First timer. First few days.

[BeardyButton]

Hi all kind chicken keepers,

I have wanted to do this for a very long time, but never lived somewhere that I could dream of keeping chickens

So my chicks arrive on Friday. Two Bluebells and two Light Sussexes. I have a Arkus house set up with a small run. Now that its set up, it all looks tiny.

Will the house be big enough? Arkus advertises it as 4-6 birds, but I cant help but think i ve gotten it wrong and they wont fit. I bough two perches. Is that enough?

We have also made a home made run around the house of about 10m by 3m. So they will have space.

When we get them, what should we do? Someone told me to put them in the hen house straight away and leave them until the nxt day.

I have some woodshavings for bedding. Does this go throughout hen house or jst the box they lay their eggs in?

I’ve only been keeping chickens about 6 months (but love it and am utterly addicted!) so hopefully someone more qualified may be along!

I don’t know the Arkus so can’t comment on size but I have to say I was really surprised how close together they huddle at night - I didn’t think our coop was very big yet there is lots of spare space. Sounds like the run is a good size which is important.

When we got ours we left them in the coop the whole of the first day, then let them out into the run on day 2. Really helped I think them know ‘home’ and they took themselves in to bed at dusk with no problem at all. Not sure if you’re planning to free range but for similar reasons I’d keep them to the run for the first couple of weeks. And use those weeks to train them - we rattled corn in a tin and then gave them a little corn every day. Now they all come running as soon as they hear it - wherever they may be!

We only have bedding in the nesting box (I use aubiose). I do put a little on the tray under their sleeping part that catches droppings - helps keep it more sanitary. But they just roost on the bars at night.

We have 1 1m perch for 6 birds which is fine. None of them use it for very long. You’ll soon get an idea of if you need to add more anyway - so I wouldn’t worry at this stage.

So excited for you for Friday!

@DragonflyInn thx so much. Im slightly terrified if Im honest. I jst hope they survive me. I spent many many hours today digging a trench to put the chicken wire of the larger run.

I went on chicken course near Durham that was really useful. She recommended putting them in the hen house, so they know it's safe in there or else they may be worried a predator is lurking.

They are here. And in the hen house. Jst went to them to put un fresh water. The amount of poo.... In five hours. Startling!

@DragonflyInn you said something about putting a tray under the perches. Where do you get them.

Do you put anything on the floor to help with cleaning?

They are beautiful though. Cant wait to see them in the run tomorrow morning.

I make my own hen houses but I put a sheet of tarp or vinyl flooring (you can get off cuts from flooring shops) under the perches so that I can easily pull it out to clean.

I just got half a dozen hens last week after years of living in cities and not being able to have any. Ten years ago I lived in the countryside and was completely addicted to chicken keeping.

I live in Portugal now and my hens are a bunch of lively backyard birds, i.e. a jumble of breeds. Only two laying so far, but it’s very hot at the moment. One of them lays blue-green eggs though, which was a nice surprise.

Oh good luck with them! We've had hens for over a year now and I adore them.

Like pp said they really do huddle together in the coop at night.

We kept ours in the day one and then let them out. They just take themselves into the coop at dusk now and they all come running over whenever I appear, all excited and looking for food! This is handy because on the odd occasion one has managed to flap over the fencing she'll just come running up and follow me back into her pen when I call her.

Lots of poo but we compost the stuff from the coop and have rotated their run once so far once they'd scratched the bejesus out of the first one. We've turned the initial run into a veg patch and it is bursting with veg now.

They are lovely creatures. Enjoy!

@WinterAndRoughWeather blue eggs. how lovely. A layer of tarp is a good idea!
@RedLimoncello - love the idea of a veg patch, fertilised by....

Im going to keep asking questions if thats ok. Its so helpful having ye guys.

Of course!

I wouldn’t worry too much about them getting used to going to bed at night, I only ever had one bird who really wouldn’t get in the hen house at night (she was adopted from a friend who couldn’t get her to go to bed either). The hen disappeared eventually, probably got by a fox.

Mine have always free ranged and haven’t needed more than a day in the house before seeing it as where they go at dusk.

I’m checking all the hedges and shrubs several times a day at the moment in case they start laying outside of the boxes, but I think I’ve only got two layers. The rest seem content to sit about eating frozen melon in the shade.

It was so lovely to see them come out this morning. I can tell they are starting to relax a little.

But they had some poo on them. Is this normal? Or does it mean house is too small?
Also - I put water dispenser in with them over night. That also had poo on it and water was contaminated. Do you think its ok to jst have a plentiful supply of water in run and not put water in with them overnight? I think it took a lot of room and made a bit of a mess....

