Newbie chook-owner question

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by scottie, Oct 17, 2006.

  1. scottie

    scottie Junior Member

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    Hi all,

    (My first post!)

    A few weeks ago we got 5 10-week old ISA Brown chooks. They are SOOOOO funny to watch! :D We're already very fond of them.

    We made a nesting box for them. You can see some pictures here:

    https://members.optusnet.com.au/scottsmedley/chooks/chooks.html

    My question is: should I be concerned that my chooks spend quite a bit of time in the nesting box?

    Obviously they're not laying yet (they're nearly 16 weeks old) but I'm wondering what's going to happen when they do. At first I thought they might be spending time in the nesting boxes cos it was nice & cool, but I've noticed even on relatively cool days (20 degrees C) they're still often in there.

    Any insight would be most appreciated.

    Scott. :)
     
  2. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    Welcome Scott. Nice photo's. I wouldn't worry about 'em. If someone built me such a nice box I would probably want to hang out in there all the time too!
     
  3. scottie

    scottie Junior Member

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    Hi Richard,

    So I don't need to worry about my chooks breaking any eggs once they start to lay?

    My neighbour has chooks too & they only seem to visit their nesting box when they want to lay an egg. But, you're right, we have one fine looking nesting box! :)

    Scott. :)
     
  4. FREE Permaculture

    FREE Permaculture Junior Member

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  5. Cornonthecob

    Cornonthecob Junior Member

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    Great photos...looks like a lovely spot, and a woman who can use a power tool! Mate you have it made!

    :)
     
  6. Squeak

    Squeak Junior Member

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    Chickadee has an astute eye. But that's only a night coop, right?
    I mean, you let them out during the day, don't you?

    I can see that you haven't treated the wood that you've used. This will be affected by temperature changes as well as rain. I can also spot gaps in your fenceline and the underside of your box does not appear to be wired over (I can see a small plank pointing through): this will make it easy entry for critters who want to feast on chook food..or the chooks.

    That roost looks too high, too thin and not stable. Roosts shouldn't move or swing about - unless you're training your girls for a life in the circus.

    The ISA brown isn't a breed as such but a patented food product. It was developed by French monolith, Institut de Sélection Animale, as a battery hen. The company is now owned by Hendrix Genetics who also genetically engineer other layers in their preferred colours of black, brown and white. You'll get couple of good years out of them, though.

    But not to sound like a totally negative wanker, I do love the view from the coop! Chock full of places to roam, eat beetles and generally run amok. Your girls may be cold if they're spending a lot of time in the box, particularly if there's no nesting material about. Either that or they're having one massive love in. Phwoar.
     
  7. PULSE

    PULSE Junior Member

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    [/quote] That roost looks too high, too thin and not stable. Roosts shouldn't move or swing about - unless you're training your girls for a life in the circus.

    chooks roost in trees quite happily,exposed to the elements they love to do their trapeze act. Then in the morning they come down and work and bring me a delicious breakfast.
    Chooks dont need to be treated like children they can handle themselves!
     
  8. scottie

    scottie Junior Member

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    Hi Chackadee,

    Thanks for your comments - muchly appreciated.

    (I read about your $3k chicken pen in another post. Sounds awesome! Any piccies?)

    I've read conflicting opinions about whether or not the chooks need lots of shelter. As the chook shed is pretty sheltered from wind & we're in a pretty mild climate (Sydney) I haven't bothered too much about walls. There's a roof over about half the shed so there's always somewhere they can get out of the sun & there's a few places for extra shelter from wind/rain. If anything, I'm more worried about them getting too hot. In Summer, the mean temperature is about 30 degrees C, occassionally reaching 40.

    We put some sugar cane mulch in the nesting box. Good idea about the litter. I'll put some in the pen & see if that deters them from frequenting the nesting box so often.

    We let our chooks out when we're around. So that's usually only on weekends & maybe once or twice a week an hour or so before dark.

    Yeah, I read about that. That's one reason why I'm concerned they're spending so much time in there during the day.

    They don't sleep in the nesting box. I added an extra photo of their roost to my webpage, in case you're interested. Since I took the photo, I've added a couple of lower perches to make it easier for them to fly up & I also put some fibreglass on the left-wall so they've got more shelter when they're roosting. I think it's ok - tell me what you think.

