Just got 2 hens, need advice.

[ClydeRae]

I'm gkad you covered the one side. Sun can be brutal on chickens! The roosting bars could be lower. Consider hanging a bar from the shelf and I'd bet you will catch them swinging from time to time. My chickens are playful that way. The greens are great but don't overdo. Only 15% of their diet should be green. And no potatoes, onions, caggage or asparagus as they could taint the flavor of the eggs as I found out. However, my chickens love diced garlic. I just add it to their water once or twice a month. It's good for internal parasites, as I have read so many times! Good job & good luck!

 

[Lynn Manes]

Just got two hens, please advise, simplest is a picture.

z

 

[Lynn Manes]

Is the gray Rubbermaid box what you are using for their nest box? I would remove it and make 2 wooden open top boxes with about 2-3" edges; or if you don't have the means to build stuff, take that gray box and turn it on it's side with lid off so the chickens can get into it easier to lay their eggs. I'm all for using straw inside my nest boxes. Keeps them cleaner and gives a cushion for less chances of the eggs being rolled out and broken. The coop looks great otherwise. Good luck

 

[RosieinKS]

Are your chickens going to free range or will they be kept in the triangle-shaped pen? I'm biased in my opinion about free ranging chickens if at all possible. It eliminates so many problems if you can let them out during the day. They take care of ticks and bugs in your yard, are happier and make better eggs in my opinion. Plus all the pecking problems are no longer an issue if they are not kept on top of each other, along with sicknesses that are spread from bird to bird if they are in close quarters. My husband is a professional woodworker, so we have plenty of wood shavings for bedding in our chicken coop.

We have a dozen chickens, including one rooster and they love running around in the yard, scratching and pecking for whatever the Lord provides. We started with 7, had them for a year and then added 5 more the following spring. We live out in the country on 6 acres, so we have plenty of space. We added 4 ducks to our collection last spring - the messiest creatures God ever made. 2 are male and 2 female - we thought we had 4 hens. Keeping them in the house until they are big enough and it's warm enough for them to go outside is unbelievably stinky and messy. They can turn a clean container of water into a mud hole with one touch of their bill. So far they all get along and walk around everywhere single file in a row. Very entertaining - talking to each other all the while. We use straw in our duck coop. Our duck hens lay eggs regularly and they are great for baking.

We lock our birds up every night at dark and let them out in the morning around 9am central time. We also have a border collie that watches out for them when we are not home.

Good luck with your new endeavor of raising chickens. You will learn alot and if you have any questions, someone has asked it on this website, so you can find an answer.

RosieinKS

 

[RosieinKS]

There is a minimum recommendation for space in a pen for each hen you have. I don't know what the measurement is, but you might want to check under the "coop" icon on this website to see of you have enough space for your birds. If you see signs of one pecking another, you might want to increase the square footage of your pen so they have more room to walk around.

RosieinKS

 

[Lynn Manes]

There is a minimum recommendation for space in a pen for each hen you have.  I don't know what the measurement is, but you might want to check under the "coop" icon on this website to see of you have enough space for your birds.  If you see signs of one pecking another, you might want to increase the square footage of your pen so they have more room to walk around.  

RosieinKS

To RosieinKS-OMW,you could not be anymore right about ducks! My 3 mallards are full grown,stinky and very messy. I had no idea ducks were like this,or I might have thought twice about adding them to our mini farm. But I love the eggs, so they shall stay; and we already have a couple of requests for baby ducklings. I'm glad I'm not the only person who has ducks and feels the same way. I thought perhaps we were just doing something wrong.

 

[Lynn Manes]

We chose to suspend our 7 pound feeder with a chain. It is low enough to the ground the chickens can eat from it, and it keeps ants or other yuckies out. We set the 5 gallon waterer on a 12x12" cement block to keep it off the ground.

 

[RosieinKS]

I had read up on raising ducks before we had them and I told my husband not to bring them home before the coop was built for them. He didn't listenusing so we had 4 ducklings in a huge plastic tote box in my daughter's bedroom. They grew so fast their heads we popping out the top of the box when you took the top off within 2-3 weeks. I would look at them in the morning, and by afternoon they were bigger. I'd never seen a baby animal grow so fast. I made the mistake of moving them to the bathtub which we were no longer using and they made such a mess, but loved being able to swim in a small pan of water a couple of times a day. The smell was horrendous and the mess was worse. Of course no one else would clean up after them other than me. I wouldn't let the kids do it as the poop would have been in places I didn't want it.

Fortunately the weather at night was warm enough that they quickly made their way to the coop that use to house the chickens, and the chickens were promoted to a new place that was bigger.

I think raising them from babies made their transition easier and they all got along well together because they were raised together. Unless you are prepared for the mess, however, its a rude awakening to how much care they have to have until they are big enough to be outside.

WARNING - all you fantasy duck owner want-to-be's --- be well read and prepared for baby ducks before ever bringing them home. I would approach it completely differently IF I ever decide to raise ducklings again.

