Hens are ready for their permanent house and we are behind schedule.

[3baymares]

We are in the process of building a covered house and run for our new hens.
I have wimped out and decided to ask our builder to do the framing and the roofs then I will
do the detail work which will take a good amount of time as well.

Our six chicks are 8 weeks old and still in the basement pen (which is daylight). I have recently noticed that there are feathers in with the poop for
me to clean up. Their present living area is 4 ft. by 6 ft.. Since the house/run is going to most likely take another 2-3
weeks to complete.... should I make their basement pen larger to lessen their stress or do they have enough space and
these fallen feathers are normal. No one has any bald spots and no one is being picked on that I am noticing.

 

[Chicks Galore3]

My chickens dropped a lot feathers around 8 weeks too. They are going through a partial molt, and growing in new ones. How many chicks do you have?

 

[3baymares]

We have 6 in the 4 by 6 area. 2 Buff Orpingtons, 3 Rocks, and 1 Ameraucana. That is good to know that the feather loss is normal.... thank you!!

 

[Chickenshoe]

make the pen larger yes....building a coop yourself is no small task.. I started ours for our 13 ladies early March, they just went outside this past Sat... for me it was weekend work, all day....Im whipped, will take me a month to recover,,,

 

[3baymares]

So what's the magic number for this temporary pen? It's now 4' x 6'..... and they will need to stay in it until they are
11-12 weeks of age.
I am also loving the sand floor in it. It's very easy to clean, smells less and is less dusty.

 

[Chicks Galore3]

The rule of thumb is 4 square feet per bird, so you technically should be fine. However, it wouldn't hurt to give them more room, especially in your permanent coop. (My current birds have almost 10 feet of room per bird in their permanent house.)

 

[3baymares]

The permanent house is an 8' x 6' house with a 8' x 22' L shaped covered run. Thanks for the help Chicks Galore3 !
As you can see we are a ways from the permanent house being complete. Luckily the builder can have it up in a day. He
just needs to have time to come out.

 

[Chicks Galore3]

No problem. Some birds can be squished better then others. I have 24 10 week olds with 2.5 feet per and they are fine. (They are moving out the big girl coop SOON though!) But my original 12, if they had that little space, they would be picking and pecking each other to no end. They defintely have their own personalities!

 

[3baymares]

And we are progressing at a snail's pace here but hopefully this will be the week and it will be up!

 

[3baymares]

These are our plans. I am excited about the roof of the run and hope it will look good. Most of the roof is in shingles that will match our
houses shingles as it was just redone. And the back roof over the 9 x 6 part of the run will be clear panels so it's not so dark in there.