Hello! Chicken math has struck and now I have a week to add on an isolation pen to our chicken coop. I can't build on inside as even though they are free range the coop is too small to take away space if I have to keep them inside for some reason. I'm going to use wood and some chicken wire we already have (our only predators are foxes, so the actual coop/nesting box will be off the ground). This is an image I found online of our chicken coop now:
I was thinking of cutting a rectangle in the wire at the back (and then framing off the whole on both sides so it's safe and eye-pleasing) and then attaching the frame of the isolation coop to the beams along the bottom. It'll be about as big as the area of the two big wire panels on the front, and I'm going to surround the frame in chicken wire. It'll be about as high as half the height of the large coop. The actual coop/nesting area will be a wooden crate mounted on stilts that I'm going to chicken-fy and add nesting boxes and a roost to and put it inside the pen. My big problem would be; how do I construct the roof and what can I make it out of? I can see what materials we have lying around (we've just done a massive house renovation so we have a lot of anything lol) I could even use roof tiles.
So, thanks! (We currently have four laying hyrbids, gorgeous ladies in different orange and red hues, and now we're upgrading to two more pekin bantam hens (who come with a rooster but who will be shortly rehomed) for all you chicken lovers... which should be everyone, because it's BYC!
Oh, and while I'm here, how long should I 'isolate' my hens for? they will be free range like our others and I want them to be comfortable with the others.
Thanks!
I was thinking of cutting a rectangle in the wire at the back (and then framing off the whole on both sides so it's safe and eye-pleasing) and then attaching the frame of the isolation coop to the beams along the bottom. It'll be about as big as the area of the two big wire panels on the front, and I'm going to surround the frame in chicken wire. It'll be about as high as half the height of the large coop. The actual coop/nesting area will be a wooden crate mounted on stilts that I'm going to chicken-fy and add nesting boxes and a roost to and put it inside the pen. My big problem would be; how do I construct the roof and what can I make it out of? I can see what materials we have lying around (we've just done a massive house renovation so we have a lot of anything lol) I could even use roof tiles.
So, thanks! (We currently have four laying hyrbids, gorgeous ladies in different orange and red hues, and now we're upgrading to two more pekin bantam hens (who come with a rooster but who will be shortly rehomed) for all you chicken lovers... which should be everyone, because it's BYC!
Oh, and while I'm here, how long should I 'isolate' my hens for? they will be free range like our others and I want them to be comfortable with the others.
Thanks!
They are from the same breeder, but she would only sell them as a trio because it's obviously not her peek breeding system. Would they still need to be isolated, or can I just make my introduction coop like I'd planned? (I see that I mislabelled it as an isolation coop lol.) I didn't consider diseases and now I feel bad that I didn't. Any other advice about introducing/separating chickens?