RosieinKS

 

[Mr King]

Are your chickens going to free range or will they be kept in the triangle-shaped pen?  I'm biased in my opinion about free ranging chickens if at all possible.  It eliminates so many problems if you can let them out during the day.  They take care of ticks and bugs in your yard, are happier and make better eggs in my opinion.  Plus all the pecking problems are no longer an issue if they are not kept on top of each other, along with sicknesses that are spread from bird to bird if they are in close quarters.  My husband is a professional woodworker, so we have plenty of wood shavings for bedding in our chicken coop.  

We have a dozen chickens, including one rooster and they love running around in the yard, scratching and pecking for whatever the Lord provides.  We started with 7, had them for a year and then added 5 more the following spring.  We live out in the country on 6 acres, so we have plenty of space.  We added 4 ducks to our collection last spring - the messiest creatures God ever made.  2 are male and 2 female - we thought we had 4 hens.  Keeping them in the house until they are big enough and it's warm enough for them to go outside is unbelievably stinky and messy.  They can turn a clean container of water into a mud hole with one touch of their bill.  So far they all get along and walk around everywhere single file in a row.  Very entertaining - talking to each other all the while.  We use straw in our duck coop.  Our duck hens lay eggs regularly and they are great for baking.  

We lock our birds up every night at dark and let them out in the morning around 9am central time.  We also have a border collie that watches out for them when we are not home.  

Good luck with your new endeavor of raising chickens.  You will learn alot and if you have any questions, someone has asked it on this website, so you can find an answer.

RosieinKS

Everything sounds great, just be careful with Cedar shavings can create respiratory problems on chickens.

 

[AstroTurf]

I'm gkad you covered the one side. Sun can be brutal on chickens! The roosting bars could be lower. Consider hanging a bar from the shelf and I'd bet you will catch them swinging from time to time. My chickens are playful that way. The greens are great but don't overdo. Only 15% of their diet should be green. And no potatoes, onions, caggage or asparagus as they could taint the flavor of the eggs as I found out. However, my chickens love diced garlic. I just add it to their water once or twice a month. It's good for internal parasites, as I have read so many times! Good job & good luck!

Thank you for the great advice and tips on the roosting bars I think that you have just added a little more space for them in the cage.

Is the gray Rubbermaid box what you are using for their nest box? I would remove it and make 2 wooden open top boxes with about 2-3" edges; or if you don't have the means to build stuff, take that gray box and turn it on it's side with lid off so the chickens can get into it easier to lay their eggs. I'm all for using straw inside my nest boxes. Keeps them cleaner and gives a cushion for less chances of the eggs being rolled out and broken. The coop looks great otherwise. Good luck

I'll take some photos of it for you tomorrow so that you can see the entrance as well as the nest the hens have made inside it. I have had no broken eggs and both my hens go into the box to lay (and not for any other reason) so I am quite happy with it. Absolutely no chicken mess inside, only the substrate I put into it and add to from time to time. For interest sake. My substrate is lucerne as a Base with hay on top.

Are your chickens going to free range or will they be kept in the triangle-shaped pen? I'm biased in my opinion about free ranging chickens if at all possible. It eliminates so many problems if you can let them out during the day. They take care of ticks and bugs in your yard, are happier and make better eggs in my opinion. Plus all the pecking problems are no longer an issue if they are not kept on top of each other, along with sicknesses that are spread from bird to bird if they are in close quarters. My husband is a professional woodworker, so we have plenty of wood shavings for bedding in our chicken coop.

We have a dozen chickens, including one rooster and they love running around in the yard, scratching and pecking for whatever the Lord provides. We started with 7, had them for a year and then added 5 more the following spring. We live out in the country on 6 acres, so we have plenty of space. We added 4 ducks to our collection last spring - the messiest creatures God ever made. 2 are male and 2 female - we thought we had 4 hens. Keeping them in the house until they are big enough and it's warm enough for them to go outside is unbelievably stinky and messy. They can turn a clean container of water into a mud hole with one touch of their bill. So far they all get along and walk around everywhere single file in a row. Very entertaining - talking to each other all the while. We use straw in our duck coop. Our duck hens lay eggs regularly and they are great for baking.

We lock our birds up every night at dark and let them out in the morning around 9am central time. We also have a border collie that watches out for them when we are not home.

Good luck with your new endeavor of raising chickens. You will learn alot and if you have any questions, someone has asked it on this website, so you can find an answer.

RosieinKS

Currently I let my girls out for around 2 hours a day. I can't do any more as I work and there is nobody to keep them safe when I am not home. They get about 2 full days freedom a weekend. I am very glad they are so tame. When it's time to go back in the cage I just pick them up and put the in after giving them a good scratch. On a side note. Both girls are laying now. Egg on the right is the younger ones first. Egg on the left is the latest from the older chicken.

I love the consistency of the eggs. Or shop bought make sunny side up eggs about as easy to do as a triathlon.