My eco solution to rat problems

[chili pepper]

My cube came yesterday ....HURRAY.... it went together extremely well and easily! Hubby and I didn't shout at each other once!!!!

 

I put my three chooks into the nest section they then decided to venture down the ladder, what a sight Ruby was the first down, in a flurry of legs and wings in a most undignified fashion, the other two soon followed in exactly the same way. When it was time to go to bed they were pacing in the run looking across the garden at their old eglu and obviously wanted to go back in there. Eventually they decided to try to go up the ladder, they were trying to jump into the cube from the ground and not use the ladder at all, then Dot tried to jump onto the ladder and banged her head on the rung. They went up eventually, again with a lot of flapping and slipping. They had the whole family in hysterics, they were so funny!

 

But on a more serious note, I'm a little worried they may hurt themselves.

 

How long has it taken other chooks to master the ladder and have any chooks hurt themselves?

[ajm200]

Hi,

 

Our cube and chickens won't aririve for another 2 weeks but I see that no-one has replied to you so I thought you might find this thread useful as it is about a very similar subject

 

http://club.omlet.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19993

 

I hope it helps

[Helen&Lee]

Sorry I was about to respond earlier - then the computer froze

 

Mine took about a week to get the hang of it - but they are extremely funny to watch while they are sorting themselves out!

 

At the moment I shut them in, so in the mornings they hear me come out, top up the feed in their run etc. All the time I can hear them jostling for position ready for when the door opens - when I open it about 5 come out at once

 

It's the two sensible ones that then sedately walk down the ladder

 

Helen

[Chillicat]

Hi Chili Pepper

How funny - we are both chillies! And ours was delivered yesterday too!

Last night it got dark really quickly and they hadn't a clue where they should be going so we tried the torch method and in the end, my 10 year old, Dan had to climb in and lift each of the girls into the cube!

He's such a good boy and they let him do it without any bother. But tonight, three girlies managed to get into the cube all by themselves and then we watched the other two clumsily flap about until they made it in through the door!

I know what you mean about hurting themselves. It was too dark to see who it was but one little lady was jumping underneath the cube and banging her head - mind you she only did this a few times. The ladder did seem a little awkward for them, but hey, its only day 2 and I'm impressed!

Good luck tomorrow night!

[chili pepper]

two of my three have just about managed to 'walk' the ladder (still a bit flappy but I'm not cringing anymore!) but poor ole' Dot just cannot master it! She walks down one rung then flap/falls the rest! going up is so painful, she tries to fly/flap in from the first rung. I'm sure she will get it in the end, but I hope they will not hurt themselves. Also, the egg production has dropped the last couple of days so it must be affecting them somewhat.

 

thanks for all your replies, love the wooden ramps, they look great! will show the pics to Hubby to see what he can do, thanks again all