Newbie with a couple of questions

[CherryCandee]

Hello guys,

I just got my first chickens as a birthday gift from my hubby on the 21st ^^ We are TOTAL chicken noobs and I have a couple of questions that I hope you guys can help me with.

-We have a chicken coop and a run, 5 girls and 1 rooster; they are Silkie chickens. We open the coop door early every morning, and they all run out to eat and whatever, but they spend most of their time inside the coop. One of them has eggs (broody I believe is the word) so we leave the coop door open for her to eat whenever she wants to, but the rest end up spending most of their day inside the coop. Is that normal? should we let them do whatever they want? I decided to close the coop door yesterday after they went all out and put food and water for the chicken that's on the nest, is that ok?

-I live in Costa Rica, in a part that gets pretty cold at night. We don't have snow or anything like that, but it gets pretty windy and cold, and I'm afraid my chickens might be cold. How could I know if they are ok with the temperature? The coop floor has lime and pine shavings (several layers of each), a vinyl layer then wood under it all. The coop is made of rescued wood, so there are some cracks where the wind could be getting inside the coop. We have 3 windows which we close at night.

-They don't like to sleep on the sticks that we put out for them; they kinda 'nest' in the pine shavings or in the nests. We have one that is either a bantam or an 'adolescent' chick as it's smaller than the rest and she is always in the nest with the broody chicken in the mornings. Is it bad for them to nest on the coop floor, or should they be sleeping on the 'sticks'? They are not that high so they can all get on them easily. If they shouldn't be on the floor, how can we make them sleep on the 'sticks'?

Thank you all in advance guys (and sorry if anything sounds stupid, English is not my first language and there's a lot of chicken terminology I don't know!!) , I look forward to your replies and to being part of this community!!! <3

 

[sdsmowen]

Hello,

I am new too mine sleep on the floor and on the sticks. They did not at first it took them about a week to start using the sticks. I don't have a lot of answers but hope at least that helps a little.

I have noticed that ours come out in the morning then spend most of the day inside and come out again in the afternoon so I do not think the time they spend in the coop is a bad thing.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum! Glad you joined us!

I don’t know enough about you set-up, but chickens spend a certain amount of time eating. The food is stored in their crop while they go to a safer place to digest it. Once the crop is emptied, they go get more food. It’s a survival instinct. They are more vulnerable to predators when they are foraging so they do that quickly then go to a safer place. Their biggest instinctive fear is from hawks and flying predators. They like to be protected from things coming out of the sky. They obviously think the coop is a safe place.

They also need shade. Too much heat is a danger to chickens. They wear a heavy down coat year-around so they can handle cold pretty well, but heat can be dangerous. It sounds like your coop may be a fairly shady, safe place to them.

In the summer, mine spend most of the day in a shady covered part of the run, occasionally going out to eat. Your Silkies’ behavior sounds perfectly normal.

I don’t know what you consider cold. With their down coat, they can handle cold pretty well. They are in absolutely no danger from the cold if the temperature is above freezing. The danger when it is below freezing is frostbite. If your coop has good ventilation and the wind cannot hit them directly when they are sleeping, the danger from frostbite is greatly reduced. Mine spend nights with the outside temperature around -20 C (-4 F) with no heat and suffer no harm from the cold.

Those sticks are called roosts if that is where they spend the night. If they are on them during the daytime but don’t sleep on them at nights, you can call them perches.

Silkies can’t fly so they are a little different from other chickens. Some do roost on the roosts at night, but many like to sleep on the floor, even if roosts are low so they can get on them. There is no reason they have to sleep on the roosts. They will be OK on the floor.

If you want to train yours to sleep on the roosts, you can try moving them to the roosts at night after it is very dark and they have gone to sleep. Using as little light as possible, just pick them up and set them on the roost. If it is too dark for them to hop back down to the floor, they may get used to sleeping up there. But there are no rules that say they have to sleep on roosts.

Hope this helps some and once again,

 

[CherryCandee]

thanks a lot sdsmowen and Ridgerunner!!

I'm clueless about a lot of things about chickens, so I thought it could be somewhat dangerous for them to be laying on the floor, or to be inside their coop all day!! I'm relieved to hear this is normal behavior.

Their run does have a roof, but it's one of those corrugated plastic roofs with UV protection, so it's not 100 transparent and I'd say it provides enough shade for them, but I'll try giving them more shade to see if that helps keep them out of the coop.

Cold for me is no less than 17 F, which may sound like nothing to you!! They won't definitely get frostbite, plus we close all their windows at night. We've been doing exactly what you suggest, move them to the roosts once they fall asleep, but if that's no issue with them we can just let them sleep ont he floor.

Thank you guys for your help!