Settling chickens into their coop
>> Tuesday, August 3, 2010 –
chickens
Here are our new chickens, which we've named Harriet, Plenty and Daffodil! They are young and will later develop red crops. Settling them in has not been as easy as we anticipated. We thought it was just a matter of leaving them in their coop for the first week or so, but we discovered that they don't seem to know how to use a ladder! Dave ended up having to catch them and put them into their house. Since then only one has ventured out again! "Stupid" has been a word we've often used of them in the last few days! Whatever brains they have must be very addled due to their car journey and the shock of having a noisy baby in the yard. We are very pleased with them though, and have discovered that watching chickens is one of the simple pleasures of life. Sunday afternoon was unseasonably warm and we loved sitting in the yard watching the bock bocks as Natey calls them.
Are we certain yet that they are indeed hens?
Bock Bock! How cute!
Poor chooks, not too smart. When will they start laying?
How awesome Sherrin!
How big is your backyard? Do you need a certain amount of space per chicken? (although these ones seem content to stay within their pen!)
It was unseasonably warm in Brisbane on Sunday too, but I imagine a slightly different temperature than you!
Jenny
how fun! and resourceful! one of my sisters and her hubby are now raising chickens (all hens, 7, plus 1 rooster) for the eggs. They had them right from eggs so they were used to the coop pretty much from the start. altho one didn't fare well when their german shepherd got down there by mistake! enjoy......i'm betting the little one is having a blast watching them....
They were fooling you Sherrin - they aren't chickens, they're CHOOKS!!
Ellen
Lots of questions! Thanks for your interest.
Marmie - if they are not, they are going back where they came from! We trusted the people who sold them to us!
Borg - they should be laying within three or four weeks.
Jenny - our backyard is quite large as our house is placed toward the front of the block. You don't need a lot of space though, if you have a movable coop like ours. Chickens survive in little cages for egg production!! Whatever you can give them will be better than that. It is important though, on a suburban block to follow council regulations about distance from fences, etc. We get around that because we can move our coop!