We bought our chickens from someone on Craigslist, who was raising them in a small pen while feeding them cheap feed. They were obviously stressed- with most of them missing their tail feathers and fairly skittish around people and aggressive towards one another.
We want our chickens healthy, and want to reverse this behavior.
We "homed" them by keeping them in their coop for three consecutive days. On the morning of the fourth day, we opened the coop door and let them venture out. They were very hesitant to go far from the coop, and returned often. That evening they all returned to the coop, signifying they understood that to be home.
I was admittedly late in building them their laying box, and so we found eggs in the yard and under privet bushes for the first week of them free-ranging. We left the eggs they did lay in the nesting box(along with a golf ball for added prop value). I guess that worked, because they have started to use the beating box more consistently, and we're finding less and less eggs in the tall grass and brush piles.
We want to work with the natural order of the plants and animals we cultivate. So we want the chickens to act like chickens, and for them to have the ability to scratch around, fertilize as they go, and to seek out the food they know they need. There is anecdotal evidence that suggests they will adjust their own diet to fulfill a nutritional need/deficiency they have.
So, every morning we open the coop door, throw out a couple handfuls of millet and sunflower seed where we want them to scratch and fertilize, and within an hour, they're wandering around our 2.5 acres- turning over leaves, eating grasses, and looking for bugs + worms.
We want to raise more chickens, but in seeking to learn as we go, we decided to just start with these 8 hens. We are hoping to get rabbits soon. And even want to raise a small group of geese. Stay tuned for more updates.
