bexbex Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Well Delia, Martha and Wendy are now onto night 2 with us. They seem to be ok so far but we've not really given them time to settle in yet as we decided to move the hen house about today to a different part of the garden. This took a lot longer then we thought it would as the garden is not level.. lol We got there in the end though and the new position is much more practical. After moving it we put in a nice layer of soft wood chippings down and they spent the rest of the evening rolling in this and digging about.. a lot! So much so that a lot of the wood chippings ended up out of the pen and onto the surrounding garden! lol I think I'm going to try and fix on a short border of willow screen aroud the bottom 15cm ish so it won't all be wasted. My 4 year old had great fun in the garden digging up worms and slugs for the chickens to eat. Tonight was my first attempt at picking up the girls too. I waited until they were in their bed and had a go at lifting them out of the nesting box and onto the roosting bars.. they were not impressed at all with these and put themselves straight back into the nesting box so I gave up on that one! lol We haven't had an egg yet but I'm sure that after they've settled in they will start all that. I've been thinking about ways to keep the inside clean. The main problem I have is that they poop in the nesting box at night and it ends up messy by morning and hard to clean up. I'm thinking of buying a few cheap washing up bowls to fill with straw and place in there for them top use as nesting boxes, the advantages being can be totally washed out. Has anyone done anything like that? I'll post some pictures of the girls enjoying the wood chippings tomorrow! Night all! Becki x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ain't Nobody Here Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Sounds like it's all going well . I bought a cheap washing up bowl for my eglu but it wouldn't fit through the pop hole . I just keep a plastic scoop closeby and scoop any poops through the roosting bars. They don't tend to sleep there as much now anyway so it's an issue really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falkor Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 (edited) You could block the nestbox at night with a ball or flower pot...this should train them to stay on the bars. As long as you remove the blockage when you let them out in the morning you should be OK. ALTHOUGH! I put a cat little tray in the back of my and they used to sleep in this....until I became a mean chooky mummy I could take it in and out via the pop hole Edited July 12, 2009 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hen Watch Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Hi Becki, Congrats on the new chooks. I put bricks round the eglu skirt both to weigh it down and to stop the Auboise bedding being flicked out. There are some good photos on here somewhere of plastic lawn edging being used round the run too. Well done on picking them up. You are right, best done at night first. But do wear long sleeves, as I found to my cost that young hens have very sharp nails..... I'm a big softie. I let my girls sleep (and poop) in the nestbox. When I open up their eglu door at 7am, I just flick the poop out through the roosting bars into the poop tray. I do use Auboise horse bedding in the nestbox which helps aborb poops. But you can as Palmer07 says, discourage them from sleeping there by putting in a football or something, then remembering to remove it come morning. Up to you what you want to do. I do have one girl who likes to sit in the nestbox all day and not lay. So I do sometimes add the "oven dish" nestbox. Which they seem to like. But I do have to remember to take it out at night so they can roost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Well yes, I think you would need to take it out before they roosted ... they might have bad dreams sleeping in a casserole dish! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hen Watch Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Well yes, I think you would need to take it out before they roosted ... they might have bad dreams sleeping in a casserole dish! Oh yes indeed...... 0 Definately "take it out before they roost" as opposed to "roast" Henny has on/off peritonitis and sometimes hogs the nestbox but surprisingly the others love my "oven dish nestbox" AND they lay in it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bexbex Posted July 13, 2009 Author Share Posted July 13, 2009 lol, well in this wooden coop they only have one long bar going through the middle, I tried putting tme on last night but they weern't interested lol I'll try again tonight and put a ball in the nesting area Thanks again! Becki x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
