Pooh picking & Treats

I never poo pick either house or run as the house is designed so the birds have no access to the droppings because it falls through the roosting bars onto a dropping area which they can't get into.  My birds are pretty healthy.

However if you never move them to new ground the worm load is reduced by poo picking and the likelihood of infection reduced to some extent.  

So it depends whether your house design is good and prevents the birds picking in their droppings and how many chx you have, how big is their run and how often if ever you move it to new ground.  

That said I doubt that every night it's essential so it's really up to you what you feel comfortable doing.

Giving them treats may seem innocent but I'd seriously consider stopping doing this more often than a couple of times a week and then in an evening only.  Chicken quickly get to learn that there are treats coming and they neglect their staple feed in order to tuck into corn or meal worms or in your case grapes.  Also you become conditioned by a mutual gratification process to keep doing it.  Ie you get cupboard love and they get fed nice things.  

It's so easy to convince ourselves that a handful or two does no harm.  That's what many mothers think and why we have lots of over weight kids storing up problems for the future.

HF

Poo-picking is something everyone does differently as all the set-ups are different: do what you feel comfortable with - because if you push yourself to be too obsessive, it'll become a real chore, instead of a pleasant time with your girls.

Depending on your coop, you may find it necessary to poo-pick daily (I do), but the area they live in is quite big so I poo-pick as & when I have time.

I'm with Lindeggs re the veg you're giving your girls: if they were completely free to roam, they'd eat loads of veg so I consider that chucking a small amount of a lot of different things into their run is almost like taking the free range to the penned chickens. 

However, I would't buy special treats like mealworms as the girls don't have a priority scale for extras: is it edible?  It's a treat, then.   

One of my favourite hobbies is following Hillfoot around and disagreeing with him.  

I say a few treats won't do any harm!  In your case the treats are mostly fruit and vegetables - a cabbage leaf and a few grapes shared between three hens.  My pullets get to run around on pasture all day and eat a huge amount of grass and weeds (and flowers, bugs, windfall fruit...) which I consider as much a part of their staple diet as the pellets I provide.

__________________________________________________________________________
"Giving them treats may seem innocent but I'd seriously consider stopping doing this more often than a couple of times a week and then in an evening only.  Chicken quickly get to learn that there are treats coming and they neglect their staple feed in order to tuck into corn or meal worms or in your case grapes.  Also you become conditioned by a mutual gratification process to keep doing it.  Is you get cupboard love and they get fed nice things. 

It's so easy to convince ourselves that a handful or two does no harm.  That's what many mothers think and why we have lots of over weight kids storing up problems for the future. HF"

Lindeggs makes my point very well.  It's not what was being given but the frequency and quantity that I was suggesting be cut down on the basis that chx learn quickly that treats are to be had by begging and so don't eat their pellets.  Personally I'm a believer that if you don't eat up your greens you don't get your pudding.

We have a bunch of free rangers who wander the garden.  Carole used to throw them a handful of corn whenever she saw them near the house "because they were cute" and she was worried they weren't getting enough to eat.  Pretty soon they learnt that hanging around the back door was a sure way to a handful of corn.  They took to completely ignoring their pellets and just demanding corn.  Sometimes coming through the conservatory into the house to rouse us.  I eventually had to stop the habit because they were also recruiting other hens from their run to join them so what started out as a couple got to be about 7 hens begging corn and precious little pellets being eaten.  Had I just stuck to one handful of corn a couple of times a week in their run on an irregular basis I'm sure this wouldn't have happened.

Does it really matter - well probably not after all they are pets so if they perform for our pleasure and amusement that's probably all part of the deal.

Back on your head lindeggs

HF