ackie
previously jwehl // dogs & cats & squirrels oh my!
(TL;DR at bottom)
I know you have to lock your free-range pullets into the area with the nesting boxes (coop, pen, whatever) in order to teach them where to lay. I've been avoiding it because I dont actually have the appropriate amount of space per bird, but now a bunch of them have bright red faces and combs so I'm going to try it. BUT I know stress will knock them off laying, so it seems counter-intuitive to take away their unlimited free-range space and coop them all up together.
They already sleep there and have worked out roosting - actually mixing it up every night with different birds next to different birds every night, which surprised me - so they definitely have enough roosting space. I could coop up fewer of them, but that would mean locking the others out which would break them of sleeping in the coop, which I think would be more annoying in the long run.
I have considered sectioning off half (that's the easiest spot to do it), keeping the red-faced ones on one side, moving the rest to the other side, putting up the divider, letting the non-layers out in the morning, reopening the whole space to the layers & then reopening the whole thing like 30 min before dusk for everyone else to go to bed and repeat. But that sounds like a lot of work.
I'm going to stop rambling now.
TL;DR not enough space to lock them up and feel guilty about it, but want eggs. what do?
I know you have to lock your free-range pullets into the area with the nesting boxes (coop, pen, whatever) in order to teach them where to lay. I've been avoiding it because I dont actually have the appropriate amount of space per bird, but now a bunch of them have bright red faces and combs so I'm going to try it. BUT I know stress will knock them off laying, so it seems counter-intuitive to take away their unlimited free-range space and coop them all up together.
They already sleep there and have worked out roosting - actually mixing it up every night with different birds next to different birds every night, which surprised me - so they definitely have enough roosting space. I could coop up fewer of them, but that would mean locking the others out which would break them of sleeping in the coop, which I think would be more annoying in the long run.
I have considered sectioning off half (that's the easiest spot to do it), keeping the red-faced ones on one side, moving the rest to the other side, putting up the divider, letting the non-layers out in the morning, reopening the whole space to the layers & then reopening the whole thing like 30 min before dusk for everyone else to go to bed and repeat. But that sounds like a lot of work.
I'm going to stop rambling now.
TL;DR not enough space to lock them up and feel guilty about it, but want eggs. what do?