- Jul 21, 2014
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Hi!
I wonder if you guys can be of assistance to me and my 'ladies'! A little background info.... I live in Belgium, and got my son 3 chicks of a week old, in April... I hand reared them, all went well, no big hastles, put them outside, also went absolutely fine, the 3 of them grew into beautiful, strong chickens. now, here is my problem! We went on holiday, and we left our ladies in the capable hands of friends of ours. They did a fab job, until one evening, they came in, and just saw feathers all over the pen... in the coop, on top of the roof of the pen.. and found our smallest lady dead, behind the coop. The others seemed unharmed, except for a limp on one. that has since healed, but here is my real problem... They slept ontop of their coop... not in it as they used to! The people left them there, sleeping ontop of their coop, for a week... I came home, re-cleaned the entire coop with Dettol and vinegar, to get rid of any predator smell left behind, as we suspect the attack started in the coop. The ladies have never slept on a stick, they always slept in the one nestbox... I hung heavy duty refrigerator flaps in front of the entrance, to make them feel a little safer.. I have had to shove them in their coop, every night now, for 8 nights, as they still refuse to enter at dusk, and start eying the roof again.... now, I do deter their access to the roof, but they seem to become nervous. they do go out of their 'flap covered door' no problem, but I have to shut the ramp on the coop, as they just want to escape the moment they are put in at night.. Today I changed the 'look' on the inside of the coop, by adding a sleeping perch and a cardboard 'barrier, to 'separate' them from the sight of the entrance of the coop, trying to make them feel safer. After dark, I go out and open the ramp, so they can get out whenever it gets light... They do seem to stay in all night, but, is there anything else I can do to make them go in by themselves? Please, my vacation time is over, and I do shifts up to late night... and would really like them to do what they did before.....
any advice would be much appreciated, thanx!
I wonder if you guys can be of assistance to me and my 'ladies'! A little background info.... I live in Belgium, and got my son 3 chicks of a week old, in April... I hand reared them, all went well, no big hastles, put them outside, also went absolutely fine, the 3 of them grew into beautiful, strong chickens. now, here is my problem! We went on holiday, and we left our ladies in the capable hands of friends of ours. They did a fab job, until one evening, they came in, and just saw feathers all over the pen... in the coop, on top of the roof of the pen.. and found our smallest lady dead, behind the coop. The others seemed unharmed, except for a limp on one. that has since healed, but here is my real problem... They slept ontop of their coop... not in it as they used to! The people left them there, sleeping ontop of their coop, for a week... I came home, re-cleaned the entire coop with Dettol and vinegar, to get rid of any predator smell left behind, as we suspect the attack started in the coop. The ladies have never slept on a stick, they always slept in the one nestbox... I hung heavy duty refrigerator flaps in front of the entrance, to make them feel a little safer.. I have had to shove them in their coop, every night now, for 8 nights, as they still refuse to enter at dusk, and start eying the roof again.... now, I do deter their access to the roof, but they seem to become nervous. they do go out of their 'flap covered door' no problem, but I have to shut the ramp on the coop, as they just want to escape the moment they are put in at night.. Today I changed the 'look' on the inside of the coop, by adding a sleeping perch and a cardboard 'barrier, to 'separate' them from the sight of the entrance of the coop, trying to make them feel safer. After dark, I go out and open the ramp, so they can get out whenever it gets light... They do seem to stay in all night, but, is there anything else I can do to make them go in by themselves? Please, my vacation time is over, and I do shifts up to late night... and would really like them to do what they did before.....
