((EMERGENCY)) More Chicks On The Way, No More Room!

[Smittenroade]

As chicken addicts most of you should understand my predicament...I got myself into a mess.

I ordered more chicks and Im just about out of room in my coop...So now I am going to turn a couple random things into chicken coops and make a run out of random things. Stressing out here!

Anyways, I have a little bit of time to do it because they will be arriving as chicks in two weeks. I have a hutch to put the chicks in until they are adults. So, I should have around two months to get everything ready

This is my first idea to house some chickens. I have to house ten hens with nesting boxes and all. I dont want to OD on chicks.

First Idea is to turn an old hunting blind into a small 2 hen coop. We have like 3-4 of these hunting blinds so that might be an option.

Ill post more options later.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

That looks a bit small to house 10 hens but you could probably work with it enough to make it livable. If they are too crowded you will have big problems with picking and ventilation.

How big does this measure?

 

[WoodlandWoman]

How many chickens are you looking to house? A box of 25?

Those cattle panel pasture pens always looked pretty easy to knock together. Do you just need the housing or do you need a pen/run for them, too?

 

[Whiskey Bay]

Quote:
I think she was refering to the blinds for a 2 hen per house kind.Said they have several of them ,meaning at least 3 or so.Which would account for at least 6 hens.

 

[Smittenroade]

Yea, Im not going to fit all 10 in that lol

I have 3 of those which are about 5x5 and then have another blind which is about 10X10. If I connected a run to all 4 blinds would the hens split up to lay in each one or would they all crowd together inside the big one? The other option is creating small runs for each one, which would be a huge pain in the butt. Hmm....

Ill probably just cover the open parts of the blind with hardware cloth and add a door to each. Use home depot buckets for nesting boxes would be dandy.

 

[Christine21656]

I think those look like they would work with a little fixing up! You could put them all next to each other, and put holes in the sides that are facing each other. That way, if you want to be able to lock them in the coop at night, they can still go from one to the other

 

[Smittenroade]

Quote:
THAT is a pretty darn good idea!

 

[Judy]

You have a while before you need to worry about nest boxes. I'd be looking at those blinds with an eye to disassembly and then building a nice big coop. Even if you want to breed them within their own breed, it will also be a while before you have to worry about separating them for that; much easier to build one big run. You can always subdivide later.

The 10x10 blind might make a pretty good coop in itself with some parts from the smaller ones.

You might look over some hot weather coops. Down here you don't need a building with 4 solid walls. Look here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=163417&p=1

 

[drdoolittle]

Sorry, but I just had to laugh when I read the title of your post! Only because I am in the same predicament------I have 32 chicks coming in April, and don't know where they'll go once they're feathered out. At least I ahve some time to downsize my flock-----a guy was supposed to come a couple weeks ago to buy all my ducks and my 2 geese and several chickens (including 4 roos), and apparently changed his mind!

Hope things work out for you----I also have an option of turning an old camper (that the previous owners left on the property) into a coop for several chickens.

 

[Smittenroade]

Thank Dawn you put it in a whole other perspective for me. Those are pretty much frames with heavy duty chicken wire for the walls. Yes...I need to keep focus. Need to grab some T posts for the run too...Thatll be the only thing I need to buy. Plenty of heavy duty chicken wire left over from my last project. Ill think on it for a bit and do some drawings with my materials and let you guys know what I come up with. I have plenty of random junk around the house to use, including a metal tower...should be interesting lol