Introducing older hens?

[donrae]

Forget what the manufacturer said. Take a good, honest look at your coop and picture 15 chickens living in that space. Do you think they'd be happy? Do you think they'd have enough space to move around? Do you think you could manage the manure of that many birds in that space? Would you have space to put a feeder and waterer? The answer to all those is NO.

You simply don't have enough space to add two more birds. Your coop and run both are at maximum capacity right now. If you really want these layers, you'll need to build more coop and run space. Or, your friend can find another home for her birds.

 

[aart]

Forget what the manufacturer said. Take a good, honest look at your coop and picture 15 chickens living in that space. Do you think they'd be happy? Do you think they'd have enough space to move around? Do you think you could manage the manure of that many birds in that space? Would you have space to put a feeder and waterer? The answer to all those is NO.

You simply don't have enough space to add two more birds. Your coop and run both are at maximum capacity right now. If you really want these layers, you'll need to build more coop and run space. Or, your friend can find another home for her birds......and a few of yours.

 

[bobbi-j]

Your current coop may seem like enough space right now for your 8 young ones to sleep in, but it will be too crowded for all of them, let alone two more, to spend the winter in - especially once everyone is full grown. You may have plans for them to be out romping in the snow, but chickens - mine at least - really don't seem to be fond of snow in the first place, and less so when it gets deep. You could go out and shovel out their run every time it snows, I suppose, or put some sort of covering on it to keep the snow off. But if your chickens are like many, they will prefer to stay in for most of the winter. Your current coop would most likely cause overcrowding, which brings on a whole set of undesirable behaviors - feather picking and bullying to name a couple of them.

 

[Mrs. K]

More rain for your parade...

Even if they do go outside, the days are short, so the nights are long. Most will spend 14 hours on the roost. Horrible things happen when chickens are over crowded!

MK

 

[lazy gardener]

With a coop of that size, I'd not be comfortable keeping more than 3 birds in it.