I'm looking for ideas for a temporary chicken house for our 7 week old chickens. It will be inside of a secure run (yes, I understand nothing is fool proof) but they will need to live beside the older chickens for several more weeks before we can integrate them with the older hens. What have you used in the past? Obviously I don't want to spend a lot for this since our hens have a nice coop. Thanks in advance!
Temporary House for Chickens
- Thread starter UTAHEM
- Start date
I bought this for my "house" chicken to live in until I get her back outside again. Very happy with it: easy to assemble, pretty sturdy, came with a little roost (although I would sand the edges) , has a top opening, side door, and a side removable panel. Not predator proof but might work in your situation "inside" an enclosure already.
I got it from amazon for $90...looks like it is sold out but I bet other places have it too...
http://www.amazon.com/Precision-Pet...&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00
I got it from amazon for $90...looks like it is sold out but I bet other places have it too...
http://www.amazon.com/Precision-Pet...&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00
That looks like that would work great. Maybe shelter one end incase it rains. Also maybe add a large meshed chicken wire at the door that is big enough for a 7 week old bird to get through but not a full adult. It will offer some protection from the larger chickens.
- Thread starter
- #4
Thank you! They will be separate from the big birds until they are all the same size! I can build something like that with sides and a roof. I might leave it up in the run for all the birds to give them something to climb all over. I just wasn't sure what level of protection they might need for 6 weeks. At 7 weeks, they will have 60-70 during the day and 35-50 at night and I want something to protect them well enough.
Emily
Emily
Large dog crates work well for temporary housing... Asked around to family, friends and co-workers you might be able to score a loan for free...
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #6
You never said how many or for how long or many other details, but generally if they are fully feathered out and you can position the dog crate out of the wind or cover up the main (wire) entrance to the dog crate on cold nights they shouldl be fine short of predator risk...
I personally would try introducing them to rest of the flock as soon as possible, there is really no need to wait until they are the same size unless you have an aggressive rooster or not enough space for them to get away from the other hens as they do their normal pecking order things...
- Thread starter
- #8
You are right. I neglected to mention there will be four and it might be 4-6 weeks. Their run will be protected. Buried hardware cloth under and up the sides with welded wire on top. So I don't worry too much about predators. Seems like my job just got easier then. Thanks.
Well if you plant to keep the birds fully confined to a cage at 7 weeks they are going to realistically need about 5 sqft per bird, or 35 sqft in your case, as they continue to grow that space will likely need to be increased... Sure you can pack them in tighter then that, but you will likely have behavioral or health issues over the course of a month plus of confinement...
IMO you should focus on integrating them much sooner...
- Thread starter
- #10
They won't be in a cage. They will have a shelter (what I'm thinking now will be an old dog crate propped up on cinder blocks) within a 7'x7' chicken run (which has hardware cloth buried beneath and up the sides to predator proof it), which will be separated (by wire) from another 7'x7' run that is housing the existing 2 chickens - until we are ready to integrate. The 6 or 7 week old chickens will be coming from someone else's farm that has poultry so I'd like to keep them apart for at least a month. When we do integrate, 6 chickens will share a 12 ft2 coop and a 100 ft2 run (1/2 of which is covered).
Really, I just wasn't sure what kind of temporary shelter the babies would need until they can be in the big coop but it seems like a dog crate might be just fine.
Really, I just wasn't sure what kind of temporary shelter the babies would need until they can be in the big coop but it seems like a dog crate might be just fine.
Similar threads
New posts New threads Active threads
-
Latest threads
-
-
PLEASE, could someone help me figure out what’s wrong with my beautiful Pekin???- Started by AmyA248
- Replies: 0
-
-
-
-
-
Threads with more replies in the last 15 days
-
-
-
Checking-In On Peeps - Post Here To Say Hello!- Started by Nifty-Chicken
- Replies: 129
-
-
Can I get some help from someone with careless neighbours who own dogs.- Started by RiDaGeckoGuy
- Replies: 102
-
