Indoor chicken coop

[PaigeAndy'schickens]

Oh yeah, I do. I truly do! Chicken poo... Cecal poo x 10!!! Shavings are dusty. Chicken dander is nasty stuff. Chickens spend a lot of time scuffing around in the shavings. That sends bits of shavings, dried fecal matter and dander airborne. Not in my house!!!

Well hopefully it's not awful for us because we unfortunately don't have any other option.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

Inside is a great option for her. Lots and lots of people keep pet chickens inside, and for my own flock I wasn't ready for them to move outside to an old shed I was converting to a coop for them. I encountered several problems, and I also had a terrible neighbor threaten to hurt them when I confronted him about his dogs.

So my chickens lived in a spare bedroom for maybe close to three months, with lots of daily free ranging, and during the extreme heat they lived under the back deck and were brought inside at night.

I'm very sensitive to smells and didn't have any problems with this arrangement. It required a lot of cleaning throughout the day, but I had an easy system for dealing with this and just folded them into my daily routine of maintaining my home.

The one issue is city or county code violations when you keep poultry indoors. But other than that, I did what I felt I had to do and I felt very at peace about it.

 

[PaigeAndy'schickens]

Inside is a great option for her. Lots and lots of people keep pet chickens inside, and for my own flock I wasn't ready for them to move outside to an old shed I was converting to a coop for them. I encountered several problems, and I also had a terrible neighbor threaten to hurt them when I confronted him about his dogs.

So my chickens lived in a spare bedroom for maybe close to three months, with lots of daily free ranging, and during the extreme heat they lived under the back deck and were brought inside at night.

I'm very sensitive to smells and didn't have any problems with this arrangement. It required a lot of cleaning throughout the day, but I had an easy system for dealing with this and just folded them into my daily routine of maintaining my home.

The one issue is city or county code violations when you keep poultry indoors. But other than that, I did what I felt I had to do and I felt very at peace about it.

We live in the country and shouldn't have any issues with it that way.
Thank you for the kind words of encouragement though. Gives me some hope that this will work!

 

[Sunshine Flock]

We live in the country and shouldn't have any issues with it that way.
Thank you for the kind words of encouragement though. Gives me some hope that this will work!

Oh, it will definitely work. You're doing a wonderful thing for her, and as for integrating her later when you bring home some chicks, maybe she'll see them as hers and care for them. But if you ever encounter any problems, just come back here and start a new discussion and you'll have loads of help on what to do.

 

[PaigeAndy'schickens]

Oh, it will definitely work. You're doing a wonderful thing for her, and as for integrating her later when you bring home some chicks, maybe she'll see them as hers and care for them. But if you ever encounter any problems, just come back here and start a new discussion and you'll have loads of help on what to do.

Thanks so much for the encouragement!!! We really need all we can get right now!

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Oh, it will definitely work. You're doing a wonderful thing for her, and as for integrating her later when you bring home some chicks, maybe she'll see them as hers and care for them. But if you ever encounter any problems, just come back here and start a new discussion and you'll have loads of help on what to do.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

@BabyBoss has 2 indoor chickens and I don’t believe she has any problems.

 

[aart]

If you don't mind the stink and mess, and constantly cleaning up after it, great!

Kept birds in the house years ago (finches, parakeet, cockatiels) the dust finally schooled me to what my mother meant by 'dirty birds'.

Cannot imagine the smell of having a full grown chicken poop in my house.Gag.

 

[cavemanrich]

Here is more encouragement about house chickens..
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chickens-and-christmas.1211479/#post-19284857

 

[LoveChooks9000]

I've got a couple of thoughts. First off, make sure the chicken is treated for every type of bug/worm early on. I have parrots, and find Moxidectin Plus to be a great cure-all for those types of things. It kills all parasites, inside and out. Chooks apparently don't like the taste, but if you add some orange juice to the water, I've heard they are okay with it. Just follow the directions on the bottle if you choose to use Moxi. If you don't want to use that, just use whatever worming and anti-lousing products you prefer.
The next thing I'd suggest is that you might want to add a special "dust bathing" area which you can control, rather than have her tossing wood chips everywhere all the time. I was thinking of a large plastic container, something like a small kids' pool or sandbox, eg. as on the following website.
https://www.walmart.com/browse/toys/sandboxes-water-tables/4171_14521_133062
I'd suggest putting very coarse sand in it for them to dust bath in. That way, they would still feel like they're getting a type of dust bath, but you wouldn't have to put up with actual dust from it since coarse sand won't fly all over the house. With it being contained in a smallish area, i.e. kids' pool or similar, you shouldn't get too much mess from it.
As for dander, I've had many indoor parrots over the years, and still do, and I haven't found it to be unbearable at all. You are obviously a clean person, so clean as needed and I'm sure you'll be fine.
Best of luck. I'm so glad you saved the chook. I love a happy ending.