    They sometimes stand on it to watch me, during the day. Is that too thin for such a purpose?

    Yeah, the pseudo-Mrs had the great idea of putting all their scraps through the food processor - works great!

    Good idea. I've got one of those big 10-litre water-dispenser bottles - I wonder if I can use that somehow?

    Scott. :)
     
  9. FREE Permaculture

    FREE Permaculture Junior Member

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  10. scottie

    scottie Junior Member

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    Hi Chickadee,

    I checked out the pictures of your chook shed ... mate! ... There are no words!!

    Awesome! :)

    Yeah, my neighbour planted a mulberry tree down there for me. I think that's a great idea cos it'll lose all it's leaves in Winter & let in more light & in Summer it will provide lots of shade. Mind you, I'll have to wait a couple of years for it to grow. Just this weekend I put some shadecloth over the whole shed in preparation for the Summer ahead. Even today was warm (30 deg C) & I think they appreciated it.

    I also planted some passionfruit seeds in my greenhouse a couple of weeks ago. But, same problem, they'll take a while to grow. (Are passionfruit vines deciduous?)

    Is sugar cane mulch appropriate? We've got plenty of that.

    Scott. :)
     
  11. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    Passionfruit does grow pretty fast. Feed it well and you should have some cover by late summer I would have thought. It isn't deciduous, but you can cut it back pretty hard and it will return, although, I'm not sure how you would time this. I mean, if you cut it back at the start of winter it might not come back. I'm not sure.
    Kiwi fruit is deciduous, and there is probably a good variety for the Sydney area isn't there?
     
  12. Squeak

    Squeak Junior Member

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    Pulse, if you read the thread you will notice they're not in the elements. They're caged. Big difference.

    The coop looks too exposed for a deep litter system, though.

    :D
     
  13. FREE Permaculture

    FREE Permaculture Junior Member

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    Yeah i agree squeek, it's a little exposed, maybe 6 inch board to line the base of the walls will keep it all in.
    but it should be dry aswell so rain could be a prob.

    sugarcane mulch is good, anything that absorbs is good.

    Ben
     
  14. Plane Jane

    Plane Jane Junior Member

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    I'm a newbie to this site but not to keeping chooks. I grew up with a dad who kept battery hens, now we keep chooks as pets, egg layers, pest eaters, mulchers and amusement.

    I like your chookhouse - it's a bit like mine, in size. Love the view! What sort of soil do you have? It looks a bit like sandy loam.

    Some things that have worked well for us - out chookhouse is a solid frame that lifts over and onto a rectangle of about for or five courses of loose-laid bricks. There are some changes I would make if I were building it again, but the bricks have worked out well. We laid bird netting under the brick walls (and undr the 'floor') and hammered chicken wire all over the frame. Outside, we loose-laid heavy pavers so if any foxes tried to dig, they'd be foiled by the pavers constantly dropping down lower. Then if they got through, they'd meet the plastic bird netting. We topped it with a fibreglass roof, clear in places. We use old hessian sacks to screen the sides of the chook house to keep the chooks protected from the wind. In summer the sacks can be hooked up out of the way, but also on a hot day we can drop the sacks down and wet them, to cool the chooks.

    The brick part of the chookhouse is about half a metre deep. We filled that with grass clippings or whatever else we could scrounge. Straw is great if you are prepared to pay for it. We found that as soon as we chucked in the fresh grass clippings the chooks would scramble to get to it and wolf down what they could. The iron in the grass makes for lovely deep yellow yolks in the eggs.

    We also chuck our veggie scraps into the chookhouse, we don't worry about chopping them up. Your chooks haven't been de-beaked, they should be able to manage really well.

    Basically, what they don't eat gets composted. If you keep the chookhouse floor dry, it shouldn't smell. When you want good, aged compost for the garden, we dig down a little and barrow it out. For us, occasionally our loose-laid brick wall will collapse under pressure. We break away a bit more of the wall, dig out the lovely rich stuff and spread it on the garden or fill some large self-watering pots. Once again, no smell. We then pack the bricks back into their correct places - easy, when the stuff has been dug away from the inside. The chookhouse was put up over ten years ago, we've never had to do more than re-lay a small patch like this.

