Yippee! I'm now a chicken owner!! :)

18 years ago

Picked up five pullets last night--three Ameracaunas and two Golden Comets. They're so very pretty and in fabulous health! Bright eyes, perky dispositions, and great feathers.

We put them into their coop with adjoining run and they immediately commenced to pecking away at blades of grass and other yummies that they apparently found. I swear my blood pressure dropped 10 points just by watching them.

Poor things were chilly last night, though. For whatever reason, they did not want to use the roosts and opted to attempt to roost in the doorway. Well, only two fit, and two of the other three were inside the coop, but one poor gal was left outside and it was misting a bit. She looked so sad! I finally went out and shooed all of them inside, where there's at least a nice warm fluffy pine shavings bed if they're not going to roost. They were there this morning when I left for work, one right next to the other and fast asleep.

I'm so, so, so excited about this. They're used to being handled so they were very good about my clumsy attempts to befriend them. Tonight I think I'll give them a treat of some kind....maybe those big mealworms Velvet Sparrow writes about. I wanna be the food lady so they come a running whenever they see me. :)

Any suggestions for getting them to use their roost? And how can I be sure they're warm enough, other than giving them plenty of bedding and a ventilated but sheltered coop? As a first-time chicken owner I'm totally open to suggestions.

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Comments (4)

mjw15618
18 years ago
Congratulations! Watch out though...chickens are addicting! I currently have a dozen - 11 hens and a rooster. I wouldn't worry too much about them not roosting. I have six Ameraucana's, two Black Stars, a Buff Orp, two RIR's and a NH Red, and they all roost except for five of the Ameraucanas. I adopted those about a month ago, and they didn't have roosts at their old home, so I guess sleeping in a big pile is what they're used to! They may come around eventually.

Feeding them can be alot of fun. Chickens will eat anything! Mine love cheese, oatmeal, sunflower seeds, pasta, basically any kind of leftover you may have. I make up scratch mixes for them in addition to their layer crumbles...the current batch consists of oatmeal, millet, cracked corn and sunflower seeds. They get a few handfuls in the morning to peck around at all day, and they always have crumbles and water available. In winter, I supplement their diet with greens (cast-offs from the local grocery) and some alfalfa, while during the warmer months they free-range as much as possible. I have a portable "playpen" that I put them in to move around my acerage. It's made of pvc pipe and chicken wire and works really well. It keeps them safe, lets them eat all the grass and bugs they want, and keeps them out of my gardens!

Believe it or not, chickens really don't need extra warmth unless it's frigid...like way below freezing. As long as they're kept out of a draft and have plenty of bedding to snuggle into, they should be fine. They trap warm air under their feathers to stay warm. This time of year, especially, you shouldn't worry about them being warm!

Good luck and enjoy your new biddies!
tankshill
18 years ago
Congrats on your new little ones, they are so much fun. My last project was a new coop and run, it is now full. 24 pullets, 22 hens and two roos. They took a couple of weeks to figure out the roosts. Now all roost at night.

Mjw, I am building a "pvc play pen" as well. Not sure about the chickens needing acess to food while in it. I live on a hill and the water is a challenge. What is yours like? Can you give me some advice? gina
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Good advice here so far! If you Google 'keeping chickens in the city' you'll find a ton of pages with great advice also. :) I live in suburban Los Angeles and have a backyard flock. I have a coop for them at night and they roam the backyard by day. I do not allow them to jump fences or wander the neighborhood, and I keep the coop strictly clean so there is never an odor problem. You may have to trim the girls' wings at first, when they are young and are all horsepower and wing and not heavy enough to stay grounded. I always trim a new flock members' wings, by the time they have grown out again the bird has learned where it lives and doesn't roam. Make your yard the most atttractive to the chickens with lots of fresh food, water and nice nests and they'll prefer to stay home. Banties are the worst for wanting to explore, and as a general rule I trim anyone's wings whom I catch flying like a freakin' eagle. :) Usually the problem is in your cities zoning laws, and the issues with chickens fall under the noise ordinances (roosters). Also they must be housed so many feet from houses, etc. Some cities will be OK with a small number of hens, say 3, but will say 'No' to roosters because of the crowing. In my opinion hens are just as noisy or noisier during the day with all the 'Hey, I laid an egg!' cackling, but roos tend to start crowing in the pre-dawn hours. One thing you can do is to make sure and handle your birds daily--get them super tame and used to being picked up and petted. The less you allow them to run wild, the more they'll want to stay home, and if they DO hop a fence, they will be MUCH easier to catch. This also helps if they become sick or injured--trying to catch and help a wild chicken is nearly impossible. A few things you can do is check the home owners association guidelines to see if they specifically mention chickens one way or another. Check the cities zoning laws and ask the people at city hall if the homeowners association laws take precedence over city laws--I doubt if they do, so it may be that if the city says yes and the association says no--tough luck for the association! If neither one says no to chickens, talk to your neighbors--get them to sign a petition saying that they wouldn't have a problem with a small number of hens (offering fresh eggs and letting their kids come over to see the chickens is a great help in this area!) You can also see if you can get your home certified as a backyard wildlife habitat (check out the National Wildlife Federation's site), that might help protect the chickens. If you can use the birds in an educational manner (take them to local elementary schools and give a talk) that might help protect them, too since the animals are being used in an educational manner. You can also try to get them certified as therapy animals (you and your birds get some training, then you take them around to hospitals and visit patients) through the Delta Society (I'm going to see about this for some of my chickens). http://www.deltasociety.org/ So even with draconian statues, there may be ways around it, some kind of umbrella of protection for your birds. Be as sweet as pie to your neighbors and make good friends with all of the households surrounding yours and you'll most likely have no trouble from them by keeping chickens. :) Good luck! Velvet ~:>
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velvet_sparrow
18 years ago
Yay, congrats on the chicks! :) If they are still babies (about two months old + or - a week or so), they naturally want to snuggle together still, especially in new surroundings. Don't worry, as time goes by their instincts will tell them to go 'up' and they'll roost.

The only thing to do is to make sure that your roosts are the correct type--big enough around for chickens, and not too smooth and round. Usually smooth dowels or PVC are too slick, especially when it's damp out. They like a wee bit of traction. We use 2 x 2's, very lightly sanded to remove any splinter danger and to very slightly round off the sharp edges. Seems to be perfect for standard size chickens and banties alike. You can also offer tree branches with the smaller limbs and twigs removed.

My Silkie girls are adults and STILL prefer to snuggle in a pile on the ground, so yours may, too. :) Ya never know. Enjoy your birds, and you are right about them being natural blood pressure reducers. *G*

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sullicorbitt
18 years ago
Congratulations on your new birds! they sound like a wonderful mix! The Americaunas are my favorites! you will love their beautiful eggs, I never get tired of admiring them! I have some comet chicks in the brooder now and look forward to their eggs as well, they are suppose to be fantastic layers of huge eggs. I wish you the very best with your new girls :)

-Sheila

Yippee! I'm now a chicken owner!! :)

Comments (4)

mjw15618

tankshill

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