imacowgirl2
Songster
Our current setup: our main coop that houses our hens, with a large attached run and a secondary, smaller coop with a smaller attached run that houses the roosters in a bachelor pad. The main coop does have a couple hours of artificial light on to keep egg production up since we're starting to hatch chicks for 4-H. The rooster run also contains a small breeding pen that has a shelter in it to allow the breeders to get out of wind/rain/snow, but not warm/secure enough for me to be comfortable with them staying in it overnight.
We're currently working on hatching 2 breeds, so we've been putting 1 breed in the breeding pen, 1 breed in the rooster coop/run, extra roosters in the hen run, and non-breeding hens free range with access to their coop. This gives everyone access to feed, water, and shelter for the daytime. At night everyone goes back into their respective coop -- roosters to the bachelor pad coop and hens to the main coop. This also has the added benefit (so far) of the rooster social dynamics not getting too shook up -- since they're together every morning for about 2 hours, separated only during the day for about 8-10 hours (where they can all still see each other through fences) and then back together from early evening through the night.
Because its a hassle to move birds every morning, and the hens appear to not be fans of laying eggs in the temporary nest boxes in the breeding areas, I only plan on putting roos with hens a couple days a week until we get all the eggs we need to set. However, I had the realization this morning at 3am when insomnia hit, that I need a way to keep our fertile hens separated from our non-fertile hens on non-breeding days so that we collect the right eggs for hatching vs selling.
So far, the best idea I've come up with is housing the fertile hens in 2 large dog cages we have (approx 2 ft x 4 ft each) in one of our sheds, so that we can collect their eggs. We would have 2 australorps in one cage and 3 leghorns in the other. All of these hens get along well.
Any other ideas that I'm not thinking of? I unfortunately have a $0 chicken budget to work with right now, and don't really have any extra materials laying around, so that's the best/easiest way I can think of so far to keep them safe from predators, warm, and with enough light to keep them laying until we get these eggs collected to set.
We're currently working on hatching 2 breeds, so we've been putting 1 breed in the breeding pen, 1 breed in the rooster coop/run, extra roosters in the hen run, and non-breeding hens free range with access to their coop. This gives everyone access to feed, water, and shelter for the daytime. At night everyone goes back into their respective coop -- roosters to the bachelor pad coop and hens to the main coop. This also has the added benefit (so far) of the rooster social dynamics not getting too shook up -- since they're together every morning for about 2 hours, separated only during the day for about 8-10 hours (where they can all still see each other through fences) and then back together from early evening through the night.
Because its a hassle to move birds every morning, and the hens appear to not be fans of laying eggs in the temporary nest boxes in the breeding areas, I only plan on putting roos with hens a couple days a week until we get all the eggs we need to set. However, I had the realization this morning at 3am when insomnia hit, that I need a way to keep our fertile hens separated from our non-fertile hens on non-breeding days so that we collect the right eggs for hatching vs selling.
So far, the best idea I've come up with is housing the fertile hens in 2 large dog cages we have (approx 2 ft x 4 ft each) in one of our sheds, so that we can collect their eggs. We would have 2 australorps in one cage and 3 leghorns in the other. All of these hens get along well.
Any other ideas that I'm not thinking of? I unfortunately have a $0 chicken budget to work with right now, and don't really have any extra materials laying around, so that's the best/easiest way I can think of so far to keep them safe from predators, warm, and with enough light to keep them laying until we get these eggs collected to set.
