Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Out to the coop

After a week or so of taking the chicks out to visit the run, it was time for them move out of the garage.  (Yay.)  I moved them out at about six weeks old.  I don't have electricity out there, so I didn't want them to get too cold at night.  The first day, I let them be in the coop and in the run because it was supposed to be very hot.  The next two days were cooler, so I locked them in the coop to get them used to the idea that the coop was where they slept, not the run.

I let them out again, but there was just one problem: the ramp.  I have a fairly steep ramp running up to the coop and the chicks would have nothing to do with it.  My dad tried showing them their food dish, but they had no interest.  I got some of their food and sprinkled it on the "rungs" of the ramp.  They ate the lower stuff, but didn't really get the idea.  The next day, I put scratch on each of the rungs.  The first chicken ate the scratch and eventually figured out she could get up into the coop.  I also added a few new steps so that the rungs are now 4" apart instead of 6".  Now all the chicks, including the bantams can make it up into the coop.

No comments:

Post a Comment