Im thinking of putting woid chippings or hemp in the floor of the run. And under that some tarp as suggested. Then I can hose all that down easily.

There was also poo in the laying box. I think I might close that off for a while (they arent laying yet). So they stop sleeping in it.

Are these good ideas?

I think one got quite badly pecked oh ner back poor thing. Hope that stops.

@WinterAndRoughWeather frozen melon sounds amazing.... You must have some happy hens.

They don’t need water in the house, when they sleep they are like zombies and won’t drink in the night.

I wouldn’t put tarp in the actual run as they won’t be able to scratch around properly or make dust baths. I just have it under their roosts in the house.

The pecking should settle down, they’re vicious until they’ve sorted out the ranking.

When you say they had poo on them, where on them?

On their backs. Not much. But a small bit.
Thx for info. Im getting there...

Just means some of them were underneath others during the night. It’s very easy to move them onto a perch once they’re asleep if it bothers you - they stay in a zombie state and will automatically hold onto the roost.

I’m a new chicken keeper too, we’ve had our four hens for about six weeks. I’m loving it - much more than I expected to!

We built our own house and the world’s most fox-proof run (at least we hope so). We’ve had to add on a kind of roof, as the chickens were able to get up onto to the top of the pen (and then escape).

Our run is partly earth and partly an old concrete shed base which we have covered with hardwood chips. They like scratching in the wood chips and make their dustbaths in the earth part.

We kept them confined to the pen for the first month, but now we let them out into the garden which they love. We’ve got an electric fence around the veg patch, which has kept them off it so far. They’re quite keen on some of my pot plants so I cover the most popular ones up with cardboard boxes. They also love the pond.

They associate me with food and come running when they see me, which makes it easy to get them back in the pen.

They are all laying now and we’ve had four eggs a day several times. Occasionally we find a soft egg (no shell, just a rubbery membrane) but I assume that’s just part of them settling into laying. One of ours lays blue eggs (she is a Heritage Skyline). We’re getting a lot of double yolks too.

I think I’m in danger of becoming a chicken bore, so I will try to confine it to this topic on MN!

It’s incredibly addictive. I started out years ago with five ex battery hens, with no intention of getting more. Then someone gave me an Orpington hen and cockerel that they had going spare. The hen went broody so I bought some hatching eggs for her and it all spiralled from there...

They’re such fun to watch. My partner and I have been sitting in deck chairs of an evening with a G&T just watching them scratch around. One of them flaps up into our grape vines and climbs them by degrees to get at the grapes.

They also love ants. When I throw grain down for the hens hundreds of big juicy ants come and start carrying off the grain. The hens pick them off, ant and grain in one like a macabre walking canapé.

@WinterAndRoughWeather

My partner and I have been sitting in deck chairs of an evening with a G&T just watching them scratch around.

This sounds glorious. Like proper piece of heaven.

@ComingtoKent

You sound so much more organised than me. We did keep them in the house for 24 hrs. Then the smaller run yesterday. But today we left them into a makeshift larger run. Im terrified a fox will get them. But they seemed so happy today. Dust bathing, pruning each other.... They seemed so much more stressed when they were confined. Ill post a pic if I can. Never dobe this on mumsnet.

Here they are in their glory.

Very handsome birds @BeardyButton! Here are mine.

Lovely birds, and looks like a very nice space for them too.

@WinterAndRoughWeather thx. Im jst really worried about foxes. We haveva covered run. But its so small. I want them to have a good life. I can actually feel how much they ve relaxed since they have more space.
@ComingtoKent they are beautiful. Do you stay with them when they free range?

Do you see foxes in the daytime? I know it’s tricker in towns as the foxes are bolder and will sometimes show up in the daytime.

We are in the countryside. We are quite high up on a hill. I have once seen a fox in a cow paddock in the valley. The cows chased it away. We have quite a few rabbits around, so I am hoping that means no foxes...
I do see a fair few dead on the roads tho.

I wouldn’t worry then. Countryside foxes rarely come out in the daytime (town foxes often do).

The only time I had a problem with a fox in the countryside was when I forgot to shut the hen house door one night. We had a family of foxes in the field next to us but they never appeared in the daytime, and my hens were completely free range all day, roaming round a large area. I didn’t have a run of any kind.

@BeardyButton Yes, we’re in the garden when they free range, but that’s because the garden isn’t properly secure yet. I have made a temporary barricade of wheelie bins and cardboard boxes to stop them getting into the front drive and the road. They could easily get over this (and indeed all our fences) if they tried, but they don’t seem interested thank goodness.
Once we have it more secure I won’t have to keep such a close eye on them. They never seem to mind going back in their pen (I tempt them with corn) and they sometimes go back in for a while under their own steam.