Chickens...what next?

[SheWoff]

Okay, we got our 6x12 foot dog pen to put the chickens in today! Yahoo! Now, what do we use on the floor of it? Right now it's on bare ground that is a little damp and cold. And not sure what to use for a coop either. We have a big table that is about 3x5 and about 3 feet off of the ground that we could use to make a coop on? Or is it better to have something just a tad bit off of the ground?

Here is what we are getting...3 hens and a rooster who is very gentle with his hens and people. 2 of the hens and the rooster are black asterlops? Not sure of the spelling lol. And one of the hens is an Alachua? They are from this spring, they are laying now pretty well, getting a laying mash at present by the owners. Giving some tasty brown and blue eggs! I also don't know if I am supposed to keep a light on in the coop too? And all night or just a few hours?

Can you tell I am a complete newbie to this? :roll::wink:

She

[AngelDance]

Okay, we got our 6x12 foot dog pen to put the chickens in today! Yahoo! Now, what do we use on the floor of it? Right now it's on bare ground that is a little damp and cold. And not sure what to use for a coop either. We have a big table that is about 3x5 and about 3 feet off of the ground that we could use to make a coop on? Or is it better to have something just a tad bit off of the ground?

Here is what we are getting...3 hens and a rooster who is very gentle with his hens and people. 2 of the hens and the rooster are black asterlops? Not sure of the spelling lol. And one of the hens is an Alachua? They are from this spring, they are laying now pretty well, getting a laying mash at present by the owners. Giving some tasty brown and blue eggs! I also don't know if I am supposed to keep a light on in the coop too? And all night or just a few hours?

Can you tell I am a complete newbie to this? :roll::wink:

She

Congrats and welcome to CA (Chickens Anonymous)!

3 feet off the ground from the coop floor (using your table idea) is ok as long as you have a ramp with raised bars (think cat walk) on it for them to use to come and go.

you should probably get along with your coop construction with nest boxes (for 3 hens you only need one or two) so your girls will get used to laying in the coop...saves easter egg hunts lol!

They do not need a light unless you are trying to force lay during the winter months. Hens lay when there are more hours of daylight (as during the summer) and will slow down during shorter daylight hours. Keep in mind that they will "burn out" faster if you force them.

Hope this helps,

Angel

[grower]

She,
For the time being, you will need to keep your chickens up for maybe 2-3 days, just until they get used to their new surroundings, and begin to feel at home. You can lay a broom handle or piece of PVC across the kennel, and stretch a tarp over for a "roof." Attach it to the chainlink with bungee cords. Stick a broom handle or stick through the chain link from one side to the other, for a roost. A coke crate or a tire (with rim) can serve as a nest, if you fill it with hay or straw (leaves work, in a pinch).

Then google some plans for a hen house....it doesn't have to be complicated, just something for them to roost in at night, where you can lock them up safe from predators.

[Indigo]

http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/tractors.html

This link has a huge photo gallery of chicken coops. Some are quite ingenious! You should be able to glean all sorts of good ideas there on ways to make chicken coops and tractors, often using found or low cost materials.

Hope that helps!

Indigo

[Nicho1]

I welcome you to the world of chickens, as well. It is a fascinating place! I had gotten 2 Barred Rocks and 2 Black Australorps in August. They were supposed to be hens but one turned out to be a rooster. Who knew? :-D Anyway, they have been a lot of fun.

Now, to share a little of what I know. Since my hens aren't laying yet, I can't add much to that. One is getting into the nest and "singing" so I think it won't be long.

They love to be "up" on something, not only at night, but during the daylight once in a while. I made a roost with some 2 X 2 boards as the roosting spots onto some 2 X 4's to hold them up about 30" off the ground. I then made a ramp for them to walk up. They often forego the ramp and just fly up.

I have put a lightbulb into a brooding lamp and it is hanging about 2' above the roost. That stays on for a couple of extra hours after dark. I had considered leaving it on when it gets colder to give them a little heat but I don't know for sure yet. It's not really critical that they lay bunches of eggs.

My shelter for them is inside the barn so you have a little different situation. They will need something, I would think to keep the winds and cold away and also added protection.

For the outside run, I put some poultry mesh over the top of the whole thing to keep the hawks out. By using PVP pipe, I made cross pieces to hold the poultry mesh up. With elbows, I could join the pipe. For the bottom, I put a T-connector and added some extra pipe for "legs" to keep it from falling. So far, it has done well...both in not falling and keeping out the hawks, etc.

These little things are like having a TV show to watch. It is really fun to see how they figure out things and how they interact with each other and with me. They fly up onto my knee to get a treat so that makes me really enjoy them.

