Lara’s Little Flock

[Lara J]

Introducing my little flock of princesses: Leah, Buttercup, Xena, She-Ra, and Zelda. They are currently 9.5 weeks old, we’ve had them for 3 weeks now. They are delightful. Their coop is an egglu with 3m run, which sits within a 10x20ft fenced area inside my 30x30ft fenced garden. Pics attached.

Today was the first day we let them out for “recess” in their 10x20 area, since I’ve finally gotten fencing up to keep them out of the main garden. They get human company during recess at least for now since we do have hawks around and the enclosure isn’t fully protected yet from above. For the past few weeks they’ve gotten human company every day in their run, we’ve brought them treats and given them some rubs when they’d let us but now in their larger space we are able to get at them a bit better, really be among them and practice picking them up. I started with She-Ra as she’s currently top of their pecking order best I can tell. First time went awfully-I didn’t get her wings pinned so she freaked and flapped. Had to let her go and patiently follow her around calmly, to try again. Second time was perfect. I got her wings pinned, lifted her gently but firmly and she was so calm and happy to be held and get some nice little rubs and sweet talk. Then I put her down and it was treat time. Will keep at it with her and the others.

I’m new to chicken keeping but so far it’s been surprisingly easy and full of joy. Looking forward to the journey!

 

[Callender Girl]

Great idea spending time with them every day. Some chickens, no matter how much you try, will never be cuddly. But, I bet all of yours will at least be friendly when they see you have treats -- mine are!

Congrats on your princesses and the happiness they are bringing you! I really like the last photo, where the entire "royal court" is assembled.

 

[Idaho Chicken Bungalow]

A beautiful flock!

 

[Lara J]

A beautiful flock!

Thank you!

 

[Lara J]

Great idea spending time with them every day. Some chickens, no matter how much you try, will never be cuddly. But, I bet all of yours will at least be friendly when they see you have treats -- mine are!

Congrats on your princesses and the happiness they are bringing you! I really like the last photo, where the entire "royal court" is assembled.

Thanks! My hope is to give them enough attention that they’ll be happy to see me and used to being handled at least enough so that I can care for them well. So far they are all quite friendly, some more interested in humans than others (unless there’s treats being passed out, then all are interested lol)

 

[Lara J]

Coop thoughts:

After only three weeks with the Egglu cube I’m so happy with it. Jotting my thoughts down here so I can look back later as my experience deepens. Why I chose it: 1. I am a beginner and no idea what I’d want in a coop yet. 2. I’m a lawyer, I can afford it. 3. I’m a gardener, super busy schedule already-not a lot of time to diy a coop at least not yet. 4. I truly only want a very small flock, this will put a low upper limit on number of chickens I can have.

So far pros: 1. The girls LOVE it. They took to it like a fish to water really just zero issues. 2. So easy to clean. I mean wow it takes like 2 minutes. 3. Lots of clever helpful features, well thought through for a newbie like me.

So far cons and what I’m doing about it: 1. Run not big enough and too low for people to be w them without awkward scrambling. So I’ve built out a bigger area around the coop, once it is fenced from above it should be great. 2. Eglu run fencing is not small enough for preditor defense. So I put it inside my garden that has *very* good fencing. Only thing that can get into my garden is chipmunks - they climb right up hardware cloth and over. Little rascals. I added some bird netting to the eglu itself — this wont keep out ground predators if they got that far, but does a great job on chipmunks, they really don’t like it’s tangly-ness and they no longer get in the chicken’s food since I put it on. I also have cameras in the coop and run so I can keep eyes on things. Biggest danger is probably hawks so I’ll feel better once I get even more fencing put in above the coop. 3. I’ve heard the knobs on eglu can be opened by raccoons. I don’t have raccoons around now but could easily in future so I plan to buy some child safety things you put on doorknobs to mitigate that possible danger.

PS I’m aware that there’s an eglu thread but I’m posting this here in my own thread because I’m sure my experiences with my chickens will be impacted by how I’ve set up my coop. Unsure where the story will go from here but at least now it has a setting

 

[Lara J]

 

[Lara J]

My little princesses are 10 weeks now and so much bigger every day! They seem so happy in their run and when we let them out for recess in their play yard. I’ve been hovering over them when they are out of their run as there is a hawk in my backyard woods and the netting I ordered for the top of their play yard isn’t delivered yet. But I’ve enjoyed being with them and feeding them little treats from the garden.

One big hit is grapes from the grapevine (they’re getting ripe and delicious this time of year). I like to toss a grape down and then watch the “chicken football game” as one will grab it and make a run for it, with the others scrambling behind trying to grab for it, sometimes theres a fumble, someone else gets it and runs the other way. Just good fun to watch the action! And don’t worry, all of them get some in the end.

I’ve been neglecting my garden a bit since I got the girls, but as soon as I have hawk netting up I’ll enjoy being able to garden while they play.

 

[Lara J]

Today I’m training my 10 week old pullets to use their nipple waterer. I removed their other water source (that I had to clean and refill way too often since they are slobs and get it so dirty). Chickens are so funny, they really didn’t understand at first. At first, I’d press the nipples to make water flow and they would peck at the ground where the water fell. So I lowered the waterer almost to the ground and reached in with a metal rod to tap and press the water, then they go the idea that the rod was making water and they started to peck the rod. So I held the rod in the nipples so they’d peck there.

I think Leah got it first. She’s spunky and brave and once she was pecking furiously at the nipple thing, SheRa got the message too. Pretty sure they all got at least some idea of it, I’m going to check on them every so often today to redo the lesson until I’m sure they all know how to use it. Then I’ll raise it a bit more off the ground so it’s more comfortable for them to reach.

 

[Lara J]

Today the hawk netting was delivered! My (very tall) 17 year old son helped me install it over the chickens’ whole play yard. It needs a bit more fixing to look really nice but it’s up and I was so happy to be able to let the girls out today without having to watch the sky nervously! I’ll post pictures once I fix it a bit more to look a little nicer.