The henhouse: Learn from my mistakes!

I've been raising chickens for over five years now and was starting to feel pretty confident in my abilities to raise a bunch of chicks. So when my husband brought home 12 newly hatched chicks, I was delighted. However, we only have five of those chicks left. Perhaps you can learn from my mistakes.

We started the chicks in the bathtub -- lined with clean hay covered with a clean old cloth. We've found newspaper to be pretty slippery, and we have plenty of old sheets to use. After a couple of days on the cloth, we put the chicks on the regular bedding, and everything turned out great. They grew fast, and were jumping over the bathtub barriers and making a mess by 3 1/2 weeks, so out they went.

They have gotten their own separate coop (8' x 4'), and I fenced a fair-sized yard. Now, I knew that as the chicks got bigger, they would fly right out of this pen. Not to worry -- I'd put a top on the pen later. After all, they were still pretty small.

Things went well. They had a ball outside. Although reluctant to go in at night, they eventually did, right as darkness fell. They were flying the coop, so to speak, at five weeks. I started to cover the top of the fenced area, but I made it so big that I didn't know how I would be able to cover it all.

I propped up pieces of chicken wire around the edges, figuring they were using the top of the three-foot fence as a jumping-off point. That worked just about as well as it sounded -- not at all. So now I had to chase the chicks every day and get them back into the pen.

Chasing baby chicks can be a frustrating experience. I rigged up several traps that made catching them easier. They absolutely hated being caught. They screamed and carried on as if I were killing them. We had been "friends" before, but after a couple of days of trying to catch them, they ran when I approached. Now they're afraid of me.

By six weeks or so, I decided I was doing more harm than good by keeping them penned. The little guys were out of the pen half the time anyway. My old broody hens had always quit mothering at six weeks, so down came the fence.

They were elated and ran all over the yard. Things were blissful for about a week, but the lead chick decided they should roost in a blue spruce tree. This was not so good. They really perched up high, and I was able to capture only four of them and put them in the coop. Because they were now so afraid of me, catching them on the ground before they took to the tree was impossible.

I had never taken much time to hand-feed these chicks, so food didn't work as a bait. That night passed quickly, and we awoke to baby chicks out exploring the earliest daylight they had yet experienced. They went back to the tree the next night. I was able to put only three birds in the coop.

Disaster struck. We woke to the sounds of the great horned owl. Uh oh, we thought. By morning, seven chicks were missing, presumed dead. There were small piles of feathers scattered around and feathers at the bottom of the tree. Looks like the owl had help from the area coons. Two black chicks were able to survive. Perhaps their color had helped them blend into the night. Now we have five frightened and very traumatized chicks, whom I eventually corralled and put back into the coop. They now have a smaller, well-roofed pen in which to play and stay safe.

Some of the lessons I learned are:

1. The chicks and I were pretty good friends while they were indoors. I didn't take the time to continue that relationship once they moved outdoors. Had I spent more time hand feeding, perhaps catching them might not have been so hard.

2. Fence, fence fence -- and do a thorough job of it before you put your critters out.

3. Don't let the chicks out of the pen too early. In the past, I've kept them confined until about eight weeks and never had any problems. That way, they knew without doubt where they were supposed to sleep.

4. Feed any treats inside the coop. I had to set up food and water both in and outside the coop. The chicks had no need or desire to go back into the coop during the day, thus reinforcing the idea that outdoors was the place to be!

In retrospect, I see another mistake I made with an earlier batch of chicks a few years ago. We had let a hen go broody and hatch out some chicks. She did a terrific job raising them until six weeks. Then she quit cold turkey, and those little guys were on their own.

At that time, I should have given them a separate place to sleep. As it was, I battled all summer to get the chicks in at night. The older hens would pick up the chicks by the nape of the neck and toss them to the ground. They'd stand guard at the door and not let the little ones in. They ended up sleeping on top of the window for fear they would get pecked (or worse). These chicks turned into hostile, mean old biddies. I have since learned that you shouldn't incorporate flocks until the young ones are maybe 18 weeks old and able to defend themselves.

It's been four weeks since I started writing this. Now the pen is down, and the remaining chicks are doing great. After all that time in the pen, they've learned to be safely in the coop long before sunset! However, they are still scared of their surroundings and rarely appear in an open area. I hope they will gradually become less afraid.