How long can you keep chickens in the coop

[BarbaraW]

Hello all!

I have a question regarding keeping chickens cooped for a few weeks. We just bought an 8x12 shed for our 14 chickens and plan on building a chicken tunnel to their 16x20 run. The original coop was in the run and we had to take a wall down and the hardware cloth off the top to get it out. Of course, once we did that we that the improvement bug struck because there were a lot things that weren’t working with the run and tarp in general. My question is we are going to put the run back together with improvements BUT it is probably going to take us 2-3 weekends to do this. We just put the chickens in the new coop today so they can get used to the new home. There are two windows ac food water etc sand on the floor and so on. Will it be ok to keep them in there until we can finish the remodel on the run? Pics of the new coop attached! Thanks!

 

[aart]

Would depend on how hot it is in the coop, do you have a thermometer in there?
Doesn't look like you have much ventilation.

Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, and then it's always there!

 

[BarbaraW]

Yes there is a thermometer in there! And an ac as well …. I’m in Texas and temps and humidity are so high right now - with heat index some days are over 110 degrees. So many people are losing their chickens here. One of the reasons I went ahead and bought the building so they could come in and cool down in the afternoon. There are two windows in the shed as well but no vents which we plan to add soon. I just hate to keep them in more than a week to get them used to their new home but once we improve the run it will be so much better for them. I was just concerned that 2 1/2 3 weeks was too long but we can only work on it on the weekends.

 

[BarbaraW]

edit to add we cannot free range due to the hawks that nest in our trees and our dogs….

 

[aart]

And an ac as well

Well, then that takes care of that issue.

 

[rosemarythyme]

2-3 weeks is probably a bit long. Could you maybe make a temporary pen so they can get out a few hours every day, even if it's limited space? Chicken wire, deer netting, whatever's cheap, attached to U-posts or something.

How athletic/persistent are your dogs? Like mine would definitely go after a chicken if one was available, but they won't try going through the fence, too lazy.

 

[BarbaraW]

I can see what we can do regarding the temporary pen maybe we can finish the chicken tunnel first and they can have a couple hours out in that…..the dogs are a no go one of them charged the hardware cloth hard enough when we first put them out to make her nose bleed. She learned her lesson but still likes to do a drive by if you don’t keep an eye on her to see if she can get them to run. They know she can’t get in now so they mostly give her the stink eye lol

 

[Raptor Chicken]

Am I reading right, you have air conditioning in your coop?

 

[BarbaraW]

Yes we have a small ac in the coop I am trying to keep the temp reasonable not really cold just to keep the humidity down so around 85 ish

 

[NatJ]

I have a question regarding keeping chickens cooped for a few weeks.

In northern climates with cold winters, it is common for chickens to stay in the coop for months at a time.

That can be fine, or it can be a big problem, depending on the size of the coop and the number of chickens.

We just bought an 8x12 shed for our 14 chickens

If the chickens have the entire space in that shed, they will probably be fine for as long as you need to keep them in. (I said "probably" because of course there are no guarantees when you are dealing with any kind of living creature.)