New to raising chickens.... Need help/advice!

[ozark hen]

Can you put her in and close a door? Lots of folks have had to "train" their chickens to a coop. Good luck, sounds like we all need to stay in and stay warm.

 

[basicliving]

I think this is one of the sweetest things I've ever heard. Luclin999, I don't know your background, but you obviously have had no chickens recently. It just warms my heart that you would adopt this little chicken.

Can you close her in the house you built for her? It's not uncommon to keep chickens in their coop for several days before letting them out, so they know where "home" is. If you can close her in there, she won't be happy. But keep her in there several days, and she will learn to think of it as "home". Once you enclose a "run" for her, I would allow her out there, but not in free in your yard, for at least a couple of weeks before allowing her to free range. She needs to identify with her run and coop as "home" so she will naturally return to them at night or in times of danger.

You are wonderful for taking in this little orphan!

Penny

 

[birdlover]

Chickens feel safer the higher up they can go.

 

[Luclin999]

Well, I finally managed to get the run built (8' long x 4' wide x 6' high) and put her small coop in it.

Up until now she hasn't been using the coop, just sleeping up on the branch in the bushes she likes but tonight it is supposed to drop into the 30's with fairly high northern winds so my wife and I finally decided to force the issue.

We waited until midnight to make sure that she was asleep (and probably miserable from the cold winds) and then went out and grabbed her and put her into the coop.

Once I let her go she started to complain but then seemed to realize that the inside of the coop was warmer and free from wind and she quickly settled down.

We were surprised at how little a fuss she made. We moved her food and water into the run, locked it up and will see how she is in the morning when she wakes up in there.

 

[willowcol]

Aww sounds like a great place you made her. My first 4 chickens are OEGB. They were unwanted hens from kinda the same place you think yours came from. My husband over heard a guy talking about having to cull a bunch of week old chicks cause they were hens, he asked the guy if we could get them. That was back in March and they are the begining of my Chicken addiction. I don't think they train hens to fight, but that doesn't mean they don't get beat up by mean roo's. I am so glad she is safe and you are caring for her now. Hope she brings you years of joy and lots of eggs.

 

[Guinea Goonie]

You do have a red jungle fowl hen. She is a beauty !!

The roos are used for fighting, not the hens.

The hens can be VERY friendly and if you find yourself with
a cackling hen, you will have a friend.

The same thing happened to me. I had a few of these start to run my barn and one laid a clutch and I got the eggs from her. We hatched out the eggs and this is where I got my roo.

These birds can fly really well !!

 

[Luclin999]

Well it looks like Holiday likes it here..

She's become friendly enough to run up to us when we go out into the yard and to eat treats from our hands. She will even let us pet her occasionally.

Over the weekend we found these in the little house I built for her... One on Saturday and one on Sunday.

So on Sunday I went back out to the feed store and picked up a bag of food for egg laying chickens (crumbles) and started feeding her that.

 

[birdlover]

Ooohhh, thanks for the update!!!! She is absolutely stunning and I'm fascinated that her eggs are 2 different colors, I mean distinctly different. I'm so glad things have worked out for her and you. Thank you so much for sharing her with us!

 

[PortageGirl]

YAY!! It's always nice to have a pet that provides breakfast! Hope you like having her! Thanks for the update!!

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Oh yes, these little hens can lay the eggs. One thing though. I did notice that she has YELLOW legs. This means she is a cross and not a true red jungle fowl, thus the difference in colors of your eggs !!