Help! My coop cant house all the hens!

[TOWSHE]

They all love each other and i have a large (15sq m) enclosure for them to play in. So the coop is primarily for them to sleep. I will send pictures of the layout asap (tomorrow hopefully).

 

[rebrascora]

By not going into the coup at night, your hens are telling you that they need a bigger coup no matter how well they get on. Your thread title already says that. The ones outside are more at risk from predators and once they start laying they will more than likely lay in the run rather than go into the hen house. Depending on your weather they may also suffer if they don't have enough shelter... wet windy weather is worse than really cold dry weather. I would suggest it is most likely the lower pecking order hens that are remaining outside. They may also start getting excluded from the feeders if the dominant hens become more confident. Is the run covered? Can you build/buy another coup for them within the run? Hopefully some photos will give us an idea of the best way to proceed.

Regards

Barbara

 

[ChristieB]

Ok 4 foot is 1.2m so you have enough space for 1 hen, 2 if they like each other.

Remember that inside the coop they need space to spread their wings to get up and down from the roosts, space to move away from each other when it's hot, huddle when it's cold, get away when the top hen has pms or a lower hen is trying to work her way up by dominating the lower hens in the pecking order,

 

[TOWSHE]

What is this pecking order you speak of? Haha... and None are sleepig outside the coop! Theres just not enough space for them to perch inside... 2 of them sleep on the floor but inside the actual coop area. I need to make space for any chooks in case my chinese silky gets broody or one of my 3 black ones get broody (i dont know their breed names but im sure they are kinda broody). I have an idea on how to increase the coop size but it will need much work. Im thinking of making it go down to ground level so i have like a 2-storey coop xD Would they not like sleeping on different levels though?

Its dark now and they are asleep. It will be clearer hopefully when I send pictures!

 

[TOWSHE]

^ I was thinking I can expand this to make it a multi-layer coop. What do you guys think?

 

[Trefoil]

I don't think a multi-layer coop is going to work. If you can, your best bet is to build another coop and run. Use the existing one for your young birds and make a larger coop & run for the birds you have right now. Don't forget that a bird needs 3- 4 times the height of the roost in length to be able to get down from it.

 

[BonRae67]

Agree with Trefoil. You need to expand this one or build another one. You have some big birds and they can't flap their wings in the coop to roost. Silkies don't roost per-say they prefer to stay on the ground.