Tiny Flock Needs?

So for the past two springs, I've hatched chicks in my kids' school. The chickens then went to live at my parent's house in the country. My city recently passed legislation to allow backyard chickens (yay!) So I bought a tiny coop (actually, my wonderful sister bought me one!) and took two of the now about 6 month old hens from my dad's flock and brought them to my little lot in the city.

Is there anything special I should know about keeping such a little flock?

Hooray!!

Chickens are social critters. 2 may not be enough. 3 as minimum is the general consensus around here. Not saying it can't work, but as far as chickens go, literally, the more the merrier. If you lose one, having one by herself is quite stressing.

If you're tiny coop is what I think it is, it will work for now but I don't think you'll be happy with it. I'm guessing it's one of those little commercially made prefabs. They're very flimsy and misleading about how many chickens it can fit. My advice would start the planning for a permanent coop project now. You'll probably want to double to coop space with easy access to all corners, quadruple (or more) the run space and if at all possible, make it tall enough to walk in.

Remember, what ever run space you give them, say good bye to all the grass and greenery and think about drainage and how to keep it dry. A wet coop/run is a stinky, fly infested coop/run.

If you give them the yard, take steps to protect any landscaping you might not want eaten and be sure not to allow trespassing in neighbors' yards. You don't want to jeopardize the new legislation with complaints.

Think about predators. Before I moved to the country, I lived in a suburban cookie cutter neighborhood which still had a coyote living in an overgrown ravine close enough to the house to terrorize the resident crazy cat lady.

I realize I'm focusing on the negative aspects right now but if you can hammer these things out before problems come, you can spare yourself the frustrations that can often overshadow the joy that chicken keeping can be.

Just make sure your coop is big enough. 4 sq. feet per bird is just perfect. A little littler is alright.
you may also want to make sure if they go in your yard they cant get out and be prepared for them to eat some of your flowers.

And CONGRATULATIONS


I hoped i helped to answer your question!

This is our coop, made for 3 chickens. The coop alone is 3x3 and the fenced in area is 6x3. We have 3 nesting boxes but that was a waste, they only use 1. It only cost us $20 for the hardware and chicken wire. We already had the lumber and metal. We have since added a PVC waterer and a feeder to the door. This is the first time we have ever owned chickens so we are still learning but a few of the most notable things I've learned from friends that have had large flocks for a long time are:
1) they love frozen fruits/veggies on hot days. We freeze melon after we cut the majority out and bananas without the peel. Be careful though because too much snacks like that can produce soft shells from lack of calcium. We learned that the hard way.
2) The place that they roost on needs to be wide and flat not round. Ours still don't use their roost so I'm not sure how necessary it is. They prefer to roost on the edge of their nesting box.
3) Make sure you can close up your coop if you live in a small town where critters live. We have a bob tail fox and made a small door to open/close every morning/night.
4) keep on the look out for mice. We switched to PvC feeders to a) keep the water clean (we bought the cup waterers instead of the nipple style) b) help eliminate waste. We had a huge mice problem (counted 7 in one night) and so doing PVC feeders has helped. If you can't do PVC feeders, try hanging them or make sure you leave it out of the coop at night.

We have had so much fun with it so far! Hope you enjoy it as well!!

sheabaybay11 said:

This is our coop, made for 3 chickens. The coop alone is 3x3 and the fenced in area is 6x3. We have 3 nesting boxes but that was a waste, they only use 1. It only cost us $20 for the hardware and chicken wire. We already had the lumber and metal. We have since added a PVC waterer and a feeder to the door. This is the first time we have ever owned chickens so we are still learning but a few of the most notable things I've learned from friends that have had large flocks for a long time are:
1) they love frozen fruits/veggies on hot days. We freeze melon after we cut the majority out and bananas without the peel. Be careful though because too much snacks like that can produce soft shells from lack of calcium. We learned that the hard way.
2) The place that they roost on needs to be wide and flat not round. Ours still don't use their roost so I'm not sure how necessary it is. They prefer to roost on the edge of their nesting box.
3) Make sure you can close up your coop if you live in a small town where critters live. We have a bob tail fox and made a small door to open/close every morning/night.
4) keep on the look out for mice. We switched to PvC feeders to a) keep the water clean (we bought the cup waterers instead of the nipple style) b) help eliminate waste. We had a huge mice problem (counted 7 in one night) and so doing PVC feeders has helped. If you can't do PVC feeders, try hanging them or make sure you leave it out of the coop at night.

We have had so much fun with it so far! Hope you enjoy it as well!!

Click to expand...

They will use the roost you just have to teach them to sleep there.