Girls day out

[rick]

I'm considering something and am quite prepared to accept it's a bad idea, but...
If I fenced around a plot for weeding on the allotment only 5 mins down the road and took the crew out there for a few hours (with water of course) would that stress them or would they love it?
P.s. I know they wouldn't enjoy the journey and long grass, rhubarb leaves etc would be a no-no. I'm thinking more that the change of territory might be stressful. But then again it would be very desirable new territory!
Some cover maybe so they don't worry about open sky.

 

[chrismahon]

They may become very disorientated and consequently stressed Rick. Chickens rely as much on spacial awareness as they do on vision, which is why when you move their coop they will return to the place it was to roost and lay. If we shut the coop door ours will fly onto the nest box lid or attempt to get in from underneath- they know exactly where in 3 dimensional space they need to be. We rely entirely on vision, so in respect of locating themselves chickens are far superior to us.

It would be an excellent way of breaking a broody though -putting her somewhere totally different for a few hours is a technique we use a lot.

 

[dinosaw]

For the sake of a couple of hours I would say it is too stressful for the birds.

 

[rick]

Thanks Chris, dinosaw. Heeded - consistency of space. Just wondering what might be possible...

...Encouraged by mealworms Alice entered the tunnel which was very dark with strange noises and gravitational effects. After a short while the tunnel opened in the corner of a regular sided room with blue stripy walls (some might think it was made of cheap beach screens.)
Strange thing was, every time Alice went through the tunnel the room was exactly the same but the floor was covered with new and delightful surprises!

 

[chrismahon]

We've just been pruning a few tiny branches in the enclosure. One of the Marans subsequently went to the area and sounded the alarm call because the branch she usually stood under wasn't there. So she remembered the previous picture and compared the new one to it -not the same so something seriously wrong! She was the only one bothered by it though, so perhaps some will make the transition Rick, question is which ones? Get it wrong and laying will stop immediately.

 

[dinosaw]

Interesting about spatial awareness, one of our Aracauna chicks is very nearly blind, it wasn't until we started putting a spoon with yoghurt into the brooding ring at about 10 days that we even noticed anything was wrong because it kept missing it, it knew it was there from the noise the other chicks made but couldn't quite connect, the thing is, you could stand there observing them for an hour and you wouldn't be able to pick out which one was blind, it knows exactly where the feeder and drinker is and I think follows the noise of its mates, it is only when you pick it up and put it somewhere new that it just stands there completely nonplussed.

 

[rick]

Amazing, like their ability to hold their heads still relative to the world while their body moves around!
If I try it at all then will be very cautious.

 

[chrismahon]

Seems that chick mapped out the area spacialy based on the noise of the others, rather than any visual input Dinosaw. Amazing creatures really, given that blind they can behave normally in an enclosed environment. Of course foraging for food would be more difficult but they can taste as well.

Caution is definitely advised Rick. If it was a flock of young cockerels you may be OK?

 

[Marigold]

On an allotment, there's also the problem of security. Unless you're going to be down there with them all the time, you would need good strong fences, high enough for them not to fly out. Quite a lot of trouble for you to go to - though I'm inclined to think that, like you, they might enjoy it if they're tame enough to be picked up and popped in boxes for a short journey.
Perhaps try it with just 2-3, in a temporary enclosure with you down there with them, for a trial run?

 

[rick]

The idea is to spend the afternoon down there and take them along to help with the weeding. Would need canvas screens as a consistent space with the hope that they would come to think of the space as an extention of the run. Trouble is it will cost about £100 by my reckoning in canvas (or the like) to make the enclosure unless something else turns up.
They are all very tame except Betty (life has taught her that the best strategy is to run away though she is bold enough now to run back in to raid the treats)
Going to give it a try if cheap but suitable roll up screening presents itself.

 

[chickenfan]

Very interesting post this. I have two 5-year old girls that I rotate between my front garden in winter and allotment behind my garden in summer. They seem to get restless in spring and want more company. I've just moved them back to the front garden yesterday and they seem completely relaxed to be back. But the two areas are only 65m apart, so the sounds are all the same, and perhaps the spatial awareness extends over such an area.

 

[chrismahon]

Our neighbour's chickens roam completely free around the property Chickenfan. There are no boundary fences to the farmland surrounding the houses and they range 100 metres from their coop in all directions. They know 4.00pm is feeding time and return to the coop to get the grain and pellets scattered there. They know that around 7.00pm they will get treats from us if we treat ours so come around to our door. In our case there are no noises for them to relate to and they can't see the whole area they cover because of trees, bushes and buildings. They have no cock to round them up and wander individually, coming together on aforementioned occasions. They know where the nest boxes are and return to lay- although there has been some exceptions. Pretty smart creatures really- they never get lost in what is a very large area.

