ahliajade
In the Brooder
- May 3, 2017
- 6
- 4
- 29
Hi all, I'm brand new to having chickens, we've had our girls about a week and a half. I bought 5 pullets and they seem to be happy in their new home.
I built our run and coop myself. It's an old tin rainwater tank that we weren't using. We've laid it on it' side and chocked it with bricks, so it won't roll away lol. I've also made a door on the front as well as a nesting box access door at the back (with bolts on the doors). I'm pretty confident that they will be safe and secure at night, as I lock the doors once the sun is low and the girls have gone inside. The run has chicken wire fencing roughly 6ft high, with a bit of wire also laid across the ground on the outside, and buried to stop anything digging in (hopefully). However, I'm fairly certain that no foxes would be able to get into the coop even if they did make it into the run area.
Because I bought them as Pullets, is there anything I should do to make sure they are healthy? I was told they have been vaccinated and wormed.
I'm waiting for some DE to arrive in the mail, then I'll dust some in the coop and in their dust bath areas.
One of the hens is doing quite runny orange poops. Is this a concern?
I'm attempting to use the deep litter method in the coop, I'm fermenting their feed (which they seem to like) as well as feeding the kitchen scraps.
A couple of the chooks are braver than others and come fairly close, but I havent been able to hand feed, touch or pick them up yet. A couple of them still sometimes run away when I get close. I know it's still early days but can I expect to be able to pick them up in the near future? I'm not sure how much they would have been handled as baby chicks.
Thanks in advance for any help, and thanks for reading my novel haha
Ahlia
I built our run and coop myself. It's an old tin rainwater tank that we weren't using. We've laid it on it' side and chocked it with bricks, so it won't roll away lol. I've also made a door on the front as well as a nesting box access door at the back (with bolts on the doors). I'm pretty confident that they will be safe and secure at night, as I lock the doors once the sun is low and the girls have gone inside. The run has chicken wire fencing roughly 6ft high, with a bit of wire also laid across the ground on the outside, and buried to stop anything digging in (hopefully). However, I'm fairly certain that no foxes would be able to get into the coop even if they did make it into the run area.
Because I bought them as Pullets, is there anything I should do to make sure they are healthy? I was told they have been vaccinated and wormed.
I'm waiting for some DE to arrive in the mail, then I'll dust some in the coop and in their dust bath areas.
One of the hens is doing quite runny orange poops. Is this a concern?
I'm attempting to use the deep litter method in the coop, I'm fermenting their feed (which they seem to like) as well as feeding the kitchen scraps.
A couple of the chooks are braver than others and come fairly close, but I havent been able to hand feed, touch or pick them up yet. A couple of them still sometimes run away when I get close. I know it's still early days but can I expect to be able to pick them up in the near future? I'm not sure how much they would have been handled as baby chicks.
Thanks in advance for any help, and thanks for reading my novel haha
Ahlia
![20170511_125036[1].jpg](/data/attachments/548/548241-c703a9e3e7865e11909a4a81275a7291.jpg)
