My chickens are defective

[Chickassan]

Hey at least they're easy to find right? I love you've got all those big ladies and that one little peanut girl so cute!

View attachment 1141055 Will only come out for this.....

 

[Krazyquilts]

You have healthy chickens that are giving you eggs and you have concerns about them staying in the coop. Why? My chickens do a great imitation of ducks when it rains. They get all soggy when they could be high and dry in the coop. I don't fret about it because I'm not the one getting wet. As long as my chickens are healthy, happy and giving me eggs they could hang upside down in the coop all day long and I wouldn't raise an eyebrow. They'll come out when they are ready too.

I'm not really concerned about it, it is just nice to hear from others that it isn't abnormal or a sign that the chickens are sick or something. I'm always worried about doing something incorrectly, you know?

 

[PirateGirl]

If it make you feel better, mine are defective too, 6+ months and NO EGGS!

 

[Sara Ranch]

It is wonderful that this site exists so we can ask questions, share experiences, laugh and cry together.

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

My hens started this behavior you are describing at 2 years of age. I had a set up for them as you do. The coop is in a sealed run. I also had "Predator Eyes" blinking on the fence at night. So, I set up a trail cam to see what was going on at night. I was shocked to find a bobcat stalking the perimeter of the run at night! Poor things it was out there watching and waiting. After seeing this I inspected the fencing around the run. I found a hole ripped into a small area where I had cheaped out and used chicken wire instead of hardware cloth. The hole was located about 4 ft. off the ground. So I promptly did repairs and covered the windows of the coop with hardware cloth and used bolts and washers to secure it.
After a month or so, they relaxed and went back to normal. All was good for six months. I would let them out in the back yard where I could keep an eye on them, but this August that bobcat finally got one of my precious hens. In broad daylight, it jumped into the backyard and instantly leaped back over the 6 foot wrought iron fence with her. I am still in grief over it. But, this is life for a chicken. They are prey animals and they know it. Do your best for them, and just be vigilant. There are all kinds of critters lurking at night and during the day. I am now installing an electric fence, but until it is completed, I just sit outside and watch over the girls, rooster, dog and cats too. I have also told myself no pen or coop is 100% safe.

 

[PirateGirl]

My hens started this behavior you are describing at 2 years of age. I had a set up for them as you do. The coop is in a sealed run. I also had "Predator Eyes" blinking on the fence at night. So, I set up a trail cam to see what was going on at night. I was shocked to find a bobcat stalking the perimeter of the run at night! Poor things it was out there watching and waiting. After seeing this I inspected the fencing around the run. I found a hole ripped into a small area where I had cheaped out and used chicken wire instead of hardware cloth. The hole was located about 4 ft. off the ground. So I promptly did repairs and covered the windows of the coop with hardware cloth and used bolts and washers to secure it.
After a month or so, they relaxed and went back to normal. All was good for six months. I would let them out in the back yard where I could keep an eye on them, but this August that bobcat finally got one of my precious hens. In broad daylight, it jumped into the backyard and instantly leaped back over the 6 foot wrought iron fence with her. I am still in grief over it. But, this is life for a chicken. They are prey animals and they know it. Do your best for them, and just be vigilant. There are all kinds of critters lurking at night and during the day. I am now installing an electric fence, but until it is completed, I just sit outside and watch over the girls, rooster, dog and cats too. I have also told myself no pen or coop is 100% safe.

I think my hens have a false sense of security! They pull at my dogs tails and stand there when my cat reaches through the bars and touches their backs. One of these days it will not be my dog, but one of the local coyotes and I guess they will learn their lesson the hard way. I don't know how hard to try to "predator proof" my coop because I feel there are some animals that will be able to get in no matter what, and the fencing is just a deterrent, and hopefully predators will view the hens as too hard to get to instead of an easy meal.

 

[slordaz]

If it make you feel better, mine are defective too, 6+ months and NO EGGS!

some breeds, noticed it more with the ameracuanas I used to have, don't lay until up to 9 months old. Had a cornish x that wanted to be an egg layer like the others and roost she started laying eggs at about a year old. They will do what they do for the most part, and most times are more like cats if ya try to get them to do something your way instead of how they want to no matter what we want or think They give ya the finger and do it their way anyway.