    What we dig out can get planted into directly, if it's fruit trees or vegetables. I've got a Peter Cundall-style veggie garden, filled entirely with the chookhouse contents. I'm growing garlic and parsley around the edges of te garden, rows of silverbeet and we've just planted corn. Some self- seeded egg tomatoes are fruiting nicely, I've let them sprawl among the silverbeet (which I'm about to dig out, it's beginning to bolt).

    Back to the chooks - we let them out of the chookhouse at about 4 pm each day. By then, they've laid any eggs they're going to. They also get into the habit of laying inside the chookhouse. They woon't always use the nesting box, and if they're going broody they can be a nuisance if tey start hiding their eggs. before we had the chookhouse the kids had a huge task - search the bushland for where they've hidden the latest batch of eggs. One hen who went missing for weeks was found sitting on 23 eggs, under the incinerator! Then the vibration of my husband mowing the lawn set all the eggs off pipping at once - she hatched all 23! Of course, it was a collective nest, it was clear they weren't all hers!

    If you give them half a chance and let eggs accumulate, the hens will go broody. It has been very frustrating for us when even after daily (or twice daily) collections, the hens go broody just as they've begun laying after winter. But then, we have mostly bantams who are famous for going broody, but make great mothers if you want to raise your own.

    The roost - we've found that the best roost is a natural one. You need to have it level, it needs to be accessibe, so if it's high you need 'steps' to get to it. A hen climbing a tree for the night will flutter her way up the branches, like a ladder. The roost is the same. A natural branch has some variation in thickness along its length, so hens with different sized feet can find the most comfortable spot for them. They can change if they want to.
    We put the roost along one wall, with boxes underneath to catch droppings. Neat chook manure has its uses in the garden too. Occasionally a broody will choose to nest in a droppings box.

    If your hens aren't very adventurous, don't want to come out much, there are a number of possibilities:

    They could be heading into broodiness. Even partly, they will tend to stay put. A hen fully 'on the boil' looks like a loose bag of chicken with a head. They relax thoroughly, flatten down like a leather bag full of water. A stroppy broody will hiss at you and peck at your hand. A really stroppy beggar will grab a handful of skin in the webbing bewtween finger and thumb, and TWIST. I doubt your hens will do that, though - wild-ish bantams tending to the feral are the worst culprits. They's why they make such great mothers - they will take on anything, I've even seen a mother bantam leap into the air after a swooping magpie!

    The other reason for a 'stay put' hen is insecurity. We had one hen which was so insecure when we got her, that she stayed in the chookhouse, beak to the corner near the back wall, for the first five days. After that whenever we let them out, she would be the last out the door. She would stand on the doorsill (half a metre up, remember?) then shut her eyes and launch herself out the door, squawking in panic. Totally crazy.

    I would definitely put in some level of litter, to give the chooks something to scratch in. They may also want a dust bath in one corner - keep it free of litter if possible, choose a sunny corner (they love lying in the sun in a dust bath) and keep it dug. Outside, you may notice that chooks are like dogs, they will head for any patch of freshly dug earth and do more digging.

    Water - we use large ice cream containers and change them daily. The old water is poured onto the pot plants (we plant veggies in the pots as well) and the new water comes from the rainwater tank. We've tried all sorts of things, but chooks just prefer really fresh water. Every so often we change over the containers and scour the other ones clean.

    My father used to use a pipe fed by mains water, with nozzles the birds would peck to get a drink. I'm not even going to go there. At least he didn't cram them in several chooks to a cage - they each had their own. But our chooks - I don't know how old some of them are, but thay all have to be over ten years old. We are only getting about two eggs a day, from 8 chooks, but we're happy with that.

    It looks like you're really going to enjoy your birds. You've got some lovely ones, do enjoy.
     
  15. Hi Scot,
    i just got my first chooks too. 3x Isa Browns like yours. Mine are about 15 weeks old. i can't give you much advice, being a newbie myself, but thought i'd wish you luck with it!

    Let us know when you get your first eggs!
     
  16. scottie

    scottie Junior Member

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    Way cool! :D

    I got my first egg 11 days ago! & I've had an egg every day since! Very exciting!

    Scott. :)
     

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