Suburban chicken family

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Ponypoor said:
Greetings fellow Ontarioan, how are your Azur Blues doing? Do you still have them? I have 3 of my own who lay lovely blue eggs, and they are super nosey and friendly.

Of course I also have 27 other chooks 😊

Flopsy, one of the Azurs
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Hello, hello 👋!!!
Apologies for the late response!!! It’s been a hot minute in our house for the past few weeks!!!

Yes ☺️, we still have them and they are growing bigger, I think that they’ve achieved adulthood at this point from the look of it, but not laying just yet. Fingers crossed 🤞 for soon though, but who knows with the colder days 😅.
I think that they definitely are both hens at this point.
Where about are you if I can ask? We are in lower Stoney Creek, bigger city is Hamilton.
 
I have a question about the behaviour of my chickens - this is an established behaviour that has been consistent over the past 3 months.

Their chicken coop is a fairly short structure and within their run they have higher places to go to - mainly the top of the roof, so that’s where they have elected to go to sleep and every single day I have to take them down and put them inside, once they realize they have not much option they do go inside and on the roost.
Another one is that even though they have space that is roofed off and protected from the rain - they choose to sit in the spot that isn’t and they get super wet (we have like 3-6C here, so it’s not too warm).
I realize that they should be smart enough to decide for themselves if it’s a good idea to sit out in the rain, or maybe it’s better to hide, but since I am new to chickens I am just wondering what you might think about such behaviour.
(They are 23 weeks old now).
 
chrissynemetz said:
How much room do they have inside the coop? If they feel too crowded they might choose to stay outside, even in the rain.
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There are two of them, but I guess the sleeping space itself is fairly small, it’s 6 square feet; and then the roofed area is 12 square feet. The whole run is decidedly bigger -64 square feet.
They spend majority of their time sitting on the roof - rain or shine.
 
Airamx said:
There are two of them, but I guess the sleeping space itself is fairly small, it’s 6 square feet; and then the roofed area is 12 square feet. The whole run is decidedly bigger -64 square feet.
They spend majority of their time sitting on the roof - rain or shine.
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Sounds like they have no choice but to sleep on the roof because there is not enough room to roost. Either expand the coop or reduce the amount of birds.
 
TwoCrows said:
Sounds like they have no choice but to sleep on the roof because there is not enough room to roost. Either expand the coop or reduce the amount of birds.
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Coop expansion it is then.

Although it makes me wonder, I actually let them out quite late in the day, usually 7:30am, maybe they just don’t like that? I may be able to correct this with the automated chicken door and letting them out earlier? Maybe they are bored of waiting, it’s just by the time I deal with the kids in the morning 7:30am rolls in and that is that.
 
Airamx said:
Coop expansion it is then.

Although it makes me wonder, I actually let them out quite late in the day, usually 7:30am, maybe they just don’t like that? I may be able to correct this with the automated chicken door and letting them out earlier? Maybe they are bored of waiting, it’s just by the time I deal with the kids in the morning 7:30am rolls in and that is that.
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We don't have an automatic door so mine wait until I toddle down there. Sometimes it's dawn, sometimes it's closer to noon. Their food and water is in the coop and they have room to move around so I don't worry about them. I do want them out asap though while the weather is nice so they can enjoy the bugs and grass, etc.
 
Airamx said:
Coop expansion it is then.

Although it makes me wonder, I actually let them out quite late in the day, usually 7:30am, maybe they just don’t like that? I may be able to correct this with the automated chicken door and letting them out earlier? Maybe they are bored of waiting, it’s just by the time I deal with the kids in the morning 7:30am rolls in and that is that.
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I don't think this is a factor.
 

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