Will chickens help my depression?

[3goodeggs]

Green? You have green? Didn't you just have snow? I am starting to think Florida is over rated.
I am ready for green... or maybe not. Hot is around the corner.

 

[tgooberbutt]

OK its been 2 weeks since we got the chooks, and stage 2 to freeranging is underway. I have built a little pen just for now, so that they can get used to being a little be further away from their coop, and they can see the rest of the garden. I will tuck them up in their coop at night, and let them out every day for about a month, then I will think about removing the netting over the pen which will give them the option of jumping over if they want. They love this extra bit of space.

Have they learned to go back into the coop at night by themselves yet?

 

[JohnPeel]

Have they learned to go back into the coop at night by themselves yet?

Yes they have, what we do every day, is open the back of the coop up, Sue blocks them from jumping out in panic, as I grab them and put them underneath in the small run.

It started off that I had to try really hard to catch them, but now only a couple of them are hard to catch, with the hardest being Korma. The rest seem to wait for me to pick them up, they just squat down and I grab them. I give them a cuddle before walking them around to the lower outside run door, I wont try to force them down the ladder. Korma is always the last one out, but now, as soon as the rest or underneath, she goes down the ladder on her own.

Once down, I block the coop off until late on, so that they can get used to being in the run where there is digging in soil and debris to be had. Once I reopen the coop, after I have cleaned the 6 inches of crap out of it, they all go up and down the ladder from coop to run.

When it starts to get darker, they seem to get really active, running from one side of the run to the other, and the ones that have gone up to the coop, do the same. Korma is amazing, if she is in the coop and there are others that have forgot how to get up the ladder into the coop, she comes back down, gets fussing around them, and goes back up the ladder while the others watch, then they all line up and go up the ladder to bed.

Yesterday afternoon I had opened the coop door and Korma had gone up, I had opened the little pen door for them for the first time yesterday and they loved it. Anyway, I had cleared out some veg boarders and the greenhouse and I went into the pen and dumped a wheelbarrow full of cuttings into the middle. Korma was watching from a window in the coop, and her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw what I had done. She ran down the ladder without her feet touching it, and dove head first into the pile of veg cuttings.

I have now decided to keep all their food in the run instead of the coop, to keep the coop clean mostly, but to encourage them to play out. I will keep water in the coop and water in the run and pen. And I will keep a bucket of grit in the pen too. It is still dark this morning, and I am hoping that when it is light, I will see them down in the run, but this hasn't happened yet. Fingers crossed.

Oh, no eggs yet. I have put 2 real eggs in one of the nest to show them what to do.My wife was looking in the nest boxes a couple of days ago while I was out cutting some wood, and I heard her laughing. She said she could see 2 eggs and was just about to shout me, until she saw the sellby date on them.

 

[JohnPeel]

Green? You have green? Didn't you just have snow? I am starting to think Florida is over rated.
I am ready for green... or maybe not. Hot is around the corner.

I love Florida, and believe me, I would much rather be their at this time of the year than here in the freezing wet weather.

The xmas before this one, we were in Florida. We left the UK just before xmas and spent 6 weeks driving around the Southern States. We started in Miami, and drove up the coast to Georgia, South and North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and followed the coast all the way around back to Miami.

We stayed for a week in Siesta Key and a week in the Floriday Keys. Other than that, we drove 6 thousand miles in 6 weeks and stayed in lots of different hotels. We saw some amazing things and met some really interesting people. **** those toll roads that you have to pay for though, Sunpas or something. My satnav got me into trouble twice and I had fines to pay.

I also went through a red light when I shouldn't. In the UK you cant turn at a red light at all, but in the US everyone does it if it is clear, and I think this is a great idea to keep traffic moving. But I turned at one that said dont turn when red, but I didn't see that until it was too late. $200 just like that.