One thing you may want to consider...worm them. I found a GIANT worm in the poop. The vet said it was a gape worm. He said to use 1/4 cc Ivermectin for each bird. Use a syringe without a needle to put the liquid into their beaks. Now that was a task. I wormed once and then again after 14 days. Seemed to have done the trick. Check on the internet for more info about worms.

Glad you got these, She. Enjoy! They will give you more than eggs. But that's just the way I seem them. I'm rather odd like that and my animals.

[goatlady]

You don't necessarily WANT any flooring - chickens are BRED to scratch the dirt! They scratch up extra protein and seeds that way AND grit for their croups which is necessary for the digestion. Just put down a nice layer of hay or leaves for them to "move" around. They WILL need a roost up off the ground for sleeping - instinct for them to go "high" for safety and round is best for their "feet". They WILL need protection from the weather and varmits! Not necessarily necessary are layig boxes though. I have never had any and my girls lay nicely in the corners of the coop just fine. chickens need 12-14 hours of light to trigger the egg production hormone so if you want eggs in the winter a light will do the trick. I put mine on a timer for early a.m. and from dusk to abut 2-3 hours into the evening. Lots and lots of bedding will keep their feet dry and them also in cold weather. Summerthyme and I both use the deep bedding method - just keep adding straw/leaves/etc all winter 2 feet or so at a time. Clean out in the spring for the compost pile though it's usually pretty well composted by then and never smells at all. You CAN teach your girls where to lay in the coop - they make phoney eggs just for that purpose or use a hardboiled egg as a sample. Astrolopes are good winter layers and nice chickens all round. They are my second favorite after the Buff Orphingtons.

[IdahoMom]

Congratulations She. Chickens eat bugs, lay eggs and make fertilizer. They are fun to watch. What's not to love ?

I think your table would be fine. It might take them a couple days to figure out how to get up there. I usually pick one and show them the thing I want them to learn. They squawk and pitch a fit, but if one get's it pretty soon they all catch on.

I use a closet dowel for my girls pirch. It's kind of thick. Remember if you are making a perch don't just make it six feet or twelve feet. Add a couple inches so it will go to the outside of the pen and stay in place.

I am working on deep bedding this year too. First I put down two bales of pine shavings, than two bales of straw, then I have been dumping all the leaves I can get my hands on in their coop. For the winter I actually put them behind the fence in my backyard over the vegetable garden and let them clean it up, they loved it.

It is good to have some place where they can get out of the wind and rain, so even if the top of your pen is covered and they have a coop, I would make a little windbreak for them on a corner. For example use some wood or cardboard to make a windfree corner for them.

I have four Rhode Island Reds and reliabley get four eggs a day. But not the last week, I have only found six eggs! I am thinking rather than putting a light on them I will just let them rest this winter, because I did have a light on them last year. Also thinking if they aren't using all their energy for egg-making maybe they will stay plumper and warmer? I am just guessing on that though.

Well, good luck!

[goatlady]

My only problem with letting the hens "rest" in the winter is that then in the Spring I have to buy a bag of the higher protein egg laying feed to kick them back into cycle. Once my girls start laying I just feed them cracked corn and sweet feed 50/50 and that keeps them laying regularly year round with nary a problem for years.

[deanne]

For high protein feed I use horse feed to get the girls to start laying. Works.I use it after molting, and when egg production slows.

[SheWoff]

For high protein feed I use horse feed to get the girls to start laying. Works.I use it after molting, and when egg production slows.

10 or 12? I bet they would like sweet feed. :-D

Wow, thanks everyone for all the ideas and suggestions! LOL knowing me, I'll probably try every one of them. :mrgreen: Here is where the pen is...it's up against the house so we have something to fasten it down to. And it is on the south side so that they will be protected from the harsh north-east winds in the winter but get the warm southern breezes on summer days and evenings. :wink: The only problem is it's pretty shaded there, so when it rains like today, it takes a while for it to dry out. I'm afraid if I put too much down in there it will get wet and stay that way too long and end up getting moldy.

We can take that heavy table and put it into the pen and make a coop on top of it with a run up to it so they wont have to fly in. I'm a little confused though on where you put the leaves...If they need to scratch for grit wouldn't it be kind of hard for them to do that if I have tons of leaves in the pen? Or is that just for in the coop? Sorry if these sound like dumb questions, but it's out first time and I don't want to kill off my birds with stupid mistakes that could have been avoided.

Here's what the birds are...1 Araucana rooster and 2 hens and 1 Australorp hen. :-D I had those names totally mangled up lol. Sorry about that, I will get the hang of this yet! Anyways, they give us the brown and blue/green eggs that the hubby is so in love with the taste of. Well, me too if the truth be told lol.

