Our first egg!!!

[Happy hen lover]

Congrats on first egg.! It's so exciting getting those first eggs!.
I agree with Kiki scratch is like candy for chickens. I offered mine all flock or grower feed all day until they were all laying. Once mine were laying I went to layer feed. All flock is fine all of their lives with oyster shell free choice at all times.
Her eggs will get bigger over time but she's still young and will grow even bigger.
Do they have a roost to sleep on? Like a perch?
You will be surprised how much they will LOVE one nesting box! But to an extent they will share the fav. box once all are laying. Mine lay at different times of the day. Some times when they are learning you might find an egg in a random place ( fav. box was full!) But for the most part they like one box . They're weird that way.

 

[Granny23]

They all should start laying soon... depending on what they eat. Can you figure out what you bought?

I will be going to the feedstore soon to see what I bought and get a food thats better and for laying hens.

 

[Granny23]

Congrats on first egg.! It's so exciting getting those first eggs!.
I agree with Kiki scratch is like candy for chickens. I offered mine all flock or grower feed all day until they were all laying. Once mine were laying I went to layer feed. All flock is fine all of their lives with oyster shell free choice at all times.
Her eggs will get bigger over time but she's still young and will grow even bigger.
Do they have a roost to sleep on? Like a perch?
You will be surprised how much they will LOVE one nesting box! But to an extent they will share the fav. box once all are laying. Mine lay at different times of the day. Some times when they are learning you might find an egg in a random place ( fav. box was full!) But for the most part they like one box . They're weird that way.

So am I hearing that boxes are not what they should be sleeping in or on?? They should be on perches???? Does anyone have pictures of what I should have??
I have an amazon parrot...do I get perches according to their feet size like with a parrot?

 

[Granny23]

Congratulations on your first eggs. They should sleep on a roosting bar never in a nest. Close off the nesting boxes during the night. You will find they will all lay their eggs in one nest maybe 2.

A roosting bar should be up off the ground right? They obviously like to be up.
We are finding out that our coop got much more wet than we expected with this first storm that came thru. We kept the chickens dry and safe during the worse times but we will need to do some carpentry soon if we have more weather like today.

 

[STACEYH]

Yes, they will love it high. Sorry about your coop. Would it happen to be a prefabricated one?

 

[MochaLatte]

So am I hearing that boxes are not what they should be sleeping in or on?? They should be on perches???? Does anyone have pictures of what I should have??
I have an amazon parrot...do I get perches according to their feet size like with a parrot?

Correct - they actually really enjoy to sleep up high (safety from predator instincts!).

Nesting boxes should just be for laying, and they will certainly stay cleaner that way. Chickens poop a LOTTTT overnight.

I use 2x2 lumber pieces for my roost bars. They were about $2 each from Home Depot for me.

You'll want to make sure they are put up higher than the top of your nest boxes, as chickens will seek out the highest location to roost for sleep. Here is a silly gif that shows my coop setup inside/roost bars/nest boxes... including one of my girls being done laying her egg and making a run for it to go play outside again, haha.

 

[Wrangler4]

I have 15 chickens right now and use 2x4 on their side for my roost. I have one lower and about 18” back is a second one higher. They don’t all fit on one so the pecking order comes into place as to who is allowed on the top one. They use the lower one to jump up to the top one. It does not matter how many boxes you have because they decide a certain one or two boxes are”it” and all want to lay there. You will hear complaining when someone is in the box they want. It works out though. I have them lay early morning until just before bedtime. You never know.
Search online for roost ideas, there are many creative ideas out there.

 

[Granny23]

Correct - they actually really enjoy to sleep up high (safety from predator instincts!).

Nesting boxes should just be for laying, and they will certainly stay cleaner that way. Chickens poop a LOTTTT overnight.

I use 2x2 lumber pieces for my roost bars. They were about $2 each from Home Depot for me.

You'll want to make sure they are put up higher than the top of your nest boxes, as chickens will seek out the highest location to roost for sleep.

00

Here is a silly gif that shows my coop setup inside/roost bars/nest boxes... including one of my girls being done laying her egg and making a run for it to go play outside again, haha.
View attachment 2929825

I love that!!! My coop is 8x4 with 2 doors.We are going to really put in our thinking caps to figure this out. We had a winter storm, the first since our coop was built and we've seen some real problems with the design. Much of it needs to be covered with plywood. The girls are out all day but need to be kept warm and dry when inside the coop. The wind blew right inside but I was able to hang things to keep the wind out. Water? Not so much. But we will get on it.
Thank you for the gif...great ideas flew into my head.

 

[Granny23]

Yes, they will love it high. Sorry about your coop. Would it happen to be a prefabricated o

Yes, they will love it high. Sorry about your coop. Would it happen to be a prefabricated one?

It is not although I do have a prefab one that we used when we had the first 4 chicks. It is available but no one uses it.
Our big coop was built for us and for the most part its great but after this last storm I am noticing some problems as I mentioned in other posts.

 

[STACEYH]

If you show use pics we might be able to help suggest things to fix your issues.