2 Years before that we did a road trip that went from Los Angeles, Santa Maria, San Fransisco, Fresno, Las Vegas where we got married on New Years Day, San Diego, and back up to Los Angeles. That drive lasted 3 weeks, and one day we hope to be able to afford a trip from New York and go right through the middle of the country.

Sorry about my ramblings today, just in one of those moods. Oh, and on the maps, why is the lower part of Florida not seen as part of the Southern States?

 

[JohnPeel]

Just minutes after I posted the last 2 posts, it was light enough for me to see that Korma and The Chicken With No Name, were waiting in the run. They had climbed down the ladder on their own and wanted out into the pen. I got my boots on and ran to the coop. I could see that the other 4 were going crazy in the coop, looking at me through the window and making all kinds of noise. But they are just going to have to go down the ladder on their own today, well, until later on anyway, I can't let them starve up there if they are not sure about getting down to their food.

Anyway, after all the fun they had yesterday, I just couldnt help but open the nest boxes. And right next to the 2 shop bought eggs, was a super fresh egg from my own. Which one, I have no idea, maybe the one that has a limp and a twitch this morning.

Here it is, nest to a shop bought egg. It is nearly the same size and colour too. Yippee! I have put it in a bowl with some straw for my wife to see when she, at some point, falls out of bed and comes into the kitchen.

 

[tgooberbutt]

Congrats on the egg!! awesome!

And, do you actually keep the coop door open to the run at night? Will bad night-animals get in? If you're looking for yet another project, you could make an automatic door that will open at dawn and close at dusk...

And I actually work in the San Francisco, and I live in a very urban area just across the Bay Bridge. Drive-by shootings (I kid you not) and an Ikea within 5 minutes of where I live, and we're zoned for chickens LOL! My chickens would surely be jealous of the yard and work up you have there.

 

[JohnPeel]

Congrats on the egg!! awesome!

And, do you actually keep the coop door open to the run at night? Will bad night-animals get in? If you're looking for yet another project, you could make an automatic door that will open at dawn and close at dusk...

And I actually work in the San Francisco, and I live in a very urban area just across the Bay Bridge. Drive-by shootings (I kid you not) and an Ikea within 5 minutes of where I live, and we're zoned for chickens LOL! My chickens would surely be jealous of the yard and work up you have there.

Yes, the door to the ladder and the little run underneath is open all the time, I iwll only close it if I am cleaning the coop out and they are all in the run so they cant get back up till Im done. There is just no way a critter can get to them. I have completely sealed off the coop and run from anything. It has no gaps bigger than 1/2 inch hardware mesh, and the mesh extends 2 feet from the run on all sides so nothing can dig under. Sounds like you could do with a coop like mine to live in yourself by the sounds of the driveby shootings and things.

Do you think there is a connection between Ikea and the driveby's

We don't have driveby shootings here that I know of, but we do get gypsies and the odd tealeaf (theif) that might wander around looking for scrap metal or anything not nailed down.

On closer inspection in the coop this morning, I found that there was another egg, but it had be smashed and not in the nest box. Also one of the shop bought ones had a dent in it. I hope they arent turning into egg eating chooks.

 

[3goodeggs]

Quote: I have never seen that. The north half is always threatening to cut off the lower half because they messed up their water and now want ours, but... That's the environmentalists grumbling and I don't think it has actually happened.
And some people feel that enough northerners live down there that it is actually New York with a sun tan, but...

It is sub tropical but that should still keep the state together. I will start looking for that.
Congrats on the egg. It doesn't get old.- well, the egg will, but the thrill of finding them doesn't.

 

[Bunnylady]

Congrats on the first eggs!

Sounds like your birds have been keeping you busy and entertained, and now they are starting to feed you, too. They can be a bit stupid when they first start laying, so I don't think you need to get too worried about egg eating, but here's an article you might find useful to read anyhow:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/six-tips-on-breaking-your-egg-eater

 

[JohnPeel]

Later in the day another chook gave us another egg, this time it was a double yolk! We had egg on toast for lunch.