Here in the Caribbean beach jungle of Costa Rica I have a mix of chickens. Many of them go broody...over and over again. So I have a mix of chickens, and young roosters. A couple of neighbors are willing to come and disappear the roosters in the night and return to me a bowl of chicken and rice, but it is a battle to get them to take them sooner rather than later. The longer they stay, the more I get to know them and like them and there are more fights and broken eggs, and the more corn I have to buy On the other hand, the longer the young roosters stay, the more meat my neighbors have for dinner.
Currently the chickens are housed in a coop on a neighbors property.
Now I have to build a new coop on my property. What I have learned from my chickens. I think there are thirteen egg layers, four of them are new chicks that have just started laying eggs. The small necked neck orange colored blue egg layer) is broody right now on 15 eggs, Two adult roosters, (one is a Bantam). four juvenile roosters (with a contract out on their heads) and five juvenile chicks is that I need to separate sitting hens from the rest of them until well after the chicks are hatched and then keep the chicks out of harms way for a while.
I know that as soon as the mother hen gets off the chicks she teaches them how to scratch at the ground. That housing has to allow contact with the earth for scratching. Ideally it would also have a separate covered run for the young chicks to use for a few more weeks before they get out into the jungle and are at risk to snakes, dogs, cats or hawks. Coop will back up to barbed wire fence and can only be 3 feet deep right side and 5 feet deep on left side. It can be ten, twelve, fifteen feet long though
So I need IDEAS for a design that allows me to move the broody hen with eggs to a separate housing for five weeks or so. Has anyone else developed a coop for broody hens and laying hens and young chicks and young roosters etc all together? Modules?
I tried moving the eggs and hens by hand to a separate room and new nest, but the hens kept going back to the empty nest and ignoring the eggs in the new location. I finally started using recycled plastic grocery crates that vegetables are delivered in here for the nests and then I could lift and move the nest, hen and eggs all at the same time to another room.
Solid walls are not needed here in this climate where temperature ranges from 65-85 most of the time, but rain is frequent and copious..
Currently the chickens are housed in a coop on a neighbors property.
Now I have to build a new coop on my property. What I have learned from my chickens. I think there are thirteen egg layers, four of them are new chicks that have just started laying eggs. The small necked neck orange colored blue egg layer) is broody right now on 15 eggs, Two adult roosters, (one is a Bantam). four juvenile roosters (with a contract out on their heads) and five juvenile chicks is that I need to separate sitting hens from the rest of them until well after the chicks are hatched and then keep the chicks out of harms way for a while.
I know that as soon as the mother hen gets off the chicks she teaches them how to scratch at the ground. That housing has to allow contact with the earth for scratching. Ideally it would also have a separate covered run for the young chicks to use for a few more weeks before they get out into the jungle and are at risk to snakes, dogs, cats or hawks. Coop will back up to barbed wire fence and can only be 3 feet deep right side and 5 feet deep on left side. It can be ten, twelve, fifteen feet long though
So I need IDEAS for a design that allows me to move the broody hen with eggs to a separate housing for five weeks or so. Has anyone else developed a coop for broody hens and laying hens and young chicks and young roosters etc all together? Modules?
I tried moving the eggs and hens by hand to a separate room and new nest, but the hens kept going back to the empty nest and ignoring the eggs in the new location. I finally started using recycled plastic grocery crates that vegetables are delivered in here for the nests and then I could lift and move the nest, hen and eggs all at the same time to another room.
Solid walls are not needed here in this climate where temperature ranges from 65-85 most of the time, but rain is frequent and copious..
