New Member

[NEPASCOTT]

Hello - New member from North East Pennsylvania, new to chickens. Have been checking the website since March to get ideas for building the coop, incorporated a few but winged it a lot also. Coop is complete and now the home to one rooster and five hens. A couple of questions, one on coop design and one on chicken behavior. The nesting boxes are built on the outside accesable through a hinged roof, as I saw on many of the designs, and is shingled. How do I stop leakage when it rains through the hinged area of the access roof. I tried a cut bicycle inner tube, but I still get some water.
And on behavior - the rooster and a few of the hens took to beating the snot out of one of the hens. I seperated her in the daytime and put her back in to roost with the others a night. She would emerge from the coop in the morning with feathers ripped out and bleeding. I now have her completely seperated and she free ranges all day (the others are in a run) and sleeps in a large plastic dog carrier. which I built a roost for her inside. During the day she will visit the others at the run, her on the outside them on the inside. Is it safe to put her back in the run? All of the other chickens seem to get along fine with just minor scuffles here and there.
Glad to be part of the group and am looking forward to any and all advice. Scott

 

[Cats Critters]

 

[chicmom]

Hello Scott and welcome!

In regards to your hen that was beat up, why don't you try letting the other out to free range with her a little bit, for say, an hour before dark each day. Then you can kind of watch and see how they treat her. If you just put her in with them, she won't have anyplace to hide if they start picking on her again.

Or, if you have room, why don't you get two or three more hens, and then put them all in together at the same time....so all the focus won't be on your one hen....there will be three our four newbies......


I definitely wouldn't put her back in with the others unless all her wounds are healed, because blood makes a chicken act crazy.

I wish I had some advice for your leaky next boxes, but I have no idea what you can do for that.

Others will come around with advice, I'm sure!

 

[Soaring Chicks]

from West Vrginia