All the chickens sleeping on one side of coop...

[fuukhead]

Hello,

I just started have chickens in my backyard. I bought this coop: http://www.aosom.com/d-3440/Pawhut-Extra-Large-Backyard-Chicken-Coop.html

It's rated to hold 6-8 chickens, I currently have five pullets. The ramp/opening to the covered part is on the right. Inside there are four roosting bars, two on the right, two on left, as well as four nesting boxes, coupled on the extreme right and left.

The chickens seem to like it overall and have plenty of room, however:

- They go in at night, but only one ever uses a roosting bar.
- Two of them crowd in one nesting box (and poop in it).
- The other two stay on the floor, one of them always looking directly out the door.
- Two are laying eggs. One lays in the other nesting box by the door, the other on the floor by the door.

So the net is they all crowd in about 15% of the area of the coop every night, right by the open door (it's just a hole, no closure) and none of them seem to have ever venture into most of it... is this normal? How can I convince them to use the whole thing?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Judy]

I tried to look at the link, but my antiviral software warned me against opening the site.

Unfortunately, most prefab coops actually house half or less the number of chicken they say they will. One rule of thumb -- and it is only a guideline, not written in stone -- is that they need 4 sq ft of space in the coop and 10 sq ft in the run, per bird. This is suposed to be the minimum they need to prevent pecking, feather pulling and cannibalism. There are a lot of factors involved, though. For example, they may need a good deal less in a milder climate where they raraely use the coop except to sleep, and it will likely be insufficient where snow cover is heavy.

These coops also usually don't have enough ventilation. Chickens put out a lot of humidity and ammonia, and coops need good air exchange at the high point of the coop. Being new, it may even have fumes from glue or type of wood that are bothering them. Their behavior suggests to me that it needs holes cut in it. They also often prefer a wider roost, since their feet don't really curl around something like a broomstick to the extent they other birds' do. They generally prefer something like the wide side of a 2x4, or a fat branch.

They only need about 8" of space each on the roost, maybe a little more in hot weather so they can spread out.

They will usually sleep at the highest point they can. If the nests are lower than the roosts, you may have to close the nests off at night til they learn to roost.

My flock is older, and they still lay on the coop foor now and then, for no apparent reason. You can try putting a golf ball orother fake egg in the nests to encourage them to use them,if you aren't already doing this.

As for not laying, if you just got them, some chickens take longer to adjust to a new home than others. Is it possible some of them are older than others? Also, they may increase the number they lay as the weather warms (depending where you are, obviously!)

Welcome to our forum, and I hope this helps a little. I'm sure you will get other ideas from some other members, too. Good luck!

 

[PrairieChickens]

At night, when your chickens are sleeping, move the ones that aren't roosting onto the roosting bars. Repeat until they get the message, and cover the nesting box they're roosting in until they've stopped trying to roost in it. Put dummy eggs in the nests to encourage your hens to lay in them--it's possible the hen that lays outside of the nesting box doesn't realize the nesting box is a good place to lay yet.

Chickens will instinctively crowd together. We have a huge coop with many, many roosts. My dad was worried he hadn't put in enough, then went out one night and found almost all of our flock--about 20 birds at the time--squeezed together on the same roosting bar.