Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[Bertrum]

We went up to Durham Hens (lovely place, very tranquil) and got Ariadne (Speckledy) and Petunia (Gingernut) and brought them home. All well and good. Unfortunately, Ariadne jumped from the transport box at the first chink of light and made a dash for it. I never knew we had so many hiding places in our garden!

While Janina Butterworth (Mrs Bertrum) put the very well behaved Petunia into the Eglu I was behind a very thorny bush attempting to retrieve the incredibly badly behaved Ariadne.

Anyway after much flapping about and worried humans running about the garden, we 'herded' Ariadne into the run and proceeded to worry that we had made a big mistake.

Both hens went into the Eglu and sulked there for about 2 hours. We were very concerned that we had scared them half to death.

They are out and about again now and are eating and drinking. I think they will settle in now. They did have us all very worried though.

[madchickenlady]

Ah, you've got a trouble maker there!

[Laura & CTB]

Sounds like you had fun and games!

They do like to keep you on your toes

[AJuff]

Ha Ha! That happened to me with our first three hens . . one jumped out!

 

Well done for only coming back with two hens! I got my two ne hens from Durham hens she has a very nice set up. I was a bit worried about confining mine to the eglu run after seeing how much space they had been used to.

[Mercedes55]

What a funny story, glad everything is okay now. They do move fast don't they. Our ex batt shot out of her run last night and ended up in the garden pond twice and she isn't even very fit, so I can imagine how fast a healthy hen must be

[Janina Butterworth]

Thanks everyone, I feel much better that the antics of Ariadne weren't unusual. I did have a wobbly moment thinking what on earth have I done.

 

I do agree that the Durham Hen's set up was lovely and have been feeling rather awful that I've confined the girls to a run that I now daren't let them out of EVER!!!!

 

Poor Ariadne seems a bit more timid at the moment and keeps going in and out of the Eglu. On the other hand though Petunia is very inquisitive which is hopefully a positive thing and has calmed my nerves a little! Its worse than having a new born baby in the family and I've done that!!

[Plum]

They're just starting as they mean to carry on Congratulations, do we see them

[Janina Butterworth]

Here they are. Only one of Ariadne because she was sulking in the Eglu all day.

 

[chick wiggle]

Aww, what lovely pictures, Petunia looks gorgeous and Ariadne sounds like shes full of beans

[Plum]

Pretty chickens.

[Mercedes55]

They do look very pretty

 

I see from your pictures that you have your glugs on the front sections of your run. Is that because of the slope when you put them on the sides or is it just my run that seems to slope? I did put the glugs on the sides at first but the wire doesn't seem to run straight on that second section of run and of course there are no side openings to put them further down the run. It's not a very good design

[Janina Butterworth]

No reason for putting the glug and grub on the front section, just found it easier to reach in to put in place and remove on an evening.

 

Hows things going with your girls? I had major wobbles this morning to the point of tears and wanted to take them back. Ariadne still hasn't fogiven my husband for yesterday's antics, this morning about 6:45am he went out on his own and she made such a noise. I'm now worrying that I'm going to get complaints from the neighbours too to add to the stress!!!

[migsy]

I'm sure it will all settle down! I leave my eglu door open so that the hens can get into the run as early as they want to in the morning. Only occasionally do they make any loud noise so just because Ariadne did it this morning it doesn't mean that she will do it every morning. The noise they make is nowhere near as loud as a barking dog and plenty of people have those for pets. I don't think the neighbours would have good reason to complain about 2 chooks. Just promise them some eggs and I'm sure they will be happy.

[Janina Butterworth]

I wasn't being rational this morning when all was quite apart from a very noisy chicken which probably sounded a lot louder to me than it was. I must admit I don't go mad when I hear dogs barking down the street but the immediate neighbours don't have any pets. Mind you one is a child minder and has noisy children in her garden in the summer, could that be classed as the same thing ha ha!

 

I'm sure in a weeks time all of this will have been forgotten and I'll be a happy smiley person once more with happy hens!!

[Guest]

Her looking after kids will work to your advantage.

 

You can have hens that are used to a lot of noise and a lot of children.

 

Mine are timid of children because my cousins' daughter got in a tried to pick them all up and it made them so scared.

 

When you have had them for a couple of months you should have them round on your terms and they listen to you because then they can watch them FR and you can tell them about chickens Education

[Mercedes55]

I wouldn't worry about the noise your hens make. One of mine is louder than the others, but nothing compared to other noises I've had to put up with over the years. I have a dog, she is a chocolate labrador, but she hardly every barks and in every other way my OH and myself are very quiet neighbours.

 

We are fortunate to live in a detached house, but as we are at the end of the road we have 5 back gardens going along the side of our house, another at the back and one to the other side, so a total of 7 in all. Some of them have dogs and children and make noise, so I'm not worried about the sound of a few hens.

 

I am still getting used to my hens and as they are ex batts they are extremely jumpy and very tatty looking. Honestly they look almost oven ready when you see them in the flesh, yet I take a photo and they look almost okay in those. I could still sit and cry at the lives these poor birds have had and I just hope I can give them a bit of a good life once they have settled down and once I can get a better run for them. One of them is limping still and I'm using Arnica spray on her and have rubbed some vaseline into her comb as the other hens have nipped it all. She was so good when I was doing it, although I had to get my OH to hold her as none of them like being picked up

[Bertrum]

Gosh this has been an active thread

 

One thing is certain, hens spice up an otherwise dull start to the week. Thanks for the kind words everyone, you are really helping Janina Butterworth and I through the first days with hens. We promise to stop posting so many panic questions soon.

 

Mercedes55, I am in awe of your calmness. You have more than us, and they are poor stressed out things, yet you are managing, and so shall we. It just seemed natural to put the glug and grub where we did. The glug when it is full is very heavy and the closer to the door it is the better I reckon. I'm sure we will both end up with some larger enclosure soon anyway

[Mercedes55]

It's only when you actually get your hens and start to see how they are with their coop and run that you realise all the things you could have done better if only you had known

 

I keep going onto the FlytesoFancy website and putting a WIR into my 'basket' and then deleting it when I see how much it's going to cost me

 

However I know it's going to work out better having a run I can actually get into! I would still keep my Eglu and would just find a table to put it on and get my OH to make a little ladder for them to walk up. The good about the Eglu is how easy it is to keep clean and after spending out so much money already I don't want to have to buy yet another whole new set up.

 

It's so nice to find a forum where everyone is so nice and helpful and where we don't feel stupid asking the most basic questions. I mean for a start I hadn't even thought of flies being a problem, yet I have a dog whose poo attracts flies the minute it pops out of her, so why didn't I realise