 

[rick]

Sounds like the ideal holiday destination Chris. Can we book a coop with a dust pool?

 

[valeriebutterley]

Yeah, sounds great Chris, how much for B&B?
Some chicks just being with their people, like a dog, my granddaughter has had a couple of lemon cuckoo Pekins like this. One even joined her Brownie pack. I made Sorbet a very small saddle type uniform in Brownie colours.
As long as she was with Lucy, Sorbet never even did a poo put of place, she was for instance often in the house, and never disgraced herself, her sister Souffle was similar, but not as tame or as people oriented.
A couple of my this years Pekins are the naturally tamest chicks ever, in fact sometimes a nuisance if I am trying to eat outside. On me, table, and chair and Raggy my small grandson's black Pekin had a paddle in my coffee mug, YUK, recently. It seems to me, some chicks are either into you or not, and if they are, you can pretty much put them where you want, and they will follow, provided you have corn, biscuits, bread, greens and warm coffee to paddle in!.
Having read a bit about their spacial awareness, I still do not know what to make of them, always a delighful mystery.

 

[Marigold]

The idea is to spend the afternoon down there and take them along to help with the weeding. Would need canvas screens as a consistent space with the hope that they would come to think of the space as an extention of the run. Trouble is it will cost about £100 by my reckoning in canvas (or the like) to make the enclosure unless something else turns up.
Going to give it a try if cheap but suitable roll up screening presents itself.

You might have a look at this Rick
http://www.tarpaulinsdirect.co.uk/tarpaulins/tarpaulins/budget-tarpaulin
Once again, Tarpaulins Direct may have the answer. Thus one is their Budget tarpaulin, which I have used to make shading/waterproofing for a temporary hen shelter. Not as strong or long lasting as their Monotex tarp, which has lasted me several years so far as weatherproof screening round the run in winter, but would do the job, is non-fray, light and pretty strong. The 10x2 metre tarp at £11.99, cut in half lengthways, would give you 20x1 metre strip. If handy with a sewing machine, you could then sew channels from top to bottom, wide enough to take bamboo canes which would insert into the ground to hold it upright round the area to be enclosed. Each slot would use up 6 cm of length, maybe about 1 if the 20 metres. Still leaves enough to try out enclosing an area of at least 4 X 4m. Make sure you use polyester thread, not cotton, as cotton thread eventually rots in wet conditions, and make the channels wide enough to take the canes easily. It would depend on how likely your birds were to fly out of a 1 metre high enclosure, and it might need pegging or weighting down at the base as well on uneven ground. Possibly you might need a wider tarp to cut up into strips giving you a higher 'fence.' But certainly a lot easier to make and handle, and vastly cheaper, than canvas.
I used screening like this made from Micromesh when I had an allotment, as plant protection particularly for carrots, and also it seemed to keep out the rabbits from my plot. Before I bought some proper chicken netting and poles, I used it round a circle of grass on the lawn in the garden for my first hens.

 

[chrismahon]

Scaffolding-direct sell debris netting Rick. We used two rolls of 50m x 3m to create temporary enclosures for the chickens both here and in the Dordogne. The netting comes folded in half, so the package is 1.5m roll. Doubled over as it comes, it provides a good screen for chickens and doesn't stop all the breeze, just about 60% of it. Because there is little top soil here and the ground is very hard a circular enclosure is first outlined with tripod posts, two outside and one inside, to create a stable but easily moveable framework. On those is hung washing line. We then used clothes pegs to attach the folded end over the line. The bottom was held in place with rocks. We still have this arrangement inside our chicken wire enclosure to create subdivisions for different breeding sets. We now also have it all around the outside of the enclosure as a wind break, fastened in the same way, and can lift it in Summer to get all the breeze and drop it to give wind protection. It's so useful that we have just bought another two rolls. It has lasted well- about the only thing plastic we have that has uv resistance. All our plastic clothes pegs have broken and we now have switched to wooden ones.

 

[rick]

Lots of great ideas (going to pass on the Brownie uniforms though as awesome as that would be!)
Just to compare notes I have also found builders jute hessian on rolls at similar prices to the tarp and scaffold netting.

 

[chickenfan]

I will be interested to hear how it goes Rick.

 

[rick]

Apparently this is a best guess as to what we look like to our chickens! And eggs are bright red!

 

[rick]

Sorry, bit of a divertion but - 3 colour + UV, short focus < 24 inch and yet very high resolution. It's no wonder they are not fooled by a stuffed fox on wheels!
Amazing stuff!
... And thinking about spotting birds overhead, in UV the clouds would disappear and although defocused a moving pin prick depression in light level against a high res field would be as 'clear' as it gets.
And, apparently, they sense light directly through their head also! So could navigate around a shade world when blind (as well as having the spacial memory)!!!