust their wings, since the roost in there is a series of oddly placed perches, and its quite the feat to get to and stay on the top one. They slept in the nest boxes until they figured out how to get up there. Now they are approaching lay, so there is a pecking order starting over again because the littles aren't little anymore and are kicking the older hens out of their prime spot by the window.

They all always started out as a mass on the floor, gradually gaining courage and desire to be all grown up at the top of the roost. It helped having the older birds to compete with and teach them