Introducing coop chickens to the outside

[tomato lady]

I have been working on my chicken run forever. Finally, it is chicken proof and hopefully preditor proof as well. Yesterday I cut the chicken door in the coop and introduced the chicks to the great outdoors. My older 14 chicks are 4 and 5 weeks, and I have 6 babies about 2 weeks.

To my surprise at first they didn't even seem interested. Then some interest from the larger ones.......they stood looking out and stretching their necks (very long necks) to get a better look. Finally, my two polish ventured out. Then two of my other larger ones went out, followed by a white Brahma. They all liked it and explored a bit, but then one of my young chicks went out. He was so funny. I can only describe his behavior as joyous!

That was only six out of 20. The door was open for a couple of hours but all the rest decided to wait for another day. It is supposed to be hot today so I will give them the option all day today. I have some work to do inside that is impossible with a bunch of curious chicks pecking at the tape measure and inspecting my work. I am hopeful they will all want to go out for a while today.

 

[Larry Waughon]

We want to see Them getting to know the big world around them. Where are the pics?

 

[winniegirl]

I took my 6 weekers out for a bit of playtime in a small area I made for them under a tree. They all looked curious at first, wouldn't come out of the kennel, then the smallest one of all ventured out and the rest followed. After about an hour the smallest and bravest one scratched out a hole and proceeded to dust bathe and again the rest copied her. It was so cute.

What wasn't so cute was an hour after that when I couldn't collect them by myself as the sun was setting. 5 chicks plus one grown woman yelling at her 3 small kids to catch the chickens--that was a sight!! Of course they were no help

Finally, DH decided to wave a broom at them to scare them into the kennel but they just attacked it. It took me, DH and the teenage neighbor boy 20 minutes to scoop up 5 unhappy chicks who didn't want to go back to the garage!! But they had a great time

 

[kbmead]

If I had videos of me and my family trying to herd chicks back to the coop, we'd all have some laughs! (Actually, there's a good idea--I'll have to set up the video camera to record us sometime!)

We have found that a butterfly net from the dollar store can be helpful. Also, sometimes we make a little temporary "chick trap" with some bricks. We just create a little area against the outside of the coop that is basically like the dead end of a maze. Open on the top, but high enough on the sides that they can't jump over right away. As we chase them around the perimeter of the coop, they run into it and are too confused to get out before we reach down to catch them. Invented by my son, who was 5 at the time!