BaronVonP
Chirping
Hi folks
I've recently bought a house with an existing coop, I offered to take over the 4 old hens from the previous owner because they were going to move to a smaller house and I also figured it would be easier to start with older hens then with little chicks.
I'm fully aware that their eggs production will be low (according to their former owner, they're probably about 7 years old!) and that's fine, though I was thinking about adding a couple hens to the flock.
Now, like I said there's an existing coop which seems to be working fine, the "inside" of the coop is split into two parts: the left side is a chicken coop, the right side is (used to be) a kennel for an old labrador.
The two sides are separated by a lockable door and in the future I might actually turn the whole thing into a big coop but for now I want to leave it as is (not to mention, a swallow made a nest inside the "kennel" and I want to wait till she's done raising these chicks before I get rid of the nest and close the opening they're using to access the nest.
Before posting some pictures, I'll mentions my concerns and questions:
1)the current coop area is about 30 square feet (2.48x1.10 meters), then there's a covered run which they only use in the early morning, then I open the run door and allow them to free range on a little over half an acre everyday, until bed time.
I have 4 chickens now, do you think I could add 2 more to the flock?
2)There's a nesting area inside the coop, but they mostly lay in the run, in an old rabbit cage (I think) that was left by the previous owner.
The nesting box is filled with straw, the rabbit cage with wood shavings, that's how the previous owner did it.
I was thinking of maybe turning the nesting area into a couple of proper nesting boxes, which would maybe give more privacy to the hens.. if they would stop laying in the rabbit cage, I could remove it and make room for a dust bath in the covered area of the run (they currently take their dust baths in the sandy soil under the hedge, outside).
3)There's only one wooden stick for them to roost on, it's definitely enough for 4 birds but should I add another if I add two birds to the flock?
Or maybe I could put the rabbit cage inside the coop, in place of the current nesting area?
I'm gonna post some pictures now because it feels like the post is already long enough lol, hope someone has some suggestions for me!
Thanks in advance folks!
P.S. I live in the Netherlands and there's no real predators around here, the previous owner never had any problems in over ten years and neither have the neighbors.
I've recently bought a house with an existing coop, I offered to take over the 4 old hens from the previous owner because they were going to move to a smaller house and I also figured it would be easier to start with older hens then with little chicks.
I'm fully aware that their eggs production will be low (according to their former owner, they're probably about 7 years old!) and that's fine, though I was thinking about adding a couple hens to the flock.
Now, like I said there's an existing coop which seems to be working fine, the "inside" of the coop is split into two parts: the left side is a chicken coop, the right side is (used to be) a kennel for an old labrador.
The two sides are separated by a lockable door and in the future I might actually turn the whole thing into a big coop but for now I want to leave it as is (not to mention, a swallow made a nest inside the "kennel" and I want to wait till she's done raising these chicks before I get rid of the nest and close the opening they're using to access the nest.
Before posting some pictures, I'll mentions my concerns and questions:
1)the current coop area is about 30 square feet (2.48x1.10 meters), then there's a covered run which they only use in the early morning, then I open the run door and allow them to free range on a little over half an acre everyday, until bed time.
I have 4 chickens now, do you think I could add 2 more to the flock?
2)There's a nesting area inside the coop, but they mostly lay in the run, in an old rabbit cage (I think) that was left by the previous owner.
The nesting box is filled with straw, the rabbit cage with wood shavings, that's how the previous owner did it.
I was thinking of maybe turning the nesting area into a couple of proper nesting boxes, which would maybe give more privacy to the hens.. if they would stop laying in the rabbit cage, I could remove it and make room for a dust bath in the covered area of the run (they currently take their dust baths in the sandy soil under the hedge, outside).
3)There's only one wooden stick for them to roost on, it's definitely enough for 4 birds but should I add another if I add two birds to the flock?
Or maybe I could put the rabbit cage inside the coop, in place of the current nesting area?
I'm gonna post some pictures now because it feels like the post is already long enough lol, hope someone has some suggestions for me!
Thanks in advance folks!
P.S. I live in the Netherlands and there's no real predators around here, the previous owner never had any problems in over ten years and neither have the neighbors.
