New Chicken Farmer - Random Questions

[steveholtam]

Hi all! My first post! I have three hens, all about six to seven weeks old. A Buff Orpington, an Americauna and a Black Australorp. I read a great deal about the brooding and construction from this great site before getting them and while building my coop and run. Currently the little ladies are outside during the day, but I bring them in at night.

Here is a pic of the run and coop. I "stole" many ideas from all the coop design pages and made mine. Plenty of ventilation around the tops of all four sides and then the barn doors on the side facing the run open up to hardware mesh for even more air flow. Oh, I'm in Sacramento, so it gets quite warm here. There are also three nesting boxes. The draw bridge ramp should keep them safe at night. The coop is about 3x4 and the run is about 3x9. I've re-enforced the entire thing quite heavily against predators, which there are quite a few about. All in all, I'm quite happy with the construction phase.




But now I have some general questions. And in no particular order...

1) The last few nights I have left them in the coop after sun down to see if they will take to the roost. They are just huddled in a corner though. How will they know to roost? I even built them a little ramp to the roost.

2) When I get to leave them in the coop at night, do I need water and food in the coop section?

3) I used an idea from one builder where the floor of my coop is hardware cloth. The chickens seem to walk around on it fine. But is this bad? Should I place something more natural in there? The nesting boxes will have hay or similar.

4) With the big ventilation around all sides, during the winter I'm thinking it might get a bit breezy inside the coop. Should I add some shutters? Not to fully close the vents, maybe to come down at 45 degree angles sort of. More to reflect wind and rain?

5) At what age will they be ok to stay out all night? They seem to have most of their feathers, there just young chickens. Is it an age thing or a temperature thing? Our lows are about 55 degrees at night.

I think that is it for now. THANK YOU FOR ANY ADVICE!

Steve

 

[bluemusefarm]

1) They'll get it eventually. It's their instinct to roost, and they'll do it. No worries.
2) I like to have food and water always available to my flock. I'd say yes, even though it's probably not entirely necessary if you're letting them out right away at sunrise.
3) We use pine shavings for the floor, and clean it out every 2-3 months. Not sure about hardware cloth, but as long as it's reasonably easy for you to clean and isn't slippery or awkward for them to walk on, it's probably fine. My own preference: the more natural, the better.
4) We have screened windows on all sides of our coop, and we'll replace the screens with glass for the cold Minnesota winter. They do have other vents, however--and on the not-so-cold days, we'll open the coop door and let them go outside in the run, too. I would NOT left cold drafts through the coop. Ventilation is one thing, but cold drafts might be deadly.
5) I don't think this is about age...chickens just naturally want to be inside at night, I think. Our hens run the coop and backyard all day, unrestrained, and at sundown, they want NOTHING MORE than to get inside the coop and up on their roosts/perches.

Just my best ideas/advice. Hope it helps! Good luck -- and have fun!

 

[TallChickMagnet]

It seems that all of your questions were answered, with some good answers so I can't add any more, so all I have to say is...

 

[JeffOeuf]

Don't worry...they will huddle for a few days, then move to the perch...at least mine did it that way.

As for the floor, think about walking on screen wire barefoot...would you want to do it? Visit some of the threads showing rescued production birds, look at their feet, and I think you'll change your mind about a screen floor.

I put food and water in the coop at night for the first few days after I moved them in. I read a few threads saying it was not necessary and realized that they weren't eating or drinking at all overnight. I took it out, avoided a bit of mess, and they seem to not mind at all. This winter I will probably change that up and move the water into the coop instead of the run, so it will be less likely to freeze, but that's a different discussion.

If I were in Sacramento, I wouldn't be worried to much about shuttering a coop up. You hardly ever get below freezing, right? Chickens don't mind a breeze, they do mind getting too hot.

Mine are about 21 weeks old and have been in their coop and run since they were 6 weeks old. They free range whenever it is daylight and one of us is home, which means pretty much daylight til dark 4 days a week and from 1:00 to dark the other 3 days. It only took me 2 days to have them trained to go into the coop at dusk...even on those two days, they wanted to, but hadn't figured out that the ramp was the way to get where they wanted to go. They show up at the door to the run about an hour before dark, wander around the run for a half hour, then waddle up the ramp to the coop and their roost.

 

[steveholtam]

Thanks for the advice! I think I'll do pine shavings or such for my coop floor as well. It will look better at least. In Sacramento it only deeps below freezing a handful of times at night per winter. And that is usually when it it not windy or stormy. Just calm and cold. So I think I'll be ok as is.

I'm still trying to decide about free ranging my chickens during the day. I have a big orange tabby cat that has been eying the chicks since I got them. I'm not sure if a full grown chicken can defend itself from a cat or not. My 8 year old Beagle seems like she wants to play with them as well.

Again, thanks!

 

[ShelterFarm]

Regarding the cat - not once did our orange tabby pay the chickens one ounce of attention (even as chicks) now that they're bigger and older he doesn't really go near then and is scared of them for the most part. There was some curiosity in the beginning, but that faded.

As far as defending themselves - my columbian roo managed to attack and kill a crow, so I don't think a cat would fare any better - your best bet might be to let them smell each other out and see how it goes - just stay close for the first few hours.

R-

 

[sumi]

I see you got some good advice here. Would it be practical for you to free range them when you are around to keep an eye on them? Like for an hour in the afternoon? Cats can be trained not to bother chicks, we had 5 running around here at one point and no problems at all. But I suppose, like dogs, they need to be taught LOL. I don't think a cat would mess with a grown chicken though.

 

[JeffOeuf]

Mine are surrounded by cats. I wouldn't have trusted them when they were chicks, but at about 15 weeks we started letting them out around the cats. It didn't take long for the cats to get the idea that a confrontation would not turn out well for the cat.

Dogs, on the other hand, I would be very concerned about. Like Sumi suggests, the best way is to start out with fully supervised ventures outside the coop. If all goes well, you can start leaving them out longer and with less supervision.

 

[donrae]