Evening Coop Drama with 11 hens

[AnneRaduns]

Adventure Chicken will not roost with Lottie. Macaroon will only roost with Lottie, but never next to Dunkin'. Fifi will only roost next to Mystery Chicken or Wiccan but never next to the 2 Cinnamon Queens. Xena will roost next to the Cinnamon Queens but not Adventure Chicken. Chicken Helper doesn't want to roost next to anyone. Period.

All of this means that I am going into the coop every, single, night and rearranging chickens. Some are on the floor because of the pecking and otherwise high drama behavior. Once I put them next to their preferred roosting mate, we have peace in the coop. How big is the coop you may ask, it's big enough for 20 chickens. It's 5 feet long by 3 feet wide. I have 3 sets of roosting bars. But I have a coop full of drama queens. Seriously, pick a roosting spot and settle in. Gee whiz.

I am wondering if I stop rearranging them if they will figure all this out my themselves? I am reluctant to allow the chickens to stay on the floor when there are perfectly good roosting bars to use (not to mention I don't want them pooped on). Anyone have any idea on how to stop the nightly coop drama? Or should I just ignore it? Thank you in advance - Anne and the Ocala Chickens

 

[artbykarenehaley]

Adventure Chicken will not roost with Lottie. Macaroon will only roost with Lottie, but never next to Dunkin'. Fifi will only roost next to Mystery Chicken or Wiccan but never next to the 2 Cinnamon Queens. Xena will roost next to the Cinnamon Queens but not Adventure Chicken. Chicken Helper doesn't want to roost next to anyone. Period.

All of this means that I am going into the coop every, single, night and rearranging chickens. Some are on the floor because of the pecking and otherwise high drama behavior. Once I put them next to their preferred roosting mate, we have peace in the coop. How big is the coop you may ask, it's big enough for 20 chickens. It's 5 feet long by 3 feet wide. I have 3 sets of roosting bars. But I have a coop full of drama queens. Seriously, pick a roosting spot and settle in. Gee whiz.

I am wondering if I stop rearranging them if they will figure all this out my themselves? I am reluctant to allow the chickens to stay on the floor when there are perfectly good roosting bars to use (not to mention I don't want them pooped on). Anyone have any idea on how to stop the nightly coop drama? Or should I just ignore it? Thank you in advance - Anne and the Ocala Chickens

This sounds like one of those word puzzles

 

[rosemarythyme]

Technically you have enough linear roost space for the 11. However I wonder if some of the roosts are too close to one another, which can cause conflict as birds can reach across or down and peck at neighbors. Are all the roosts 14-16"+ away from any other roost?

Others have already addressed the floor space issue. Even if you don't go by the so called magic numbers that folks love to quote, the fact is, the manufacturer's claim of a 5'x3' coop holding 20 birds would not meet the minimum legal requirement in some areas which is generally set at 1 sq ft of housing per bird.

 

[Tookie]

So you have 15sq ft of space in there for 11 hens. They are probably cramped in there. Each chicken should have a minimum of 4sq ft of coop space, in yours you can really only fit 4 in there. That's probably the problem.
How many ft of roosts do you have?

 

[artbykarenehaley]

Close quarters causes attitude issues. I'd rehome or expand. 5 x 3 = 15 sq feet

20 chickens need more like 80 sqft of shelter.

 

[Geena]

and there is still drama at bed time

I think there's always some drama at roost time. They are like little kids fighting over who gets to ride shotgun.

 

[AnnPann]

It looks like your coop has a storage area on the other side of that HWC wall in your photo - is that area secure from predators? If so, how large is it and could you open that wall up to expand the space available to them?

I'd have a hard time getting rid of any of my chickens, and I'm sure that coop was not cheap, so I think you probably want to be looking for ways to expand your available space within what you have now.

 

[MarkRainbolt]

That coop is only big enough for 3 or 4 chickens !!!!!! And the roosting bars are not up to par either. Your chickens are cramped together and just not enough elbow room. Get rid of 7 or 8 chickens and the drama will be over.
Mark

 

[WIchickMama]

I agree with above posts--too little room for the amount of chickens. You can either add onto the current coop, add another coop to the area and let them decide who goes where or downsize your flock. Eventually the bickering could turn nasty.

 

[artbykarenehaley]

So the entire space says it will hold 20 chickens - I was not making it up.

My apologies, no offense was intended. This is something very common with prefab coops. They will advertise that they can hold more than they really can.