4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[OllieNLucy]

Heya,

 

Well we decided in the end to go with an egg cube with an extension, took us hours to set up lol, anyway our chicks are in there now. I have a problem...

 

The eggcube is based on my stable yard which is about a 15 minute car journey from where i live, i cant be reliant on me mum and dad for lifts so will have to start cycling down. How much time should the chicks be locked in the cube for? when should they be let out into the run and then be put away again? is dawn till dusk they should be out? should i be riding my bike down at 6am?

 

Any help would be great,

 

Thanks,

 

Sam

[Olly]

you're going to get fit! Welcome to the forum.

 

Ideally, they should be let out at dawn and put away at dusk ... that could mean some early starts this time of year! They won't come to any harm if they don't get out of the Cube till 7 or later, and some people deliberately keep their chooks shut in to keep the noise down - so you could just decide on a convenient getting-up time and bedtime and work to those.

 

The alternative is to just leave the Cube door open (not the door of the run) all the time and let them come and go as they please. This does depend on whether you think they Cube run is foxproof - could anything dig under it? do you have foxes around? It's rare but there are some reported cases of foxes managing to 'get' a chicken through the run.

 

I leave my Cube door open all the time and I haven't had any problems, but you need to assess the risk for yourself.

[Egluntyne]

Welcome to the forum.

 

'Fraid so....at least during the summer months. You will be able to leave it till 8am in the winter.

 

You are going to be super fit with all this cycling.

 

I don't shut mine in the cube, I leave it open all year round. It will depend upon the fox population where the hens are sited as to whether you want to take that risk.

 

It will also depend on how old the chickens are.

[Redwing]

My chooks are going in about 9:30pm at the moment, they tend to go in as it starts to get dark

 

I don't shut any doors on my coops but I guess the hens will be up at sunrise and certainly when I check up on them at 6am they are up and about however you can get them in to a routine of getting up later say 7:30 with few problems by keeping them shut in till then.

 

Sometimes if the cube is a light colour they get noisy to be let out if they can see its light outside however some people cover the cube to keep it darker and the hens quieter for longer (don't block any ventilation holes) having said that if yours are on a stable yard the horses are probably making far more noise than the hens

[OllieNLucy]

Thanks for the advice,

 

I am seriously considering leaving it open now, i like my pillow lol! but if leaving it open means the chooks will come to harm then of course i will cycle everyday! The situation....

 

The cube and run are on a hard grassey area(many years ago we some one put a load of hardcore on the area) parralel to a large dutch barn. its fairly in the open, there is large conreate area next to the grassy area followed by fields. We have put tent pegs around the cube and run to make it more secure, the were really hard to get in but eventually we found places around the cube where they could be banged in without hitting stones an inch or 2 down.

 

There are foxes around as every now and then we find a dead chicken(god knows where the foxes get them from) buried in out riding school.

 

The chooks are around 6 - 7 weeks old, Do you think they will be ok with the door left open?

 

Sam

[Olly]

Gosh, they are quite young - I was assuming they were POL and around 18 weeks.

 

I'm not experienced with young chicks, but I think if they are that young I would be inclined to keep them closed in at night. Sorry, that means you're going to be cycling there and back twice a day! by the time summer is over they'll be old enough to be left.

[Lewis]

They really are young, only just old enough to be outside.

Can they manage the cube ladder or have you got an extra step up?

 

You might be best to cycle up just for a few weeks so they get used to the routine and then start thinking about leaving it open. Being so young they could stick their heads through the bars and then a fox come along.

 

Photos would be good