Thanks again to all of you for the help. And if you can think of anything else we need to know as first timers, please let us know. I'm one of those people who loves their animals. I'm kind of funny like that too Nicho. :wink:

She

Oh, hubby has a big old heavy boat tarp we are going to use to cover the pen with. There are hawks and owls around here. Also coons and possums and coyotes which is why we will keep them in the pen instead of free ranging them. That and I don't trust the neighbors dogs!

[silvertop57]

I love to watch our chickens we have 3 reds 4 leghorns and 2 bantas one red rooster left. We used a part of the shed that the horses did use cleaned it out very well and put a floor in half of it out of left over pieces of plywood and stuff and left half dirt. I keep the feed barrel in that half and the laying boxes and the inside feed pans and water. On the dirt part we put the roosts we used left over 2x 4 and cut some sapplings and smoothed them out and the chickens love them. I keep a deep bed of straw over all of the floor and they really like that. We fenced a yard for them and put the plastic chicken wire over it because we have a lot of hawks and coons that want chicken for dinner. We have a solid door for winter with a little slider so they can go in and out while the big door is shut to help keep it warm. I also have a summer door that is just chicken wire stretched between 2 x 4s and hinged. We just switch them out for the season. Our chicken house is not fancy but it works. I worried about the cold here so in the winter we run a heat lamp if it gets real cold and that worked last winter. I also cabbaged onto some old carpet that someone gave us and we cut that and lined the outside walls with it and that made a big difference. Our chickens live in style. lol

[deanne]

12 % if I can get it.

I have 2 Aracana hens, 29 Australoup hens, 100 golden comets , 50 cornish rocks, and a few that I don't know for sure what breed they are.

[TNHermit]

She
I just got home from a week at Daughters place and they have had chickens for years. I watched and I think the only thing they did was collect eggs LOL, They do feed them occasional. Other than that those things pretty much run free. they have a little 3x5 hen house and there is a small horse shed next to it. They use like to nest in horse shed all over the place. But they finally got them to use the hen house

Tori said the only time they use the hen house is at night. I think she has them trained LOL. Cause if she sees them someplace they shouldn't be she yells and they run. :)
I don't know nothing about chickens but what ever she does is pretty simple. Really simple! They are not your regular white chickens but some black kind

[goatlady]

She, chickens SCRATCH the ground ALL the time, in a pattern - lefl, left, right, left, left, right on the leg work! At least that's how my girls go at it. No chance of mold in the bedding, those hens will work it up, keep it stirred, and turned over all day long. If you are really concerned about moisture, just throw a blue trp over the top of the pen and prop it up in the middle with a 2x4 so the moisture will drain off to the sides. Be sure to have some good bedding IN the coop/house to soak up the urine and poopies and keep the smell gone! I usually sprinkle a nice dusting of lime on the ground before I throw straw in the coop to "sweeten" the gound and keep the mites at a minimum and in between each bedding addition. I also keep a nice pile of ashes from the stove in a corner somewhere so the girls can "dust" themselves - helps keep mites away also especially on their feet. If you want to free range your flock set a pattern for them. Mine get out about 8 in the a.m. and to train them home in the evening, I feed IN the pen in the evening so they come in and are safe for the night.

[Martinhouse]

About the hens scratching EVERYTHING. They sure do! I have noticed that whatever you spread for them to scratch usually ends up on the downhill edge of their area. I think they feel better balance if they are facing more or less uphill, and what they are scratching at gets kicked behind them.

So, if you dump, say, bagged leaves, put them at the highest part of the pen. Don't even spread them. You will be surprised how quickly those birds will have those piles spread out flat.

They LOVE to hit new piles! When I rake the yard, I have to do it early before I open the chickenhouse. If I try when they are out, they ruin my raked piles before I can even get them loaded into a cart!

Carol

[independent]

I live in a wooded area and this is the first year that I have owned chickens. I have 7 hens and I get about 6 eggs every day. I have installed a spot light for the run and a 60 watt drop light in the coop to keep the chickens awake longer. I have an automatic timer that turns the lights on at 6 and off at 9 pm. Also, once I got rid of my 2 roosters, the hens are laying better since they aren't so stressed out with the roosters going after them all of the time.It's alot quieter here too!I feed my hens bread heel pieces out of my hand once in a while and they really enjoy it. I put flax seed in with the feed so I will get the benefit of eating omega 3 oils from my eggs. I have racoons, foxes,and hawks to worry about, but I buried my fence around the run 18" and installed a wire roof so the hawks can't get to them.Last of all, I made the mistake of leaving my chickens outside the run while I went inside to eat dinner.Big mistake, a fox got one of the hens and 3 others took off so I lost four hens that day. Now when I let them out of the run I make sure I am always outside with them.I carry a leaf rake around to round them up when I want to put them back in the pen. Good luck, She.

