Moving chickens outside

[Blooie]

x2 - whoever coined the phrase, "Doesn't eat enough to keep a bird alive" has never owned chickens. <sigh>

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I'm glad to hear the made it through the first night okay. The way to manipulate a chicken is through its stomach. Move their food out of the coop and down to the bottom of the ramp. To further entice them, you can sprinkle a fine trail of feed from the top of the ramp down to the feeder at the bottom of the ramp.

X 2 - that being said, you also need to be sure that the ramp is not too "scary" for them to want to try (even for food). If it's at all steep you can raise the end of it up a bit to lessen the angle - they'll go to the end and hop on/off.

 

[in2camo]

I thought I built the perfect ramp, but they still go about half way down and just flap off. You'll be fine.

 

[chickenbum]

Funny enough as soon as I opened the door one of the chickens just got on the ramp and strutted down like she had done it a hundred times before. Now the trick will be getting them back in the cube tobight!

 

[Michael OShay]

Funny enough as soon as I opened the door one of the chickens just got on the ramp and strutted down like she had done it a hundred times before. Now the trick will be getting them back in the cube tobight!

Make sure the food is back inside. )

 

[in2camo]

I only feed and water my chickens outside of the coop. Generally once they're on the roost they don't move around in the dark. Keeping food and water in the run just makes it easier to keep things clean.

 

[chickenbum]

That makes sense since last night as they were getting settled they tipped over the water and I had to clean that up before closing up the coop.

 

[N F C]

I only feed and water my chickens outside of the coop. Generally once they're on the roost they don't move around in the dark. Keeping food and water in the run just makes it easier to keep things clean.

That makes sense since last night as they were getting settled they tipped over the water and I had to clean that up before closing up the coop.

Now that our weather is really heating up, I do put a small bowl of water in the coop for the girls. The bowl is only big enough to hold about 1 1/2 cups to 2 cups of water and every morning, it's almost gone. I set it in a corner where the coop walls brace it on two sides and elevate it on a block of wood. I figure if it does get knocked over (and that hasn't happened yet), it won't be much to clean up. But it is warm here and I don't want them going too long without access to a least a little water. In the beginning of our chicken-keeping days, we tried a regular waterer and that was a complete mess but this simple ceramic bowl is working well for us and our birds for the little time they are awake and still closed up in their coop.

 

[chickenbum]

That's exactly what we did tonight. I thought letting them go the whole evening with out H2O was a bit much.