four in one coop.... please help with ideas

[dolfi]

I have 4 breeds. 6 white leghorns, 6 red sexlinks, 3 Easter Eggers, 2 silkies. They all co-mingle well enough in 1 coop (8x8).
Only issues-I can't get the silkies to learn to put themselves to bed at night like everyone else. But they were never locked in coop like the leghorns and sexlinks were as chicks. The silkies & EE were bought at the same time as young birds (not really chicks). The EE learned really quick to get inside before bedtime but the Silkies still sleep outside unless I put them in by hand.
They kind of pester each other from time to time but nothing to bad. I see some of the ladies being bullies to the EE once in a while but no one ever messes with the silkies. Who knows. I say before you mess with trying to divide it all up, try and mingle all together first to save $ and hassles.
Disclaimer: I have only been a chicken mama for a few months so value my advice accordingly.

what about breeding? how do you know whos egg it is from

 

[dolfi]

well i got some pallets today and gather some old wood. but it was raining when i got home. so tommorow ill see what i will start coming up with

 

[dolfi]

i will try to take pictures as i go maybe it can be helpful to someone out there

 

[QuirkySue]

My truck isn't running right now so I am still in the design stage. I need one fast though because my birds are growing fast!
I want a rectangular 5 section structure (4 pens and and a place for the lawnmower, rototiller etc and feed supplies) with a sloped roof. It will be concrete piers, with posts (prob 6 4x4's) and roofing tin we got free on sudes and roof. I'm prob not going to winter the breeders there. Each pen with its own pop door, full sized man door and run area. I'll probably have to go into the pen to collect eggs unless I can work easy access boxes in somehow.

Of course I'm not the one actually building it so whatever the boss man wants is probably what I'll get and have to make it work! I would love to see your photos!

 

[dolfi]

Me too . yours sounds like a dream. I would love to see your pic

 

[dolfi]

cant do much with this sun, temp. and to top it all up rain... Florida's summer

hope i can start the coop soon

 

[ssgreer1]

what about breeding? how do you know whos egg it is from

I don't care about pure breeds. If at some point I want to have chicks I will lock the ones I want to up in a dog kennel

 

[Popcorn]

Different breeds usually can get along. If you are not looking to breed them then one large coop or even just a combined run might work. Since I go for interesting color I have eight bird and seven different breeds. Sometimes if a bird is very different from the rest (bantam in large fowl, white in dark colors, crest or boots with non crested or booted) they may get picked on. I have found that a different bird is usually not picked on if it is either not the only one with a unique feature or if it's flock mates are used to the feature it can be added to another flock and do fairly well. I have a friend that has a coop divided into five sections in one large house. The middle is the main entrance and the sections are divided using chicken wire and a door into each of chicken wire on a wood frame. Each section has separate nesting boxes, perches, food and water, and opens into the outside run. The outside run has fencing with gates separating sections. During breeding season he keeps the pens closed off but otherwise all the doors and gates are open to let the birds mingle. He can also close off a door to the outside run and an inside door to make a space for a broody hen or for new chicks.

 

[dpennington01]

Well here goes my first post... I've been perusing the forums getting ideas for my chicken coop design and have actually started building one... I'm by NO means a carpenter just started doing a lot of things with pallets and thought what a great way to save money on supplies to build a coop and when I mess up....and I always do...it doesn't hurt as much to put in the whoops pile for another project! I saw your post and thought I could tag along for suggestions on my coop ideas...

So right now I have the base of my coop using mostly pallets - found 4x4 posts that were 48" long, cut them in half then put a pallet on top of that for my base. I had some 2x4x8's on hand for a sun screen project I have in my head... took two of those and ran down the sides, 84" long (pallet 44" plus nests/roosts on each side 20"). Starting to work on walls today, laid them out last night then I saw something about having two separate runs or dividing the coop. I am only planning on maybe 4 hens...(I know, coop is probably overkill but just time and few 2/4's at this point). Uh...and I haven't decided what kind of chickens to get or if I should start with baby chicks...?

And I hope I did not post this in the wrong place...forgive me if I did. I'll post pics of what i have...trust me when I say I'm not a carpenter... and I'm a visual person so I have to see it....which would explain why sometimes I start something and then realize...whoops! that won't work!

Oh and this is where I got my inspiration for my coop design...

Thanks for any help! I have sooooo much to learn!!

 

[Daisy8s]

what about breeding? how do you know whos egg it is from

I have 6 hens of 5 different breeds. They all lay slightly different looking eggs so I know who is laying. Their eggs differ both in size and color. In fact, I intentionally chose a single hen from each breed specifically so it'd be easy to know who was laying. If I had 6 birds all of the same breed and got 4 eggs I'd never know who wasn't laying.

When it came time to set eggs for hatching I just chose the eggs I wanted, e.g. I discarded eggs from a hen I didn't like and loaded in extra eggs from the hens I did like.

The problem here is with the rooster. I have one rooster and I don't care that the offspring will be cross-breeds. If you were trying to breed true then you'd need to isolate each rooster/hen breeding pair.

As for how they get along, they don't care about breed. I don't think they even "see" differences in color/size. My rooster, a Barred Rock, favors a New Hampshire Red and ignores the Silver-Laced Wyandotte, even though the SLW looks more like him.