 

[bruceha2000]

So, I set up a trail cam to see what was going on at night. I was shocked to find a bobcat stalking the perimeter of the run at night!

Um, that is more than a bit scary!

I don't know how hard to try to "predator proof" my coop because I feel there are some animals that will be able to get in no matter what,

You SHOULD be able to predator proof the coop. 1/2" hardware cloth over all openings, fixed with screws and battens or poultry/fence staples NOT Arrow style staple gun staples (other than for positioning). If you also have larger predators, 2x4 welded wire as well. Use poultry/fence staples on the 2x4 wire fencing. The small ones can't get through the HC that the big ones could possibly rip and the big ones can't get through the 2x4 fencing since it is larger wire. Put the 2x4 over the top of the HC on the outside or put the HC on the inside of the openings and the 2x4 on the outside. That way bigger predators will have a tough time getting to the HC so there is less possibility of it being ripped (unnoticed) leaving an opening for smaller predators like weasels.

If you have bear problems: I've read that people use hotwire fixed on or close to the coop. Bears raid bird feeders so if you store scratch or BOSS in part of the coop/run area, don't.

The run is harder since it doesn't have a solid roof but still possible. The free range area? You are right, a fence is just a deterrent and means nothing to avian predators.

 

[PirateGirl]

Um, that is more than a bit scary!


You SHOULD be able to predator proof the coop. 1/2" hardware cloth over all openings, fixed with screws and battens or poultry/fence staples NOT Arrow style staple gun staples (other than for positioning). If you also have larger predators, 2x4 welded wire as well. Use poultry/fence staples on the 2x4 wire fencing. The small ones can't get through the HC that the big ones could possibly rip and the big ones can't get through the 2x4 fencing since it is larger wire. Put the 2x4 over the top of the HC on the outside or put the HC on the inside of the openings and the 2x4 on the outside. That way bigger predators will have a tough time getting to the HC so there is less possibility of it being ripped (unnoticed) leaving an opening for smaller predators like weasels.

If you have bear problems: I've read that people use hotwire fixed on or close to the coop. Bears raid bird feeders so if you store scratch or BOSS in part of the coop/run area, don't.

The run is harder since it doesn't have a solid roof but still possible. The free range area? You are right, a fence is just a deterrent and means nothing to avian predators.

Well I have done what I can, short of pouring a concrete slab. Bears can tear into a car, so if they want to get into the chicken coop they will. Also I don't doubt that a determined coyote or badger could dig into the run if they really wanted while I was at work. Overnight the girls get locked up and are as secure as they can be, even if coyotes got in the run I don't think they'd get in the coop. We do our best to keep them safe, but partly I think it is what it is and in the back of my brain I know they aren't 100% safe and I may have a loss one day.

 

[bruceha2000]

Your last sentence is quite true. Not likely if they are in a strong coop but I wouldn't want my girls to live their lives in a "jail". So yes I take chances with them because they free range daily. No cover from aerial other than the bushes they hang out under when it is hot and/or the sun is high.

I lost a couple to foxes, that area is now enclosed with a 4' field fence with hot wire over the top. But there is nothing to keep them from digging a hole under the fence and doing so would be pretty much impossible to keep from happening.

And I lost 2 to a raccoon. One circumstantial evidence because we never found her, could have been a fox. The other decided to go broody on a clutch of infertile eggs (no rooster) she had laid outside. We had no idea she was there, she'd been gone over a week and I assumed she became some animal's lunch. She screamed at 3 AM one day and we rushed out to see her running around and a coon up a tree.

I didn't want her to move her broodiness to a nest box so I put her in a non secure coop which at the time had a hen recovering in the broody buster from some illness. The broody one was headless in that coop the following morning. I moved the ill hen in her box to the secure coop, coop door open all day so the girls can come and go and lay when they are ready. When I went to get the girls' scratch to call them in from free ranging LONG before dusk so as to avoid them getting caught by that coon I found the little @#$% going into the secure coop after the hen trapped in the box. It moved, not under its own power, to the woods.