[PatDaly]

She, something you might think about since you don't have a slew of chickens, yet ( trust me, you end up with more....) is to fence off your Garden area and in the spring move them out to the garden, they root the thing up wonderfully, and eat virtually every bug, seed, etc.

Then when it is time to plant, makes it easier to keep weeds, etc. out.

We have 15 right now, so I am looking for an old single axle travel trailer ( the short 10-12 Ft. variety ) to make into a coop I can move behind the barn after the chickens go back into their normal coop.

[eyeswideopen]

Welcome to the world of chickens! It is an addiction! :-D

While they are one of the most amazing of God's creatures (imho) and easy to care for, they can bring many questions as to care, feeding, housing, emergencies and behavior.

When I have questions about my flock and need a quick answer, I turn to www.backyardchickens.com (http://www.backyardchickens.com)..

The many experts there are an invaluable source of info.

[SheWoff]

Gee everyone is SO amazing with all the knowledge you have! Thanks so much for those who have posted so far...hubby can't wait to read this thread with me in the morning LOL!!

It's been raining here all day long non-stop. :sad: That means absolutely nothing got done with the coop today. But, our friend is bring the birds tomorrow afternoon, so during the day tomorrow I'll be out with hubby putting it all together for them. I'm SOOOO excited!!!! WoooHooo!!!

She :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

[Indigo]

When I had my farm I had a good 150 free range chickens. Yes, I lost some to owls, hawks, foxes and the occassional cougar. However, after a time I actually had a population of chickens that were very good at raising their own chicks. The stupid ones just didn't make it. I fed them some, even in summer, more so to keep them coming when I called them. :) I had a coop, but they had free run to use it or not. Some would. Some roosted in the trees or in the rafters of an old barn. One rooster and one hen took up residence in the horse barn. They ranged with their buddies during the day but at night you would see them skeedaddle to the horse barn where they roosted in the rafters. I did have nest boxes and the hens did use them for laying, but they also had spots out in the woods or the dairy barn where they would lay eggs. I always had more meat and eggs than I could possibly desire and sold a lot of eggs and gave oooooodles away to needy people.

Chickens are one of my favorite critters and are a blast to watch.

In winter I did have heaters for their water...otherwise they just don't stay hydrated enough and warm enough.

I never had trouble with them in my garden, but I had a lot of pastures where they would range. Didn't have much for a fly population. They are also great at keeping ticks down. :-D I'm sure if the space were smaller there would have been trouble with the garden, though!

In winter I used Summerthyme's deep bedding method.

I had some chickens that used to roost on a mini donkey at night. hahaha! Sure looked cute to see a row of chickens on his back!

Indigo (who misses her chickens)

[PatDaly]

But, our friend is bring the birds tomorrow afternoon, so during the day tomorrow I'll be out with hubby putting it all together for them.

Well??????

We have Chickens yet?

[SheWoff]

Well??????

We have Chickens yet?

No, got rained out again! Since we had the flu so recently, we aren't real anxious to go out in the pouring rain to work on getting the coop ready. So, we wait. Our friend has a big shop, so he went ahead and made the nesting boxes and such at his place and will bring those over with the birds. We did get the feed and that at the mill. Got two big trash cans with tight lids to keep in the garage for to put the food into. I think we will go with the laying mash since they are already on it and cracked corn too since they are bigger birds and can handle it? So far...waiting on this darn rain...hoping this afternoon.

She

[grower]

She...I know how you feel! I'm getting the same stuff. I just started a fire in the fireplace and a pot of chili on the stove. But as damp as everything is, I don't know if the fire will take off. The chickens won't have a problem waiting a day or two for the move. Y'all take your time, and don't get sick again!

[Freeholder]

You'll enjoy those chickens once you get them home. I've got (let's see, counting here, LOL!) nine Golden-laced Wyandottes -- beautiful birds, and good layers; three Buff Wyandottes; six Easter Eggers, usually sold by the hatcheries and feed stores as Ameraucanas, which they really aren't; two Silkie (bantam) roosters, and eight half-Silkie, half Easter Egger chicks about two months old. Those chicks sure are cute -- they have top-knots like their Silkie dads. I'm going to keep most of those chicks as their moms went broody (a desireable trait for self-sufficiency!). The Silkies seem to be decent layers when they aren't broody, and the Easter Eggers are very good layers, so I'm hoping to have some small layers out of this batch. They are a lot of fun, although they can be very messy if not confined.

Kathleen