Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[vehve]

Still no egg at 1pm, so I'm guessing Veera has just adapted to a new laying rhythm.

The flock decided to go exploring the more wooded part of the fenced in yard.

They're spending longer times outside the run, today they roamed around the yard for four and a half hours before deciding to go back into their run. There they were greeted by a bit more sand (I found two 25kg bags of leftover sand in our shed) and a huge pile of garden waste which I had mixed some oat grains into. Now they're scratching around it looking contempt. They really are fascinating to follow.


Hershy, I missed your post earlier. That's a nice looking set up you've got there. You seem to have a ferocious guard kitty on the look out there.

 

[Bens-Hens]

Looks like a great chicken play ground!

I don't think our issue is egg eating just yet, probably more to do with teen age layers. The Rocks sisters seem to have no social manners. Olive and SUmmer have both been chased off the nest in the past by one/both of the evil sisters. When an egg is ready it's ready and twice I have found Olive's egg in the run, one of them I now for certain she was in the nest only minutes before. My guess is she was just about complete and was disturbed, in the process of leaving through the tunnel the egg simply fell out.

Theholed egg today was so thin a toe or little peck could have broken it, the membrane was still intact, nothing eaten inside, just had a hole in one end. Could have been a peck or a toe while getting off the nest. The one I found this morning was thing too, also had a crack at one end but that was crealy from falling 800mm into a pile of overnight poop!

Only once we have had an egg eaten, and that was one of the fertile ones under Sal when she was broody.

See what tomorrow holds, hopefully we get a it of sunshine.

 

[vehve]

Looks like a great chicken play ground!

I don't think our issue is egg eating just yet, probably more to do with teen age layers. The Rocks sisters seem to have no social manners. Olive and SUmmer have both been chased off the nest in the past by one/both of the evil sisters. When an egg is ready it's ready and twice I have found Olive's egg in the run, one of them I now for certain she was in the nest only minutes before. My guess is she was just about complete and was disturbed, in the process of leaving through the tunnel the egg simply fell out.

Theholed egg today was so thin a toe or little peck could have broken it, the membrane was still intact, nothing eaten inside, just had a hole in one end. Could have been a peck or a toe while getting off the nest. The one I found this morning was thing too, also had a crack at one end but that was crealy from falling 800mm into a pile of overnight poop!

Only once we have had an egg eaten, and that was one of the fertile ones under Sal when she was broody.

See what tomorrow holds, hopefully we get a it of sunshine.

You've placed your roosts with impeccable precision.

The drapes don't seem to be working for you then. I don't remember anymore, did you have a communal nest or dividers? Perhaps they would leave them alone in a shared nest? Or then you could fashion a weight activated closing door system for a nest, so that when someone is at the back of it, the door closes (I know you started drawing up plans in your head immediately when you read this)

 

[Bens-Hens]

Hahaha, I did think about how that door would work!

They are 6 individual nests. As interesting as the door idea sounds, I think I would rather remove the two Rocks for a week and bring them down a peg or two.

At the moment, we have been holding off to see if they settle down a bit once they regularly begin to lay for themselves.

 

[vehve]

Hahaha, I did think about how that door would work!

They are 6 individual nests. As interesting as the door idea sounds, I think I would rather remove the two Rocks for a week and bring them down a peg or two.

At the moment, we have been holding off to see if they settle down a bit once they regularly begin to lay for themselves.

Ah, I thought you had already put them in the naughty corner for a bit. Yes, throw them into the rooster box. A bit of solitary confinement might make them rethink their behavior. Not that I know if you can train a chicken to distinguish between allowed and forbidden things, but dogs you clearly can. Our older lab knows perfectly well that food up on tables and counters is off limits. But still she sometimes steals something, and when you see her do it, sh immediately puts her ears back and her tail between her legs (while stuffing the rest down at an even faster pace). A couple of days ago Karin threw her into the toilet after she had stolen a sandwich. She then left for work, and I was supposed to release her after a while. Five hours later I got a feeling I had forgotten something, and lo and behold, she was still locked into the little 1 square meter toilet in total darkness. Didn't even try to steal anything for a few days after that though, until yesterday when she did it again. This time she was made to sit on a chair next to the table with a plate of food on it for 15 minutes. I'm hoping we can get this behavior back in check, our dogs are starting to resemble a pack of wolves soon. No manners at all.

 

[Hershy]

Before I started reading on this site, it never occurred to me that chickens would need a naughty box!

My chicks arrived safely, vigorous and much tinier than the feed store chicks I'd gotten previously. I ordered 10 and got 3 additional "packing peanuts", but it's like your hatches, they are straight run. So it's wait and see now. They are blue, black, splash, lavender and lemon cuckoo orpingtons. Just got one quick photo to share.

 

[vehve]

Before I started reading on this site, it never occurred to me that chickens would need a naughty box!

My chicks arrived safely, vigorous and much tinier than the feed store chicks I'd gotten previously. I ordered 10 and got 3 additional "packing peanuts", but it's like your hatches, they are straight run. So it's wait and see now. They are blue, black, splash, lavender and lemon cuckoo orpingtons. Just got one quick photo to share.

Congrats on your new flock members. You might want to consider some bird vitamins in their feed just in case, to keep them growing healthily.

 

[Hershy]

They have Save a chick in the water and I mixed some of the feed with water just to get them started. They are eating both the wet and dry. As soon as I dipped their beaks, they all took a drink. I'm pretty impressed. Like you said yesterday, they're pretty durable. Thanks

 

[vehve]

They have Save a chick in the water and I mixed some of the feed with water just to get them started. They are eating both the wet and dry. As soon as I dipped their beaks, they all took a drink. I'm pretty impressed. Like you said yesterday, they're pretty durable. Thanks

It's amazing how their behavior just comes instinctively. It was pretty fun to see them try dustbathing, scratching around the litter and roosting for the first times.

 

[Wrightsx4]

Before I started reading on this site, it never occurred to me that chickens would need a naughty box!

My chicks arrived safely, vigorous and much tinier than the feed store chicks I'd gotten previously. I ordered 10 and got 3 additional "packing peanuts", but it's like your hatches, they are straight run. So it's wait and see now. They are blue, black, splash, lavender and lemon cuckoo orpingtons. Just got one quick photo to share.

Congratulations- glad they arrived safely. You'll have a very nice flock combined with them. My orps are very reliable daily layers.
Oh, and yes, I have a penalty box for mine too. Lol. I have quite a few roosters. They get along quite well but occasionally one of them needs to be separated. I put the aggressor in a pen alone while the rest of the roosters reestablish the hierarchy. When he's released he's usually content at the bottom of the order. Most of the time they're good boys except when one of them decides he wants to be the new leader.