Bored Chickens make a not so fun time

[Cryss]

Would be wonderful if they would, but I don't think they'd sell as much, Hubby and I bought one of those 300.00 TSC pre-fabs, said 6 to 8 chickens, we got it home, I took one look at it and told him it made me claustrophobic, there would be no way I would put more than 2 chickens in it and that would be pushing it. I had 12 chicks at the time.. a new coop was built before the most recent and the TSC will be used for emergency housing like a broody or a sick chicken.

Sounds like you fell for the same coop as me.

 

[Cryss]

I had to explain the idea to my husband that "coop" meant building/hen house and that the run was something totally different, perhaps she isn't being clear enough.. the way I understood was that she was talking about the "coop" not coop and run. I'm sure that none of us were pros at this chicken thing when we first started, I know for a fact I wasn't.

Amen. Me either. Op seemed clear when they said the henhouse would be 1 square foot per bird and the run would be 4 square feet per bird. I hope they get this worked out.

 

[starri33]

Sounds like you fell for the same coop as me.

very possible, not sure if I have a picture of it on here. it's gray with a tiny coop big enough for one sexlink, not the 12 I had growing, although before we convinced the chickens they needed to sleep in their new coop, I went out the first night to see if they'd figured it out, I found 1 large rooster and 4 of the sexlinks had managed to stuff themselves all into that space. Tonight, everyone is in the new coop and sleeping on the perches.

 

[FluffTheDuck]

very possible, not sure if I have a picture of it on here. it's gray with a tiny coop big enough for one sexlink, not the 12 I had growing, although before we convinced the chickens they needed to sleep in their new coop, I went out the first night to see if they'd figured it out, I found 1 large rooster and 4 of the sexlinks had managed to stuff themselves all into that space. Tonight, everyone is in the new coop and sleeping on the perches.

That’s good. No more not-so-fun chickens?

 

[ShrekDawg]

Would be wonderful if they would, but I don't think they'd sell as much, Hubby and I bought one of those 300.00 TSC pre-fabs, said 6 to 8 chickens, we got it home, I took one look at it and told him it made me claustrophobic, there would be no way I would put more than 2 chickens in it and that would be pushing it. I had 12 chicks at the time.. a new coop was built before the most recent and the TSC will be used for emergency housing like a broody or a sick chicken.

Very true!! Sadly they probably make their money on deceiving people.

We did the same thing when my chicks were little. We made the mistake of not building a coop first so they were inside for 3 weeks (was only supposed to be one night, whoops I didn’t think garage was safe for such little babies, got day olds) and then I moved them to a brooder in the garage (made it much safer) and took them in and out daily until 7 weeks when they went outside permanently. I think we got the TSC kit at like 3 weeks but it looked so flimsy I thought, there is no way I am putting them out there with just that run. Plus they weren’t fully feathered out yet. So I brought them in and out every morning and night until we could move the chain link dog kennel (which we already had, got for free years ago) around it. We were finally able to do that and I moved them outside permanently. Except we removed the run once the coop was inside the kennel so they’d have more room. Couldn’t remove the wire panels directly under it so it was still a little closed off but we at least took the other ones off. But anyway, unfortunately mine were in there for over two years it was great for when they were little but as they got bigger, it was way too crowded, and they eventually started sleeping on the roof the last like year or few months and I let them as we had made it secure and put a roof on. But we actually had started building our new coop way sooner than that time period (March 2016, I got the chicks October 2015), so they could have moved in sooner but even though we made a lot of progress pretty fast at first, we stopped building for long periods at a time as we had a lot of other things to do too, so we didn’t end up finishing it until April last year (2018) when they finally moved in. They were sooo happy and appear much happier in their new digs. Less fighting too. They never really fought much before but I did have a couple hens who were mean to some others and picked on them, even while free ranging sometimes, but now even those hens are much calmer and they all get along much better. Those hens are still somewhat bullies and still top hens and will peck others away from a really good food source or dustbathing spot but much much better. I only had 8 hens in it though, now 7 (lost one fall 2017). The coop was probably like 3x3, also a TSC prefab kit, and the run was 6x12 but with the coop in the middle it was kind of cut in half but they made do. I tried to let them free range when I could but I was a bit nervous too after some hawk attacks. But I tried to give them a lot of stuff to do when I couldn't. I tried to tell my parents those prefab things were no good and they needed something bigger and better but it was only supposed to be “temporary”, and it would have been if we hadn’t gotten delayed with the building. But they all seemed healthy and mostly happy so even though it wasn’t the best start, we tried to make do. The new coop is 4x8 (sadly the one hen never got to experience it ) and the run is the same size, 6x12, but without the coop in the middle of it, it seems much bigger. Plus there is an enclosed ramp leading into the run and then a hole in the fence since we couldn’t attach the run directly to the coop so that adds a tiny bit of extra space. We are planning on expanding the run though, we just haven’t bought the other panels yet. We are hoping to soon though. I have been letting them out to free range a lot more lately though. Usually a few hours in the late afternoon/early evening when I can watch them. They seem to love it. But yeah, those coop kits are definitely no good. They fall apart too. Ours was having some issues after the first year and by 3 it was definitely past it’s prime lol

 

[Cryss]

very possible, not sure if I have a picture of it on here. it's gray with a tiny coop big enough for one sexlink, not the 12 I had growing, although before we convinced the chickens they needed to sleep in their new coop, I went out the first night to see if they'd figured it out, I found 1 large rooster and 4 of the sexlinks had managed to stuff themselves all into that space. Tonight, everyone is in the new coop and sleeping on the perches.

