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hendi_alex
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Chickens, 1.5 years after the first chicks

We did a lot of reading in advance to answer the following questions. What size to make the enclosure? What breeds are best for us. How much protection from cold is necessary? And many other questions.

At some point one has to take the leap, taking the best sounding suggestions, then proceed to learn by doing.

So far the most glaring discrepancy is in terms of area requirements. After reading, decided on a most generous 12 x 24 enclosure for six chickens. Included were a 4 foot sided roost box and a double nesting box. 12 x 12 of the enclosed space is covered for sun and rain protection.

While six chickens can easily exist in a 12 x 24 space, it quickly became obvious to me that such a small confined space was beyond cruel.

I almost immediately added a 24 x 32 forage area and seeded it with forage crops. It took the chickens about 3 weeks to decimate the area. I then added a second, slightly larger fenced forage area and that seems to be working pretty well for the current flock of 10 birds.

This summer the birds looked pretty uncomfortable during the afternoon heat. Since the coop and runs are right beside a wooded are, we decided to add a third forage area in the woods where the chickens can scratch and rest in the shade. That section is about 40 feet x 50 feet or a little larger. All runs are connected but have doors such that movement can be controlled. That is especially useful when planting forage material.

We will likely never have more than 15 birds and the current arrangement will give them a decent semi free range experience. If asked the minimum space for six birds I would say no smaller than 12 x 12 covered, totally secure space and at least two forage areas of 24 x 24 minimum. Less than that and I would suggest no more than 3 birds.

So much for space. I'll pick this up later and will discuss some other issues.
Last edited by hendi_alex on Mon Sep 01, 2014 8:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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applestar
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Thanks, Alex. This is going to be informative and interesting!
Looking forward to future installments :D

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hendi_alex
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I hope the info is useful, especially in making life a little better for other flocks of these interesting and entertaining birds.

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hendi_alex
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A word about clean up. We started with chickens for a variety of reasons but the harvest of manure is almost as important to us as are the eggs.

I clean the droppings from the enclosed coup area daily. This was started mostly because the material is added to the compost pile. But after clearing the droppings for over a year, I'm thinking that clean up should be a major topic related to care and time involved with raising chickens.

After 2-3 days our 12 x 24 would be wall to wall manure if the material was not cleared out daily. Plus the roosting box has an overload after a single day. During the day, our chickens make most of their droppings in the much larger runs where they don't present a problem. In the roosting box, flies and other manure eating critters very quickly become a problem.

When placed into the compost pile and covered with leaves, I've noticed no problem with flies. Anyone who is considering raising chickens should have a plan in place for managing the flow of manure. Ignoring the manure would produce a disgusting, unhealthy environment in short order.

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Does anyone keep chickens as pets?

Can they be leash trained? I know they make chicken diapers if they are in the house.

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hendi_alex
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Even if a chicken is adaptable to that situation, why would anyone want force a chicken into such an unnatural life style? Chickens live to scratch in the dirt and the grass/weeds, always looking for some tasty tid bit. They chase bugs and other critters most of the day. How will they do any of that when living in a house? It is bad enough that ours are confined to large fenced areas. But they probably would not last a week if allowed true free range.

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We lost two chickens during the year. Our dog had found a loose place in the fence and got to three chickens before we were able to identify the problem. Two were killed and the third had a deep 3-4 inch gash across her back and was missing quite a bit of skin and feathers. I soaked the wounds with betadine and stitched the gash together with heavy polyester thread, giving the bird perhaps 40% chance of surviving. After day one I sponged the wound daily with epsom salt solution. About three weeks later she laid her first egg after the attack, and hasn't slowed down since. She is an interesting looking Rhode Island red, as most new feathers came in a golden copper color. Also a couple of tail feathers came back in white.

Though a large red tailed hawk over flies the coup regularly, we have had no other problem with predators. Don't know what we will do if the hawk takes an interest!

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hendi_alex
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introducing young chicks to the flock - This year we bought six new pullets. Was't sure how to mix the two groups so opted for trial and error which worked out fine. I built a new coop but only 12x12 with adjacent run of the same size. This space adjoins the existing run.

When the weather settled over 40 degree lows and the chicks got too large to slip through the 2x4 welded wire fence, they were moved into the new enclosure. When the birds were about half size they were allowed to mix with the older birds for a couple hours each day, but were separated in their own roosting area at night. Gradually the flocks became integrated. The young chicks now prefer to roost on a tall perch in the larger coop. The older birds exclusively roost in their roosting box.

