Deblett
Songster
Hi I'm Debbie,
Recently moved to Northern Portugal and have bought myself 3 Wyandotte 10 week old chicks just to get back into the swing of having chickens. (had about 10 layers in UK many years back). My opening question is: Can I leave 10 week olds out all day or should I allow them to sneak back in to the coop most of the day which is what they are tending to do at the moment? We are building a large stone purpose built coop in a couple of months as I intend to enlarge the flock greatly but for the time being I bought a small wooden chicken house (Comfortably holds about 8 grown chickens) which opens up into a grassy run of about 5 metres square. The reason I ask, is that because of the coop size, I would rather not leave their food and water inside because it makes such a mess. Also they are tending to scatch around for food inside rather than out, so they are just tearing up all the bedding and pooping everywhere so I am having to clean out every day at the moment! Any advice would be appreciated.
Recently moved to Northern Portugal and have bought myself 3 Wyandotte 10 week old chicks just to get back into the swing of having chickens. (had about 10 layers in UK many years back). My opening question is: Can I leave 10 week olds out all day or should I allow them to sneak back in to the coop most of the day which is what they are tending to do at the moment? We are building a large stone purpose built coop in a couple of months as I intend to enlarge the flock greatly but for the time being I bought a small wooden chicken house (Comfortably holds about 8 grown chickens) which opens up into a grassy run of about 5 metres square. The reason I ask, is that because of the coop size, I would rather not leave their food and water inside because it makes such a mess. Also they are tending to scatch around for food inside rather than out, so they are just tearing up all the bedding and pooping everywhere so I am having to clean out every day at the moment! Any advice would be appreciated.
