Bought a house - previous owner moved to a town home so we kept the chickens. There is a decent amount of space on the property, and half of it is a forested hillside.
Any suggestions for a newbie? A new coop is definitely first thing on my list. And a fence around the property.
One of the chickens is an outcast and I feel bad for her, doesn’t leave the coop when the others go out in the yard and doesn’t eat treats from the ground just food from the feeder. The other chickens get along well it seems.
Yes, definitely found out the hard way that if I left it too long some would try to go to sleep in the trees. And it’s a pain in the arse to get them out of the trees.
Alarm now gets set to remind me to herd them back in before that happens.
There are all sorts of automated accessories like doors for the coop that can make this very easy for you!