Help in separating young from older in Coop

[sab]

Does anyone have pictures of how they have younger birds separated from older ones inside the coop??? I guess I am going to have to do that tomorrow and I have no idea how I am going to achieve it. The younger 2 are about 16 weeks old and the older 3 are 1 1/2 yrs. I saw a coon tonight around the coop. The coop is coon safe but the run is not and tonight I have the 2 younger ones in a separated area of the run. If that coon gets in there, those birds are toast. I did everything I could for a makeshift barrier - the coon would have to work it's way through 2 fences and I made sure the 2 young birds are roosting in the middle of their caged area so nothing can just reach in and grab them. They'd have to have ft. long arms. But a determined coon....

I could put a cage inside the coop but that will not give them height for roosting. I'll lay awake all night tonight thinking about this....

Thanks in advance!!

 

[greenmulberry]

If you have a way to keep them safe in a cage at night, I wouldn't worry too much about them not being able to roost. I presume this is only a temporary thing until the birds get used to each other?

 

[babalubird]

Not the voice of experience here so take it for what it's worth.

My babies outgrew their cages some time back and it created a cleaning nightmare for me. So I took 4 foot tall chicken wire and with the help of 3 step-in electric fence wire posts, about $2.60 each from Tractor Supply, I just fenced off over 1/3 of the chicken coop for them. I also took some scraps of wire and attached it to the ceiling to drape over the lower part to keep the adult chickens out. So far so good (well, they have only spent 2 days and 1 night like this, but so far no carnage or escapees).

It sure makes getting in to change feed and water hard though. I'm looking for some better answers myself.

I need to construct some perches for them. The little buggers all started climbing the chicken wire last night to perch up off the floor. I kept knocking them back down until I gave up and let 4 of them perch in the sags of the wire. Luckily they seemed to stay in their side of the pen but it was pretty scary.

Hope this helps.

Connie

 

[sab]

Here's how I solved my problem

Fortunately, I have a chicken wire box of sorts that has a chicken wire top. It's a box given to me by a friend & created for her by her dad to keep her cat in. It's probably 4' by 4' - so not small. I just put that inside the run for the 2 little birds to be in the run but not where the big girls can get to them. Then at night, they are biting the bullet to get out of that so they can roost up high somewhere - and I think they know they are not safe out in the open like that (the run is not coon safe).

To solve that problem and to get them out of the run which is not coon proof -- I took a tall bird cage I had laying around and set that in the coop. On top of that I put the small collapsible dog kennel that you can get anywhere. I ran a wood 1x2 through the bars for a roost. This put the 2 new birds at the same roosting height as the older birds but protected. So in the evening I go out and carry the young ones into the coop and place them inside this dog kennel. The older birds see these new birds at their level each night and morning. I don't know if that will make any difference when I go to release them together or not. I am hoping it influences the pecking order in some positive way. The kennel is really too small - they just have room to move around a bit and there is water & food in it if they need that before I get out in the AM to move them back to the kennel. But since it's only 2 birds.... it works for now.

So my plan for future chick additions is to do this --- I have one of those dog play pens --- they are open at the top and collapsible sides and generally have 5 or more sections depending on how large a play pen you buy. Mine is a large one but my goldendoodle sleeps in it at night as a kennel. I plan to put that thing inside the coop - since it can be contorted into various shapes, and the sides can be folded in until I need additional room for growing birds. My future little ones will be in that. Until they have some teenage size on them. Then I might just reverse that and put the older birds in the pen and let the teenagers have free roaming privileges. That might reverse the pecking order.... or so I am thinking.... or at least knock the older birds down a few notches. We'll see.

I'm going to take some pictures of my new coop and this arrangement later this afternoon. Look for some photos later.