Any problems having 2 coops?

[TwistedPines]

I have my original coop which is big enough to house 6-8 birds and I currently have 3 hens in it. After my big (36) group of chicks showed up, I now have a 2nd coop that is plenty big to house all the chicks. However, my original 3 hens continue to use their coop. Some of my chicks have started going in with them for the night instead of the bigger coop. Is this going to cause a problem as they get older? My chicks are currently 7 weeks old and most nights there are 6-8 of them in with the bigger girls.

Anyone ever had two coops and just let all the chickens sleep where they may?

Thanks,

 

[chicmom]

Hi!

If it doesn't bother you to tend to two coops, then I would just let them go where they wish. I had two coops for years, and I used the smaller coop as a chick nursery, and then the bigger coop was for the adults.

If you wanted to do something like I did, then you should lock up the small coop and not let any chickens use it. They will eventually all go into the big coop.

But if you don't mind, then I would let them do as they please.

 

[JanetS]

We're going to be start building a second coop soon. It will be right next to our current coop. The new one will be for our chicks until we can intergrade them in with the older chickens. If we have problems putting them together(they can't free range because of bobcats) we will have 2 coops.

 

[happyhens1972]

I have two coops....each with a 12 bird capacity. Until recently I had 14 adult birds and they just chose whichever coop they wanted to sleep in. I found that generally I had a 10 - 4 split.

Then I hatched 10 Orpingtons in the incubator and once they were ready, I fenced off one of the coops and made that theirs while the four adults I had 'ousted' just popped in with the others, no problem. It is a little 'snug' in there but they all have a spot.

The Orps took to their new coop immediately and happily put themselves to bed at night. Once the Orps have reached a suitable size for integration and I have homed or 'sorted' the cockerels, I shall let all remaining Orp pullets into the main run and this will then open their coop up to the adults again.

I would not be at all surprised to find some of the adults sneaking into the now Orp coop but I shall leave them to sort out their pecking order and hope that all will find a spot in the new order of things.