Here's mine and what we did for temporary relief. Hopefully we'll get a bigger coop in place this spring. I have 7 birds.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/altering-my-terrible-ts-coop.1267790/

 

[Cryss]

That’s good. No more not-so-fun chickens?

@FluffTheDuck Just to note, @starri33 wasn't the OP.

 

[starri33]

That’s good. No more not-so-fun chickens?

The only chicken I've had that wasn't so much fun was my roo I sent to the big run in the sky this morning. He'd attacked me for the last time, he came from some friends where I'd guess he didn't have all that much room, the first coop he was in was a 10 x 10, the runs while I haven't calculated out yet how much sq ft they have, I am going to guess I could put probably 3 more coops of the size of the new one 8 x 24 in them. He'd been fine for the first 4 or 5 months then all of a sudden started attacking. Got to the point I was afraid to wear shorts in there. Nothing like seeing a 2.5 inch nail coming at you...

 

[starri33]

Very true!! Sadly they probably make their money on deceiving people.

We did the same thing when my chicks were little. We made the mistake of not building a coop first so they were inside for 3 weeks (was only supposed to be one night, whoops I didn’t think garage was safe for such little babies, got day olds) and then I moved them to a brooder in the garage (made it much safer) and took them in and out daily until 7 weeks when they went outside permanently. I think we got the TSC kit at like 3 weeks but it looked so flimsy I thought, there is no way I am putting them out there with just that run. Plus they weren’t fully feathered out yet. So I brought them in and out every morning and night until we could move the chain link dog kennel (which we already had, got for free years ago) around it. We were finally able to do that and I moved them outside permanently. Except we removed the run once the coop was inside the kennel so they’d have more room. Couldn’t remove the wire panels directly under it so it was still a little closed off but we at least took the other ones off. But anyway, unfortunately mine were in there for over two years it was great for when they were little but as they got bigger, it was way too crowded, and they eventually started sleeping on the roof the last like year or few months and I let them as we had made it secure and put a roof on. But we actually had started building our new coop way sooner than that time period (March 2016, I got the chicks October 2015), so they could have moved in sooner but even though we made a lot of progress pretty fast at first, we stopped building for long periods at a time as we had a lot of other things to do too, so we didn’t end up finishing it until April last year (2018) when they finally moved in. They were sooo happy and appear much happier in their new digs. Less fighting too. They never really fought much before but I did have a couple hens who were mean to some others and picked on them, even while free ranging sometimes, but now even those hens are much calmer and they all get along much better. Those hens are still somewhat bullies and still top hens and will peck others away from a really good food source or dustbathing spot but much much better. I only had 8 hens in it though, now 7 (lost one fall 2017). The coop was probably like 3x3, also a TSC prefab kit, and the run was 6x12 but with the coop in the middle it was kind of cut in half but they made do. I tried to let them free range when I could but I was a bit nervous too after some hawk attacks. But I tried to give them a lot of stuff to do when I couldn't. I tried to tell my parents those prefab things were no good and they needed something bigger and better but it was only supposed to be “temporary”, and it would have been if we hadn’t gotten delayed with the building. But they all seemed healthy and mostly happy so even though it wasn’t the best start, we tried to make do. The new coop is 4x8 (sadly the one hen never got to experience it ) and the run is the same size, 6x12, but without the coop in the middle of it, it seems much bigger. Plus there is an enclosed ramp leading into the run and then a hole in the fence since we couldn’t attach the run directly to the coop so that adds a tiny bit of extra space. We are planning on expanding the run though, we just haven’t bought the other panels yet. We are hoping to soon though. I have been letting them out to free range a lot more lately though. Usually a few hours in the late afternoon/early evening when I can watch them. They seem to love it. But yeah, those coop kits are definitely no good. They fall apart too. Ours was having some issues after the first year and by 3 it was definitely past it’s prime lol

It takes a while for us to get things where we want them, in the mean time we do the very best we can.. I had 12 hens in that 10 x 10 and they were perfectly happy, the run wasn't much bigger.. 16 hens and now down to one roo, they fight over dust bath holes..lol.. chase each other if someone has a bit of treat the other wants and they still pick on each other, my wild guess on the size of the run they have now is close to 800 sq. They want so bad to be out right now cause we have a bunch of weeds they are after, but I won't let them free range, I can't be sitting out in the back yard with a shot gun all day, we've got coyotes, hawks and dogs that people have dumped out. I've been pulling weeds and giving them to them, they love them, so tomorrow I am buying them a couple of heads of lettuce at the 99 cent store and going to figure out how to make them edible tether balls.

 

[starri33]

These are my labeled sketches of the whole, coop, and just the hen house. Any feed back would be lovely. I also have the projected measurements.

Just came across this post and got to thinking about something, ask your neighbors if they have a wood pile you can get into, most everyone has one.. I was needing paint for my coop, my sister in law had called about disposing of some odd and ends paints she had, got me to thinking about it, so I posted on a facebook group I belong to that I was needing paint and would love to have those 1/2 full cans of paint, I think I ended up with enough paint to paint a house..lol.. decent colors too.