have to say, i am underwhelmed by my first mnorning of chicken keeping

[LilyMunster]

far from being jumped all over this morning they just sit in the cube.

chickens eh? what they like?

They are just settling in. Mine had to be physically removed from their house the first morning. A friend had some that didn't come out for 2 days.

theyre out now

and the run looks awful small already... feel like a battery hen keeper! have started building climbing frames out of logs and planks for them in their wider area... just need some temp fencing to block off the bit where the septic tank soakaway appears to be overflowing

how long must i keep them in their run (so they know where's home for nighttime) before i caN LET THEM OUT FREE RANGING? (sorry caps)

I kept mine in small run for 2 days, then felt sorry for them and let them out into a larger secure area (well it would have been secure had it not been for the fact no-one seems to have broken it to them that chickens with clipped wings are not supposed to be able to fly over high fences )

Mine are bashing at the door in the morning and stamp on each other in their haste to get out so that's not a problem I've had!

Are yours talking to you yet?

sort of... theyre still v quiet on the whole but they dont half look penned in in there.

so when you let them out after 2 days, did you have any trouble getting them home again? did you have a plan?

I give mine a treat of mixed corn/grain in the afternoons. I chuck this on the ground in the run to get them back in when they have been free-ranging. They learnt this after a week or so and now go into the run if I just go to the shed where their feed is. Before they got the hang of this it took 3 of us and the dog (who was a big help ) to get them in.

oh good grief... so if i keep them in for a week first, and do the corn mix on the ground thing every afternoon at about 6ish, theyll learn to expect it then and come running for it when theyve been let out all day? [hopes]

If you always make the same noise when you take corn out (like chook-chook-chook-chook) then when you make that noise they will eventually come.

You didn't think this was going to be easy did you?

er.... yes? doh....

right TS, i will try the noise thing... (dear oh dear)

I'm far too excited about your chickens still I wanna come visit!

our hens will now come with us now wherever we are, though we did have some comedy chase times in the past, I would think of letting them out for a wee while - but we are surrounded by fields and only have one set of neighbours to annoy with our chooks.

yes get that chook chook chook phrase sorted they always think that means food here.

You just wait. Mine pack themselves so toghtly around my feet when they see me approach with the blue bucket it's hard tto walk.

Mine all come and sit around me when I have a cup of tea in the garden too.

We always used to get hens in the house. I'd be cooking with my back to the door and I'd hear them pitter-patter in to check under the table for dropped food.

They will also quickly associate you carrying a gardening fork with an opportunity for a worm-fest. The amount of times I've nearly kebabbed one of the hens because they get in the way when I'm digging. Bastard things.

the noise thing defo works, I just have to shout "hey girls" and they come running.. even into the house

Sorry to crash your thread but I've just realised that I'd like chickens too. If they can roam around free range is there not a danger from foxes? Or am I being chicken ignorant?

sparkley - we had totally free-range hens for 4 years without any fox problems. Last summer, however, was carnage and I now we frequently see foxes around. Our hens are now kept in a pen that's about 4m x 8m.

sparkley... I think it depends where you are. We're in a really rural location and yes we have lost chickens and especially ducks to foxes, but not many over the years tbh.

well I think it is more a problem in certain areas... the rise in urban fox population makes keeping hens in town a problem, I think.

before we moved here, the previous residents had a hen that lived here for years seemingly, and it just lived up one of the plum trees, never a fox anywhere.

we live in a very rural place and our hens are free range, when I was younger we lost ducks to foxes but not hens, because they were shut up at night, they were free range during the day, but that was 25 years ago...

I think foxes mustn't like the climate where I live.