Making a partition in the coop for new chicks. Suggestions Please!

Finelyfound

Chirping
Jan 1, 2016
67
15
59
Blue Ridge Mountains Virginia
My coop is a 12x12 horse stall. I currently have 2 broody hens in a large dog cage sitting on "special" eggs I ordered. I need to partition off an area of the coop for when the chicks hatch so they can have a safe nursery to grow up in. I have several different types of wires laying around including some plastic chicken fencing. I have looked into some mesh types also. I have a staple gun. I'd love to know what other folks have done that worked well. Every design I come up with makes it very difficult for me to access it daily while still creating a safe nursery. The rest of my flock is very interested in "getting in" with the broodies b/c they get special food and I suspect this will continue once the chicks come. Tell me what you did that worked please. The floor of my coop is heavy rubber stall mats with pine shavings. Thank you!!
 
I have a plastic deer netting partition right now down the middle of one of my coops to keep a broody and her chicks safe and secure. It has half inch mesh and is the perfect size for keeping tiny heads from poking through and getting scalped. (This actually happened to a chick of mine seven years ago when all I had was poultry mesh around the chick pen.)

Deer netting is cheap, easy to handle, no sharp edges to cut chicks, and simple to staple into place. The best thing about it is you can keep reusing it over and over.
 
My latest partition for a broody hen and chicks covered a 4 foot wide opening within a coop to isolate them from the rest of the flock. The bottom part of the temporary partition was 30" high hardware cloth (0.5 inch openings) which I stapled into place. However, I wanted something above the hardware cloth that made it easy for me to reach over the top of the hardware cloth or step over it. I used a piece of vinyl coated wire fencing with 2 x 3" openings and draped it over the opening by hanging it on hooks. It only took one hook at the top of each end to hold it in place. The hooks were screwed into the 2x4s of the coop walls. (Hope this makes sense)

I've also closed off smaller openings (3 feet wide) using hardware cloth on the bottom and plastic feed bags on the top, both of which were stapled into place. This is meant to stay in place for several weeks to serve as the barrier between the main part of the coop and the "safe zone" for growing chicks. The hardware cloth has 3 x 5" doors cut into it, which allows the chicks to move between the main part of the coop and their safe zone. It's a great way to integrate the young ones with the older flock members once they reach 3 to 5 weeks of age. I think azygous was the inspiration for this "safe zone" approach, and had a great article or post that explained it.
 
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I use spring loaded, adjustable curtain rods for my present installation of deer netting. I fold the deer netting over the two curtain rods and use duct tape to secure it. But my coop is a lot smaller than your horse stall.

In the past, I've just stapled the deer netting to the floor. You can also staple the netting to a 2x4 and the weight will hold it down so chickens can't try to scoot underneath.
 

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