A Couch for Chickens?

[ChookaPete]

I have an old outdoor rectangular-shaped lounge couch that has been sitting in my shed for nearly three years. It was acquired with a big bunch of furniture that I bought during house-hunting, so I just grabbed it at the time. I tried it in my house, then my back patio, but didn't like it much.

I have wondered to put it on my patio as a day-bed on the front porch, but I feel that would just clutter it.
I often sit there in a chair watching my chooks and throwing them treats to eat.


If I keep it folded upright in an L-shape, would it be okay for a large nesting area in my coop? The chooks just sit on it and the eggs collect at the corner of the L. They can lay in their own spots along the couch, or in one big spot. When a chook goes broody, there is space for the rest of them.
I am guessing that it could double as a perch as well along the top of it.


I feel that this is a bit of a silly question. Yet I am contemplating whether to build a new, bigger coop for my chickens (I have four hens and three pullets, plus a dozen fertile eggs incubating right now). At the moment their coop is a corner of my 6m x 6m shed - and the most economical decision would be to just expand that area to half the shed. If need be I can build a smaller covered storage area adjacent to my shed. Also this would make space in the other half, as the couch would be with the chooks and actually being used!

 

[Kiki]

Can you post pictures of the couch and coop area you want to put it in?

 

[ChookaPete]

Can you post pictures of the couch and coop area you want to put it in?

Hello Kiki. I am currently away from home for a couple of weeks, so I do not have pictures of the couch, sorry. Its length is 2.8 metres long, and rectangular. Basically a thick mattress that folds into an L-shape, on a metal frame base.

Here is the current coop inside the shed corner. By increasing the coop area to half the shed, it would be about double its length, and about 3 metres wide.

You can see two of my chooks on the floor in the second picture - Chamomile my Leghorn is laying an egg, while Clover my Hy-Line is broody. I'd prefer them to not on the floor, yet I am unsure if they or any of my chooks would bother to hop up onto a couch to lay...?

Meanwhile there is a nest opposite them! But they are happy on the floor. They did lay in the nest for a bit when I had a golf ball in there, but if one finds another spot, then more chickens lay in that same spot, and ignore the nest.

 

[ChookaPete]

I have just been reading a great thread on Chicken Bullying and the importance of a 'chook jail' located near the rest of the chickens (https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chicken-bully-chicken-victim-a-two-sided-issue.73923/). I need to consider how to integrate this if I am to build a new coop, even if it is inside the shed where the current coop is. I may have to build a second smaller coop outside of the shed, but near the entrance.

 

[ChookaPete]

I think I will scratch the idea of using the couch. Otherwise they might roost on the top edge of it and end up pooping on the seat which is meant for them to nest in!


I will though expand the coop area inside the shed so it takes up almost half of the floor area. I can build that around the current coop without disrupting them.

 

[Turd bird]

I have an old outdoor rectangular-shaped lounge couch that has been sitting in my shed for nearly three years. It was acquired with a big bunch of furniture that I bought during house-hunting, so I just grabbed it at the time. I tried it in my house, then my back patio, but didn't like it much.

I have wondered to put it on my patio as a day-bed on the front porch, but I feel that would just clutter it.
I often sit there in a chair watching my chooks and throwing them treats to eat.


If I keep it folded upright in an L-shape, would it be okay for a large nesting area in my coop? The chooks just sit on it and the eggs collect at the corner of the L. They can lay in their own spots along the couch, or in one big spot. When a chook goes broody, there is space for the rest of them.
I am guessing that it could double as a perch as well along the top of it.


I feel that this is a bit of a silly question. Yet I am contemplating whether to build a new, bigger coop for my chickens (I have four hens and three pullets, plus a dozen fertile eggs incubating right now). At the moment their coop is a corner of my 6m x 6m shed - and the most economical decision would be to just expand that area to half the shed. If need be I can build a smaller covered storage area adjacent to my shed. Also this would make space in the other half, as the couch would be with the chooks and actually being used!

I would put another run on it give them more space during the day

 

[ChookaPete]

I would put another run on it give them more space during the day

My chooks don't stay in the coop during the day - they free-range across the whole backyard, the side-garden, and the front yard.

I will post some shots of them in the front yard later on.