Worried mother Hen....integrating.

[chickens really]

Yeah we are going to revamp down to 4 boxes. Put them on the back wall so I can reach them from the outside. I usually don’t listen to him either. Lol!!!

This time don't listen to him either........

 

[Cmumford]

It doesn’t look like my post earlier added all the pics. So here are the ones of the full coop abd of Baby if anyone had and idea of what breed she is.

 

[chickens really]

Easter egger...EE....

 

[aart]

View attachment 1179376 View attachment 1179377 We have 2 roosters and 11 hens (including Baby). Breeds vary, oldest is roughly 2 yrs and Baby is youngest but we are sure of her age as we got her from someone else who didn’t have the time to invest with her. But we have had her for I would say at least 2 and a half months now and she was young when we got her. I have attached two pics of the roosting area. Three roosting polls in the one corner (2 ft, 3 ft, and 4 ft in length) then we have polls in front of the laying boxes each about 4.5 ft long and one board at the very bottom same length that they would use when they were very young. We are getting ready to re work and move the boxes to the outside and grant more true roosting space. Right now we have a light that stays on in there at night at help with laying since the days are shorter. I suggested to my husband we turn that off after I put them all to roost but he said to leave it on. And if anyone has an idea of what breed Baby is please let me know. I have attached a pic of her as well.

Definitely need better roost arrangement.....14 feet of roost length total.
Is your light in a timer..... or on all night long?
Baby has an EE face with beard and muff, but who knows where those feathered feet came from.

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

View attachment 1179376 View attachment 1179377 We have 2 roosters and 11 hens (including Baby). Breeds vary, oldest is roughly 2 yrs and Baby is youngest but we are sure of her age as we got her from someone else who didn’t have the time to invest with her. But we have had her for I would say at least 2 and a half months now and she was young when we got her. I have attached two pics of the roosting area. Three roosting polls in the one corner (2 ft, 3 ft, and 4 ft in length) then we have polls in front of the laying boxes each about 4.5 ft long and one board at the very bottom same length that they would use when they were very young. We are getting ready to re work and move the boxes to the outside and grant more true roosting space. Right now we have a light that stays on in there at night at help with laying since the days are shorter. I suggested to my husband we turn that off after I put them all to roost but he said to leave it on. And if anyone has an idea of what breed Baby is please let me know. I have attached a pic of her as well.

Hello again Cmumford,

This is part of a quote I wrote from another conversation:
All living things need down time. Darkness is very important for the good health of all animals, except for fish living at the bottom of the ocean or lifeforms that live in caves.

Depriving your birds of darkness will eventually stress them out. They need to have at least 8 hours of darkness. Chickens have circadian clocks just like we do. When the night and day cycle is distorted to the extreme, 24 hour days, the chicken's health will be adversely affected.

I respect my husband's opinion, but, if his suggestions are wrong...they are wrong. But, I will always use facts to back up my point of view. Where the well being of a living things is concerned, we as custodians, must provide for their needs. In doing so, our needs will be met too.
Here is an enlightening article on the subject, no pun intended...
http://www.henclass.com/light/

God Bless and peace to you.

 

[Cmumford]

Definitely need better roost arrangement.....14 feet of roost length total.
Is your light in a timer..... or on all night long?
Baby has an EE face with beard and muff, but who knows where those feathered feet came from.

Thank you. Will defiantly work on it quickly. The light is on all night long. This has big one are my husband and I don’t agree on as u can tell. I feel it needs to be turned off at night.

 

[Cmumford]

Hello again Cmumford,

This is part of a quote I wrote from another conversation:
All living things need down time. Darkness is very important for the good health of all animals, except for fish living at the bottom of the ocean or lifeforms that live in caves.

Depriving your birds of darkness will eventually stress them out. They need to have at least 8 hours of darkness. Chickens have circadian clocks just like we do. When the night and day cycle is distorted to the extreme, 24 hour days, the chicken's health will be adversely affected.

I respect my husband's opinion, but, if his suggestions are wrong...they are wrong. But, I will always use facts to back up my point of view. Where the well being of a living things is concerned, we as custodians, must provide for their needs. In doing so, our needs will be met too.
Here is an enlightening article on the subject, no pun intended...
http://www.henclass.com/light/

God Bless and peace to you.

He has been keeping it on all night. But only does it in the fall and winter. So we only recently turned it back on at night. Maybe winth in the last month at the most. Do u still think I need to drop it by 15 minutes a week?

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

Chickens only need a maximum of 16 hours of daylight to achieve full egg laying potential.

There is simply no justification to leave the light on for more than a 16 hour day, they need 8 hours of downtime.

Get a timer for the light. When the sun sets, it will go on for a few more hours till you have 16 hours of light. Then, the timer will turn off the light, so the chickens can get some rest.

Chickens don't always tuck their heads under their wings to sleep. I find that only my retired hens, that are not laying anymore, will do this. The young girls will just sit and look around, or preen, or jump around on the perches, till I turn off the light. My light goes off 30 minutes after sunset, year round.

 

[aart]

Yeah, all night white light is not good.
Any drastic change is going to have consequences,
not sure how changing it now(again) will affect your flock.

Best to ramp it up slower, tho some go from winters 10 hours to 12-14 after molt.
I like it best coming on in the morning with a timer then having them go to roost with the natural sunset. Some folks split the extra light between morning and night so as to not have cocks crowing at 3-4am.

Here's another link about supplemental lighting:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2011/09/supplemental-light-in-coop-why-how.html