The older birds are sometimes aggressive toward the younger birds but not to the extent of pecking feathers. Only one bird gets picked on like that and it is one of the older birds. The perch roost is not covered but so far the youngsters have not seemed to care.
Last edited by hendi_alex on Tue Sep 02, 2014 8:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

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breeds. So far we have bought four sets of three: Rhode Island red, Ausralorp, black sexlink, and barred rock. The Reds and the barred rocks are by far more tame acting and readily squat to be petted. The sex links and ausralorps are very skittish. The older birds, the reds and Ausralorps, have been very reliable layers. They usually give large eggs, lay about 80% of the time, and laid fairly reliably through the winter. It is early to tell, but all of the young birds seem to be prolific layers. The eggs are still small but are getting larger every day.

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Greetings alex, How you doing? Your dog alex has committed a fatal error.

Your enclosure is more than big enough. We have for years kept hens and have incubated chicks and had fresh eggs always.
recently, well, a year ago we bought just a few, Sex Linked Chicks, these are the best hens we've ever had. They get along well with each other and they like us, talk to us and give us the greatest brown eggs you've ever seen. I would suggest these. Good luck with what ever you choose.

Richard

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hendi_alex
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The big white lab has already been in the 'dog house' as she has food aggression for having severely injured our miniature dachshunds on several occasions. She now lives in her own fenced subsection of the yard and never gets out into the larger yard area except when the small dogs are inside. Until she attacked the chickens, we let her roam the yard from dark to early morning. If she keeps making 'fatal' mistakes, she may never get out of her penned area. It has been over six months since we made the last adjustments, securing the chicken enclosure and modifying Maggie's out time. No problem so far!

It is quite a shame though, as she is a big sweet lab to us and anyone who comes into the yard, but just can't help herself when it comes to putting those small dogs in their place. Of course she is a massive digger, giving yet another reason to keep her confined from the maintained yard areas. Since she is confined so much, I'm moving her fence boundaries, including a wooded area, so that she has about a quarter acre to roam. We also generally let her out for 2-3 hours in the morning and another 1-2 hours in the evening. She seems to stay out of trouble on that schedule. Sure would like to find her a good home though, ideally a big fenced in yard with no dogs or other animals outside.

Note: Our coop area is very secure, with 2 foot wire placed flat on the ground around the outside of the pen. Nothing is likely to gain entry by digging in. Our problem came on a night when I forgot to lock the chickens inside the secure coop. So was really two oversights from me. One, having inadequately stapled one corner of the chicken fence and two, having left the coop door open. Of course that is another part of the daily ritual with chickens. Unlock the coop in the a.m. and lock it back in the p.m. To make the chore a little more aggravating is the fact that the roosting time varies, with the chickens not going to bed until almost 9 p.m. in the summer.

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Bumped back into this, looking at chicken posts. I know Hendi hasn't been around since last fall, but maybe someone else will comment:

"After reading, decided on a most generous 12 x 24 enclosure for six chickens. Included were a 4 foot sided roost box and a double nesting box. 12 x 12 of the enclosed space is covered for sun and rain protection.

While six chickens can easily exist in a 12 x 24 space, it quickly became obvious to me that such a small confined space was beyond cruel. "

So I have six hens (don't know if any of Hendi's were roosters, that would make a difference). They spend a fair amount of their time in a coop/run and an additional wire run, each about 8x 3.5. A couple times a day we let them out into the larger, but less secure enclosure that is 10x15, 150 sq feet. I haven't had any sense that that was insufficient or that we were being "cruel."

The hens like to flock together. Even when they have 150 sq feet, they will almost always be found bunched together in one small part of it. They do walk around their area and scratch and peck, but they usually do it in close proximity to each other. If one chicken gets left out after the others are back in the coop, she immediately panics and wants to be with everyone else.

They show hardly any aggressive or dominance behaviors and NO injuring each other. Now that they are teenagers, they do occasional "chest bumping," but it is infrequent and only lasts a few seconds. They are used to having their food and water in the wire/screen areas. When they are out in the large enclosure, we let them stay until they put themselves back in the coop/run. After an hour or so of the mini-free range, they are glad to go back home.

I certainly don't want to be cruel to my chickens. Can anyone elaborate on what they think makes it cruel to keep six hens in a space this size?

I had researched this question ahead of time and found things like this:

For chickens that will be inside the run all the time (never free ranging), you need to bump that number up to 10 square feet per bird. So now those 4 chickens need a coop/run that is 6 x 7 feet (42 square feet). It is always best if you can give them a little outdoor time each day to look for bugs and get fresh air. https://www.livinghomegrown.com/day-24-b ... -chickens/

So she says I would need 60 sq ft and I have 150. They have a coop/run that is 48 sq feet. Only the roosting area is enclosed. The rest of it is screen or wire fence, so they are outdoors all the time except sleeping (and they control that, the door is always open from the enclosed roosting area to the screened/wire areas, so they can go in and out as they please). (And since the roosting area is split level with screened area underneath it, they do still have 48 sq ft of open area)

So anyone besides Hendi think I am being cruel to my hens?



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