Hello there, glad to find this fantastic site!
A bit of an intro; my kind husband built me a shed for chickens a few years ago and then I became pregnant, twice in a year in fact
Hurrah!
Of course I had to wait until the double baby madness subsided and then, last November I finally converted it to a proper coop, built a run and took in my first girls.
Four ex battery hens, featherless, frightened and pathetic looking. Fell in love immediately!
Kind of snowballed from there as I then bought 2 Skylines and 2 Bluebelles pol from a local farm only 6 weeks later.
The flock is doing fantastically, free ranging in our garden and woodland , can't remember what it was like before ( only that it must have been rather boring
)
Now I well and truly have the 'bug', I've just hatched 3 incubated chicks ( now nearly two weeks old) out of 5 eggs . One sadly died yesterday, but the other two are thriving - a Fresian Fowl and a Cuckoo Maran.
The question is now, given the size of my current flock should I get another coop/run for the newcomers for when they are older? Thinking of letting the runs sit side by side to let them get to know each other, then integrating them later.
Would also like to hatch some more chicks to add to the flock, sooner rather than later.
Any advice really welcomed, I defer to your members' superior knowledge on this subject
Many thanks!
A bit of an intro; my kind husband built me a shed for chickens a few years ago and then I became pregnant, twice in a year in fact
Hurrah!Of course I had to wait until the double baby madness subsided and then, last November I finally converted it to a proper coop, built a run and took in my first girls.
Four ex battery hens, featherless, frightened and pathetic looking. Fell in love immediately!
Kind of snowballed from there as I then bought 2 Skylines and 2 Bluebelles pol from a local farm only 6 weeks later.
The flock is doing fantastically, free ranging in our garden and woodland , can't remember what it was like before ( only that it must have been rather boring
)Now I well and truly have the 'bug', I've just hatched 3 incubated chicks ( now nearly two weeks old) out of 5 eggs . One sadly died yesterday, but the other two are thriving - a Fresian Fowl and a Cuckoo Maran.
The question is now, given the size of my current flock should I get another coop/run for the newcomers for when they are older? Thinking of letting the runs sit side by side to let them get to know each other, then integrating them later.
Would also like to hatch some more chicks to add to the flock, sooner rather than later.
Any advice really welcomed, I defer to your members' superior knowledge on this subject
Many thanks!
and Welcome To BYC! Sorry about the loss of your one chick, glad the others are doing fine. X2 on TwoCrows suggestion of you might as well give in now and build that bigger coop, and just go ahead and build it even bigger than you are thinking. Two (or more) adjacent coops are nice to have, lots of uses, gives you a grow out coop for babies, sick coop if somebody gets hurt and needs separated, if you want to feed some a different food because they are molting or something, a breeding pen if you want to hatch your own from certain parents, and if you have one far enough (or can move one) away it also makes a quarantine coop for purchased newcomers.
