DSnapping Chooklife: New Chickens!
These are my new babies. J. said I could have 4, which I translated to 6 - fair play, right? They are Plymouth Rocks, and I'm completely in love! They lay about 280 eggs a year, and can also be used for meat, although I am not sure I would have the heart!
We're having a bit of a problem getting them up into the coop at night though, so we're training them, but not very well. I'm meant to keep them locked up in there (with food and water) but I don't have the heart, and keep letting them out. This means I have to go out at night to lift each one individually up into the coop.
I absolutely love chooks - they're so good for our property, helping:
- get rid of unwanted bugs and insects
- scratching up the earth for me and fertilising it
- providing manure to help along my compost
- providing us with a good protein source
- going over straw for unwanted seeds
- chilling me out and helping my mental health
I know @nateonsteemit was interested in my chickens - who else has chickens on Steemit? What breed do you have? Any tips for getting them up in the coop?
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Yay! Chigginses! :D
Choooooookkkkkiiiiieeessssssssssssssssss
Oh, I tried saying "here chooky chooky chooky" and my chickens for real looked at me weird!
AAHAHAHAHA - keep saying it, they'll get used to it.
oooh they are lovely. You would think that after being in the coop at night a few times they'd figure it out themselves. Perhaps it will just take a few weeks of putting them to bed for them to get it into their routine. Are they finding other comfy places to roost at night?
Well no as I put them to bed, cute little fluffy butts that they are!! I'm not sure they can get up the ladder.... j. Will put some more rungs on the plank on weekend. I feel mean
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We have 8 Barred Rocks and 10 Buckeyes this year for our layer flock. To get them to go to bed, in the summer when they are on the pasture, each night as we chase them into the coop, we constantly say "go to bed!"
This pays off in a few weeks because if you go out to the pen and say go to bed, they all run into the coop. Well, most of them do. With 75 birds, there's always the 1 or 2....
We've been doing this for many years, and it usually works well.
Wow!!!! That's funny. I am always amazed at how you can train chooks! I think mine might be too young to go up the ladder. I haven't heard of barred rocks or buckeyes I would love to see a photo!!!
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These are the Barred Rocks in August:
I don't have a good one of the Buckeyes. This was their first day in the pasture pen in June (brown ones), 5 weeks old:
Couple things come to mind on ladders:
They should be 6" wide and have cleats 6" apart all the way up.
The angle shouldn't be very steep.
That's SUPER helpful... I think we will remake the ladder!!!!
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