Is this coop big enough for 6 hens???

[chooks4life]

The reason they dust bathe is to rid themselves of lice and to clean their feathers. Doesn't make the most sense that rolling in dirt cleans anything but it does if they've got enough natural oils in their diet, lol.

My pekin/silky mixes were boss of the coop until they got smashed, one by a dog and her daughter by a giant rooster, but despite not healing properly (so having loose skeletons), they still boss the other hens around... Now there's just more bluffing than nastiness. Most chooks will be extra tolerant of little banties if they were fostered by them, I've tried a few methods to gain peace, it's totally doable.

Best wishes.

 

[Ashburnham]

A perch in the run will also give them more opportunity to get out of each others way if they need to.

 

[chooks4life]

Yeah, good idea, Ashburnham. I strategically place different heights and lengths of perches so every bird can roost in peace and also to facilitate any scapegoat's escape from bullying. Definitely a good thing to do with any coop.

 

[arena26]

A perch in the run will also give them more opportunity to get out of each others way if they need to.

Yeah, good idea, Ashburnham. I strategically place different heights and lengths of perches so every bird can roost in peace and also to facilitate any scapegoat's escape from bullying. Definitely a good thing to do with any coop.

My girls a all young from 12-16 weeks old and did not use there roosting poles until today!! I went outside after letting them out i found this...


.

So first thing tomorrow im going to set up some different sized perches in the run! great idea!

 

[arena26]

although its only these two that have used them, still 5 to go.... so hopefully they follow

 

[chooks4life]

Chances are they were raised as chicks in a coop that had no perches, though chicks a week old will start perching. I know I've got a troublemaker when I see a half-hour-past-hatched chick perched on its mother's back already...

It's good they're perching, it'll help protect them from some lung problems to have dry snuggy feet and be off the ground. They'll all follow suit most likely.

 

[arena26]

Chances are they were raised as chicks in a coop that had no perches, though chicks a week old will start perching. I know I've got a troublemaker when I see a half-hour-past-hatched chick perched on its mother's back already...  

It's good they're perching, it'll help protect them from some lung problems to have dry snuggy feet and be off the ground. They'll all follow suit most likely.

Hope so! Thanks for theinfo. I wanted to show you a photo of my silkie... Because you said you had one I wanted to know if you knew what this lump on her head is :-( I just noticed that its getting bigger. Well I think it is and in pictures I have seen of silkies they don't have it so I'm worried...

 

[chooks4life]

Eh, what lump?

Silkies often have a pad on top of their heads, like a cushion, and their crests can be all sorts of shapes. I read somewhere that in many domestic birds that grow crests of feathers on their heads that are not normal for the species, for example silkies as opposed to normal type chickens, it's due to a leakage of cranial fluid that causes the extra growth, and that's an inherited trait. This was in an old, old poultry book, though, so take with a pinch of salt, just like with modern poultry books. Everyone's information is incomplete, it pays to remember that all though history people tended to think their sciences as advanced as possible, they were in a golden age that no more learning could be added to, etc...

When/if you hatch silkies you'll see they tend to have a fat soft lump on their heads, which is later covered with extra long and large feathers in the typical silkie 'boof.' Unless you're speaking of some other lump, I'd think that's all it is. Best wishes.

EDIT: depending on how old your silkie is, and whether or not that crest continues to grow, it may be a male. Right now the crest's about as big as it ought to get for a hen, same with the wattles, though they could get a bit larger still.