Spoiled? Un-smart? WHAT?!!

[BattleChickens]

Quote:
I think I am very confused on size and age and number of chickens housed in the 5x5 coop. 22? or 12 hens (chicken over the age of 1 year) and some 3-4 week old chicks and 10 meaties in a separate tractor. I agree on the re-thinking. perhaps leave it the 8x5.
I don't cook that many eggs for my husband! def won't do it for stubborn chickens... Get a scratch bucket that makes noise. give it a shake and give them a treat in their coop. before you know it all you have to do is reach for the treat bucket and they come runnin. Pigs with feathers...

Connie

Okay, so I have just been informed (by the measuring-tape wielding DBF) that our shed (soon to be coop) is, in actuality, 16'x18' (that's 128' sq ft of coop space!). . . ummmmm . . . I forgot to mention that I am HORRIBLY inept at estimating anything - time, weight, height, length, distance, etc. DUR. So, according the 4 square feet per bird rule, we're in the clear! In fact, I may need more chickens or less space . . . We'll have 25 laying hens (as long as they're all girls

) when all is said and done. We're in South Central Alaska and I wanted to have enough hens to keep each other warm in the coop without supplemental heat.

I have 33 chickens right now. 15 of those are cornish cross that will be dispatched before the fall. They range in age from 2-7 weeks and live outside in the yard and in their tractor (except for the young ones who are still in the brooder). 17 of the chickens are out in the sectioned-off shed (which happens to be a 8'x6' area) right now. 3 of those are 4wks, 2 are 3wks, 2 are 4mo, 1 is 9wks, 6 are 7wks and the rest are 6wks (3). So, 17 are CURRENTLY housed in the coop. 25 will be housed out there eventually.

I'm thinking we'll limit the scratch to night-night time for a while. Tomorrow we're putting in some nice birch roosts for the girls, too. We may even have to limit their free-ranging during the days. I can't wait to get the coop finished so my girls can finally settle-in . . . Maybe it just doesn't feel like HOME to them yet!

 

[Akane]

They are too young and they never learned to sleep in their coop. Mine don't even want to leave the coop for several weeks if not a month after I move them out there at 8weeks. They also rarely roost at that age. I quit leaving a roost out for the young ones because they never bother to use it until 3-4months anyway. Younger than that they generally just pile where ever they want without much thought to finding a proper place to sleep.

When you move new chickens out to the coop you should keep them penned up for at least a few days to a week especially if you don't already have a flock that goes in at night. Then it's best to let them out in the evening so they don't range far before dark and are more likely to go back in the coop. Do that for a few days and once they are going in at night let them out at noon for a couple days. If that works go to whatever schedule you want and see if they put themselves to bed. If not back up to where they were going in. Once you have some chickens going in at night they tend to follow along and things go quicker. Like I said mine also don't really want to leave the coop until about 3 months anyway so I just put them out at 8weeks and open the door normally. The adults go out and come back and the young ones hang out inside until they feel brave enough to pop out the door and back in. They slowly work themselves up to traveling farther and staying out later. I haven't had any trouble with them acclimating themselves after I established my first group of free ranging bantams.

 

[Judy]

Your measuring tape adventure was a riot!

OK, unless I missed something here, only thing left is the roosts. They do need to be at least the size of the wide side of a 2X4. Chickens do not like hanging on to a round roost. Even where I live, flat roosts let them rest on their feet and prevents frostbite. I don't have to put Vaseline on the combs to prevent frostbite, or other measures, but you will have to, so at least make sure they can rest on their feet and avoid this problem.

Have fun with your chickens!

 

[consdrs]

OK, I'm back to my original post. they need to hang out in the coop for a week to get to know where bed is. and I agree they need a bigger roost, 2x4, 4" side up. train them with treats.

I also have problems with sizing things up,

"what that's not 10' long"? "no honey its 3.5'". "OH". LOLOL!

Connie

editing to add: My vote is, instead of less space you get more chickens...

 

[Mrs MIA]

She's got a few more coming soon...

I agree... snug them up in that coop for a week or so, then let them out. Mine start going in about 10pm right now, since it never really gets dark out. But they do sleep for a little while.

The days start getting shorter again, slowly, starting today.

 

[krazycow6]

Yea, lock em up like jail birds for a week. That should help.

 

[BattleChickens]

Sounds like the gang is going on lock-down (with 2x4 roosts)!

Thanks, everyone!

Oh, and Tori - I can't WAIT for my BBS babies!!! Have they hatched yet?

 

[Hambone02]

I guess I have some strange chickens. Mine have about three ft per bird in the coop and five per in the run--they free range quite a bit. At night, they have plenty of roost space, but they insist on sleeping (nearly) on top of each other. I never had a problem with them not wanting to go to the coop at night. I would think if you kept them penned up for a while (with access to their run of course--they would "re-program" themselves as to where their "bedroom" was.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
Yep! I'm just waiting now to see how many girls we get. Trying to hatch more every week, just in case.

 

[chixrus]

did you leave them in the coop for a few days when they first moved in? if not, you might want to try that now. I had that trouble when i got a couple new hens last fall, and they influenced the rest of the chickens to stay outside too!