View Full Version : Backyard Chicken question...
My dd is watching some friend's home, feeding the cat and their chickens. They have a small dog run they have converted to their chicken area w/small coop.
Apparently they had 5 hens, but a racoon has gotten 2 this past month>:(. Of the remaining 3, only one looks old enough to lay eggs. The larger hen has yet to give us an egg these past few days.
I see the coop has only 2 hen boxes. Are chicken's territorial with their boxes?
and if they have 3 hens and two boxes will they share? Our neighbor seems to know which of her hens aren't layer's anymore...so I assume she knows what box they occupy - she has about 20 hens...?
Just curious - would love to have a little coop in our backyard.
They share, no problems. Sometimes they get a little impatient with each other and you'll hear them squawking "hurry up and finish already, I've got one to lay too you know!". I've got 6 that share two boxes in their henhouse.
Not only will they share, but they prefer to lay their eggs where others have laid there's. That way, if one of the hens gets broody (wants to sit on the eggs until they hatch), they're all together.
when I got hens, I made 2 community nest boxes. I suppose the 2 boxes could hold up to 6 hens at once, but they always seemed to prefer the one box, so really they only used 3 spots for 17 hens.
Did the coons get the chickens while the owners are away? If its not a secure coop and run, the coons will be back. :(
Did the coons get the chickens while the owners are away? If its not a secure coop and run, the coons will be back. :(
No - they use to let them run at night - until the coon incident. Now they put them in at night. One of the young hens went missing our second day. Apparently if the coon is around she will get out of the pen and goes and hide in the blackberry bushes. And sure enough she was back today.
I can see how people have fun with these crazy birds!
When chickens get frightened, they can stop laying for awhile. So a coon attack can put the survivors out of commission until they feel safe again. Sometimes, if it was bad enough, they will stop laying for good.
That's very true, what H-work said. I had a coon attack in my run (which I thought was totally secure), and everyone quit laying for a long time. In fact, a couple of the hens are just now laying again, and its been a year since the attack.
Just a note, if you do put in a coop and chicken yard, do spend the extra money and effort to make it as varmint-proof as you can. A coyote got into ours and made a quick meal of two of our hens, and the remaining two moved across the street into our neighbor's fenced "compound" and took up shop under his RV! We just gave him the remaining chicken feed that we had, and he was happy because they ate all sorts of bugs. I don't think they ever laid again, though. I loved having chickens but they are really at the mercy of so many other animals...not just the human ones!
That's right Selah.
I wish I could be more laid back about losing them, so that they could free-range. But I think I would lose them all in a matter of days from the predators.
I have a totally secure coop, and the run has double fencing (untility wire and then 1/2" hardware cloth over that) everywhere, with hardware cloth laid on the ground around the outside perimeter to keep predators from digging under. My run is about 6'6" tall and was covered with special strong 2" netting and bird netting on top of that. I felt very secure about it keeping the hens safe. BUT......a coon found the one little loose edge of that netting and killed 2 hens and injured others. So off to the hardware store we went and now the top is also covered in utility wire.
Keeping chickens safe is not cheap! I figured that every egg I got from them was probably worth at least a couple hundred dollars!
I'm down to 5 now, from 17 8 years ago. I can't imagine not having chickens.........but if you really care about them, they do take work and money. But they've definitely been worth it to me. I love those little buggers.
Our next door neighbors just set up a chicken coop and purchased six chicks. The coop was done in 3-foot-tall chicken wire, no top. The kids like to go in there and chase the chicks around. They feed them table scraps (if they remember to feed them at all)
We have mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, raccoons and bears here. Of course, they are now down to 2, and I doubt those will be there long.
Sigh.
Greg44, bless you for trying to learn all you can about the right way to do this BEFORE you begin!
chasing chickens isn't good for them. I doubt they will ever lay eggs if all they get is table scraps............if they even make it to egg-laying age.
...I doubt they will ever lay eggs if all they get is table scraps............if they even make it to egg-laying age.
What do you feed your chickens? These people have some pellets that we feed them, and I went to their garden and got a couple handfuls of lettuce. They seem to really like picking at the greens.
They are professional pickers. haha That's what they do all day long!
I feed mine Purina Layena pellets. I try to supplement with occasional greens. I grow a couple big containers of kale and collards right by their coop. They love that stuff. I give them blackoil sunflower seed as a morning treat. I offer them grit and oyster shell too. Since they are confined in a run, they need the extra grit for their gizzards to function properly. The oyster shell is to help make their shells stronger. Sometimes, they lay shell-less eggs. Boy, that's a surprise!........to reach into the nestbox for an egg and its soft.
preditor proof chicken coop/free range. Along the fence on the outside(preditor side) take extra chicken wire and imagine a "L" the bottom of the L is on the ground and the upright is next to the existing fence,cage etc.stake the bottom to the ground wire the upright to the fence cover bottom with gravel,no preditor will be able to dig into the chicken coop.The top is open to the preditors in the sky.The net used for batting cages or game birds can even be thrown over a tree and give chickens safe tree to roost in. Now the slithering kind of preditor if you or friends have house cats the used litter spread on outside of fence will repell snakes.
oneroomlife
7-11-11, 2:14pm
Our Australian Cattle Dog watches the entire property, including the a small flock of chickens who free range over 5 acres. They are locked in their coop at night. Also the humans are outside working a lot with basic farm & homestead chores during the day and the chickens orbit the action as part of a larger "flock". I think the frequent human and canine outdoor presence is the key factor in our lack of poultry predation so far. It probably wouldn't work if we were commuters or indoor people with outdoor chickens. We do not yet have a predator problem and we live in the middle of the woods with plenty of critters around. Do not try and use a bird-hunting or vermin-chasing dog breed to guard chickens. :)
The Storyteller
7-13-11, 1:31pm
I now have over 90 birds. We have coons, possums, wild cats and yotes all around. Our pond is a magnet for them especially during the current drought. We free range 100% and never lose a bird to predators even at night.
We also have 4 Great Pyrs. I will take a good well trained dog over a Fort Knox coop and run any day.
Just had a friend post about finally figuring out why she'd been missing an egg a day the last 7 days. She looked in the nexting box and there was a 6' rat snake just curled up and waiting for an egg.
EEEwwwwwww......
ditto to that - I hate snakes!
I've gotta admit, I rarely come on the farming forum, being a lifelong city boy. I'm certainly getting an education in the reality of the real world!
The Storyteller
7-14-11, 6:03am
Just had a friend post about finally figuring out why she'd been missing an egg a day the last 7 days. She looked in the nexting box and there was a 6' rat snake just curled up and waiting for an egg.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/21957_imag0042.jpg
so so gross, did I mention I hate snakes.
early morning
7-17-11, 9:55am
Our old flock of hens were death on garter snakes and mice. A black or rat snake would be way out of their league, though. We have lost quite a few birds to racoons or coyotes, mostly when we were detained and not home to close up the coop. With the new bunch, I think we will not let them out on days we might not be home by dark. I'm planning to up a solar electric charger up around the outside of the run, about 8" off the ground, at least around the back and east side. The west side is the barn, and the north side is our yard, which due to the trees, etc. wouldn't be effective.
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