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+--- Thread: Chicken Training (/showthread.php?tid=4998)
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Chicken Training - Jay Bondesen - 01-14-2009
So after reading several threads here and helping a neighbor with hers we decided that raising a few hens was a good idea. This is on a one acre lot in Leilani so we had the room and liked the idea of fresh eggs with the bonus of keeping some of the garden critters under control.
At first it was great. Three chicks a couple of days old came from our neighbor and we bought two more from Pahoa Feed. They moved from a small cage to a 5' x 15' coop with no problems. At about four months old we started letting them out for the day and shutting them back up in the coop at night. They love that and happily wander around the garden and yard for the day.
The problem that I had not read about is that chickens spend most of the time eating and pooping and really don't care where they are when they have the urge. The can even do both things at the same time. In the garden that's fine but in the carport or on the lanai it's not so fine.
Is there a non-lethal solution for this? If I keep telling them to not go, no pun here, in the carport will they ever get it?
Jay
RE: Chicken Training - pslamont - 01-14-2009
NOPE! You give them a fenced yard that is either topped like a cage or you clip their wings so they can't fly. My chickens can fly up to a 30 foot tree! After over a year of a million dollar house with chicken poop on every lanai every day, I gave up and put my chickens in coops. Hated to do it, but had to. Good luck!
RE: Chicken Training - Jay Bondesen - 01-15-2009
Oh well, thanks anyway. I didn't really think that there was going to be an easy solution. I'll start looking at enlarging the chicken coop.
Jay
RE: Chicken Training - StillHope - 01-16-2009
A while ago it was a post about "chicken tractor" (?)- a coop (with no bottom) on the wheels.
Looks like a compromise between free range and "lock up"[
]
RE: Chicken Training - Liz - 01-16-2009
You can either fence in the birds or fence in the house. Either way will take care of the chicken-poop-on-the-porch problem. :-)
By the way, if you choose to clip their wings, just clip one wing on each bird. If you do both wings, they often learn to fly quite well on their shortened wings, so it defeats the purpose. Clip one wing only and they tend to veer off in circles and give up much more quickly. Also, you only have half the work! :-)
aloha, Liz
"The best things in life aren't things."
RE: Chicken Training - Jay Bondesen - 01-16-2009
Thanks for the advice. I think I will hold off on clipping. I have seen some lightweight inexpensive bird netting they use to protect fruit trees that might work for a larger roof and continue with the chicken wire walls. And the 'chicken tractor' is a good idea but it requires pretty flat ground which isn't exactly what I have.
My little flock was really unhappy when they didn't get out today.
Jay
RE: Chicken Training - Liz - 01-16-2009
Jay, We use that bird netting you described over our own chicken yard. It works like a charm; keeps the chickens in and the hawks out, and easy to rearrange as we expand the yard.
:-)
aloha, Liz
"The best things in life aren't things."
RE: Chicken Training - Jay Bondesen - 01-16-2009
Sounds like a plan then. I'll check around for the netting and maybe salvage an old carport/tent frame or two to hold it up. I did see some at Ace Hardware but I'm thinking some bigger pieces should be out there. Thanks Liz.
Jay
RE: Chicken Training - Liz - 01-17-2009
You're welcome Jay :-) We got our netting at Home Depot, big roll of it. Good luck with your coop project!
aloha, Liz
"The best things in life aren't things."
RE: Chicken Training - jerry - 01-18-2009
The problem I found with bird netting is that smaller birds, like Japanese White Eye, get stuck in it.
Jerry