Unsecure chicken perches

[devonexpat]

Well been lurking and reading with interest

 

We finally dived in and bought a chicken run / coop, set it all up a few weeks ago and bought 3 hens from a local specialist farm (Amber Link / Bovans Nera / Lohman Brown) chosen breeds as we requested chickens that might be better with 2 children (daughters 2yo / 5yo)

 

now thought i would include my questions all in this post that I have so far lol

 

Firstly we have a run that is about 1.5m long that we let the chooks into daily, can't free range them during the day as we work but have done so at weekends when we are in the garden

 

the problem is with the recent weather the floor in the run is just a huge dirt pile / semi mud, what can you use on the floor of the run to help prevent this ?

 

secondly we have a large 3kg gravity type feeder for pellets with rain hat and atm that is in one end of the run alongside a gravity water feeder, both of these take up almost 3/rd of the total run so was wandering how I could remove these and what to use in their place so the chickens have more room inside the run ?

 

lastly we were lucky and one of the chooks laid eggs almost within a week of arriving ! first couple were soft but now almost daily there is an egg awaiting us, how can you tell which chicken is laying and how long does it normally take for new arrivals to adjust to a new environment and start laying ?

[House MD 221B]

Many congratulations! and I hope you have many happy years of chook keeping

 

I'm by no means an expert and there are some incredibly helpful and knowledgeable people here, but I shall do my best to help in my own little way.

 

1) Regarding run flooring, what are they on at the minute? Bark chippings are very good and fairly inexpensive, we bought 6 bags to fill the floor of our walk in run 2.5m x 3.5m and it did nicely at around £35. so 1-2 bags would probably be enough for your run with some left over. (note: don't get water retaining bark) at about £6-£12.

 

EDIT:\ Sally, my wife very rightly pointed out, if you're having trouble with mushy floors, covering the run with shower curtains cable tied on or getting an Omlet shade is very good for adding extra weather protections, especially if you get snow, it protects the run and instead of the floor being covered it turns it into a nice igloo for them with dry floors.

 

2) regards smaller feeders, pets at home do some nice ones ranging in size, but what kind of a run do you have? is it an omlet run, a wooden run, or another type of run. Could you attach an Omlet grub and a glub to the walls of the run?

But any chicken related web store and I'm sure some local pet shops could help you. We got ours from pets at home. One downside ours doesn't have a rain roof, but we cover our run so we haven't had any problems with it going mushy.

 

3) As for egg culprits, a good way to tell is who'se wattles and lobes are reddest, but when they lay together this is by no means fool proof, unless you watch studiously who goes in and out when, and check constantly for eggs. again, we're lucky in that one of ours lays blue / green eggs, and the other lays large brown eggs, our other 2 who are sadly no longer with us, one was a bantam who lied mini eggs, and the other had grooves in her shell. But did have to ponder at first to work it out. But wattles and lobes plus observations are the key to that one.

 

As for how long depends on their age, I think i've seen elsewhere about 2 weeks once they settle in, but Angua (bantam) laid perhaps 20 in her lifetime and she didn't lay for months, whereas Pennyapple (large eggs) laid within a few days, Pecan (Blue Eggs) took a couple of weeks. Poach was our first with her sister Scramble and they started laying within the first week. So I guess it's to do with the age / breed. But I wouldn't worry if it takes a few weeks.

 

I hope this helps, I'm sure others will be along soon with much better information. Welcome to the forums.

[jackian]

Welcome to the forum , A valuable place to come for help in my opinion People with better advice than me I am sure.

I agree with everything HouseMD has written , I would add that covering the run is the most important.The day after we built our WIR with out a roof and got our girls it tipped down . Looking back at now it was quite funny seeing them trying to lift their poor little claws out of the mud and trying to shelter under the small lip of the coop.We just had not considered they might get wet

It happened on a weekend and we spent the whole weekend racing down to our local DIY and erecting a roof for them out of hard plastic. (making sure it sloped so the rain could drain off.) At the end of the weekend I am not sure who was wetter us or the girls. Now if they are FR and it rains Clover goes in the run the other 2 Florry and Poppy stay out for a while .One stands under the patio table the other under the patio chair that has open slats in

[meezers]

What height is the run? would you have room to raise the feeder/drinker up on a platform so the chooks can use the space underneath? or maybe leave the feeder/drinker on the floor and add a couple of perches, that would give the chooks more room.

[JanTheDiver]

I'd heard that bark was not good for chooks as it can hold spores that can cause lung infections, does this apply to bark chippings too or is it small enough to not be a problem?

 

I have been searching for a good flooring for ages, lots of people recommend hardwood chips but I can't seem to get them round here

[House MD 221B]

I don't know about bark per-se, but the bark chippings we use have never given us any problems.

[JanTheDiver]

Good to hear that, I will give them a try - thanks

[Luvachicken]

My chickens are on a mud surface, but the roof is covered with clear tarpaulin and it does stay mostly dry. On top of the mud,they have all of this years leaves so far that I have raked up and chucked in. They LOVE it.