Botched Chicken Introduction - what now?

[Magelet]

3 weeks ago, on short notice a friend of mine had to rehome her 5 two year old chickens. I had only 2 chickens also both about 2 years old and a setup that was made for 6 and I thought could handle 7 so I said I'd take them.

We introduced them in the coop at night. There hasn't been a lot of fighting, and no one is being picked on, but my two girls are mostly avoiding the new girls. To the point where they don't sleep in the coop. I have tried shutting them in the coop overnight multiple times but that is the only way to get them to sleep there. My Buff Orpington would prefer to sleep on top of the coop (it is sheltered by the overhanging roof of my garage) and my silkie would prefer to sleep in the bonus hutch that is in the enclosure that is for when we put the bunny out there in the day. Winter is coming on and neither of these seems adequate shelter for winter. What do I do? I would rather rehome some of the girls than have to go out there every morning and evening to shut them in (the coop has a flap like a dog house that has worked for years because my chickens have WANTED to go in at night). Attaching pictures of my setup.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Whew, from the pictures, I’d say that coop might be big enough for three, but not for 6. (Or 7.) What’s the square footage, not counting the nest boxes? How long is the roost that they sleep on?

 

[SamLockwood]

From the pictures that coop looks way too small. The outfits that sell those pre-fab coops tend to grossly over estimate how many full-size chickens they can hold. The general rule of thumb is 2 square feet of coop per chicken and one linear foot of roosting bar each.

 

[Mrs. K]

You have a couple of issues - small space, new birds, large fowl and a silkie. Often times those don't mix. Space - one needs more than they think. How the space is set up is also important.

It is pretty common for birds to start roosting on the tops of those type of coops. Frequently they state that 6 birds can fit in there. Where as respected posters on here tend to agree about four square feet per bird, - so for 7 birds you would need 28 square feet - which needs to be about 4x 7, or 5 x 6 feet. Just guessing, your coop looks like 4 x 3.5?

Integration needs more space.

So some ideas to help, now that I have rained on your parade.

As for the coop - depending on where you live - if you get a lot of winter, or it just gets cool? You probably need to add a second coop of similar size or reduce the number of birds that you have.

Some birds can tolerate overcrowding, and some birds cannot. Overcrowded birds can develop very ugly behaviors. The long dark nights of winter can really acerbate this problem.

Mrs K