Keeping Chickens Newsletter

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Kara & David Romero : We are new chicken keepers. We got our girls late in the year. They were born around the first of September, so they should be starting to lay sometime in the next weeks to months (we think), although it might be later than sooner considering the weather and their present state of molting.

Ginger as a chick

We have two questions - 1) While they each display varying degrees of friendliness, their special brand of chicken "love" has seriously decreased since they graduated to the great outdoors, most likely because its been a tough winter and we haven't had the opportunity to spend as much time with them as we'd like. So, what can we do to win them back? Do you think more "quality time" will do the trick?

2) We removed the nesting boxes a while back because they were not roosting properly. Instead they were huddling together in one box and consequently dirtying the box beyond belief. We'll need to return the box soon in preparation for laying, so how can we avoid a repeat of this behavior? Would elevating the boxes off the floor work?

Attached is a photo of our girls and our coop (and David). Another is a particularly beautiful shot of Ginger as a chick. Ginger is the RIR and the sweetest of all, Lola is the brave/bossy Black Australorp, and Shy-Ann is the Ameraucana, who totally flipped personalities from chick to pullet and is now the boldest and most aggressive of all. She refuses to be "put" anywhere and must be convinced to trot herself back into the run after free-ranging time.

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