How Long to Let Them Settle In?

[bluemoon]

I'm about to ask probably the stupidest question ever asked on the vine. I apologise in advance.

My chicken house is being erected on Saturday and weather permitting will be painted on Sunday so, with any luck, I might be collecting my chooks by the middle of next week. Here is the silly question. Will I have to keep them secured for a few days until they learn that this is their new home, or can I let them free range from day one (or day 2 perhaps)? I accept they're not going to do the cat thing and try to go back to the farm, but will they try to roost anywhere that takes their fancy if I don't give them time to get the idea?

[di]

Not stupid!!!and some may think my answer stupid???:but here's what I'd do anyway!
I wouldn't let them free range for a few days...let them get to know where home is & also hopefully become comfortable with you handling them,just in case you need to pick them up from free ranging to put back in run.(although that said,our bantams never got used to being handled & we found raisins did the trick to get them in)We were actually advised not to let ours even out of their coop for 24 hours...we were naughty though & left the door open as soon as they went in...took a few hours for them to venture outside,but at least they were in a run so couldn't go far...although from memory I don't think they ventured much more than a couple of feet from the coop on that first day anyway.
Good Luck when you get them...sure you'll have great times with them.
Oh,almost forgot,if the first time you let them free range you make it late afternoon,it will be easier to round them up as they'll want to roost as it gets darkish.

[Hans Mum]

i did pretty much what andi&di did, cept for it was freezin when we got ours and i stood there for hours waiting for them to come out

[Eyren]

Omlet (the eglu makers) recommend that you keep your hens in their run for about five days. I don't think I stuck to that, but then our garden is tiny so they didn't exactly have anywhere to get lost!

Good luck with your new girls - I bet you're getting excited!

[MaureenHall]

I think I did the same as Andi&di, though the first ones I got did have a run attached to the coop for a week or so. That's not a stooopid question If you want stoopid, when I first got my girls I didn't know they'd quite happily go into the coop when they wanted to go to bed and I tried putting them in manually at about 6pm each night. What a palava!!! It wasn't until I was busy at bedtime and went out late to put them away and found them all tucked up warm and cosy that I realised that I'd been doing it all wrong. They lived to tell the tale though

[NSB]

I was advised by a breeder to keep them in the house for 24hrs then keep them in the run for 2 weeks without freeranging

[davefromthechipie]

I was advised by a breeder to keep them in the house for 24hrs then keep them in the run for 2 weeks without freeranging

Id go with this My 1st lot i started letting freerange within a week ..It ended up some started laying in my flower patch!! thus retraining / having to keep them penned up again to get them to lay inside again .

[Sue]

Hi
I suffer from not shutting them in the henhouse for the 24 hours and my first girls sleep ON the henhouse, only every cramming inside when it's really freezing cold.
I misunderstood the instructions and thought I was meant to keep them inside the run not the house. However when the new girls arrived I shut them in for the first night and no problems except for me who has to clean both inside and outside of the henhouse....
Sue

[Glutton4...]

... and no problems except for me who has to clean both inside and outside of the henhouse....
Sue

ROFPMSL - thanks Sue, I loved that! It's easy to read advice , act on it, then realise that you mis-read it later! (There's a few who could learn from that, on this forum!!!!)

On that note, sorry, if I insulted anyone there - but, if I did, you mis-read what I meant LOL !!!)

(It's my humble opinion that here are far too many sensitive people on here atm who need to grow a thicker skin! and not take 'general comments' as a personal insult!?) We all have the right to an opinion!

[Sue]

Glutton4
Story of my life, do something, find it doesn't work THEN go and find the instructions....
I never learn
Sue

[Hilary B]

Glutton4
Story of my life, do something, find it doesn't work THEN go and find the instructions....
I never learn
Sue

That is usually a MAN'S approach (if all else fails, read the instructions).

[Hashette]

Congrats Sue, and bet you can't wait to get your chooks

It's not a stupid question, and I'd go with what everyone else has said. Your girls will tell you when it's time to free range, they'll be marching up and down next to the exit pecking at the wire when it's time. I wasn't planning on letting my lot free range at all, thinking they'd be content with a large run. They soon had me trained though, if I'd left it any longer they'd have been carrying placards.

Speaking of stupid questions (which yours most deifinitely wasn't), I wonder if one of the nice mods could delete my howler that I posted after my so called friends at work wound me up......

[plot_13]

Hi,
I've always had rescued battery hens, which generally turn up nearly naked, confused by the idea of leg room, and completely blown away by the concept of free ranging. They are pretty daft, but I normally get even these guys out pretty quickly. I start out with keeping them in the hut for 24 hours(ish), then open the door into the run. When all the girls are happy to enter and leave the hut without any encouragement, I let them out to run round properly (under close supervision, cos there is always one that does a runner out of the totally secure, hen proof fencing). After that, it's a case of tucking them in at bedtime. They nearly always come in by themselves at dusk. As for laying in weird places, if its a problem, you can leave them in the ark til noonish they should have done laying by then, personally, i like the challenge of finding their new hidey holes.

[Hashette]

Hi and welcome along Plot 13

Rubber training eggs in the nest boxes are a good way of helping them get the hang of it too

[plot_13]

Hi, cheers Hashette,

only problem with rescue hens is that they dont grasp the idea of nest boxes! They just drop them where they stand! Some will purposely go indoors for it, but others insist on waiting til they get outside and find their favourite corners. Gave up worrying once i'd worked out who would go where. Sadly, have no girls at the mo, we moved recently, and obviously missed a bit when fox proofing. Awaiting new arrivals soon tho!!