keeping a chicken in the house during winter

[justa6655321]

ok, i have the oportunity to get a wonderful trio for someone but my coop isnt set up. I'm thinking about keepin them in a cage - big one - in my basement. It would be a great set up but only until spring.

Does anyone do this?

 

[snowydiamonds]

Right above where your log in and visit info is, there's a heading called "search" and it helps you find answers to a lot of questions

You'll find at least one post regarding your question

LOL, you bet.

 

[FarmerChick]

there is a homestead site where the owners are in a city limit area or such and keep chickens in their basement for meat and eggs in cages. They had them in the yard but got told "no chickens cause of zoning" etc......so they moved rabbits and chickens into the basement. They were very self sufficient.

So yes you can do it and they will be fine. And you will have a coop in the end. Just keep everything very clean and take care of your birds. It should work out fine.

 

[eggzettera]

if you do a search using the key word "diaper" it is done more often then one would think

I think if you have a garage it would be better suited for the amount of dust they can generate.....

JMO

 

[Rhett&SarahsMom]

Welcome!

Our pet chickens are illegal in our city. We currently have them in a coop with an attached run in the back yard(Neighbors dont mind and love them) But if we are given no choice. They will become house chickens. All 5(currently) We have a one large cage and a medium sized one as well. And if needed we can build a small coop in the basement for them. As we have cement walls and floors down there and its very dry.
We are going to be putting up 6ft privacy fence come spring thaw. So that they can still have their out door time.

The only thing to check and keep an eye on, if you are going to be keeping them in the basement with a furnace down there as well, is Carbon Monoxide. Or even possibly Radon.
Our basement is drafty, but the CM detector went off when I brought it down and put it on the dryer. Talk about comforting

So now I am thinking of actually adding venting through a side window or putting a vent in the new bulk head door the dh is going to be building me this year.

Yeah, the one he doesnt know about yet.

 

[Sissy]

Welcome.I too had my ladies 6 of them
in my pantry for 2 months, in a huge cardboard box
which I kept adding wood shavings every so often
and I had no smell but dusty yes yes ..so I opened a small window
ever so slighty.
that seemed to help some.and I still use that method
if I have a sick or hurt little on.and just toss the nasty box .Less clean up.

 

[LynneP]

And if you want to let them out to exercise in the house, try a surgical mask for a diaper!

 

[onthespot]

full spectrum light is also very important to avian health when your birds are don't have access to full sunlight.

 

[EliteTempleton]

I invite you to read my thread on this subject: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=80901

Here is part of what I wrote:

What I have learned/been through since I posted my idea here:

In July or August here we had a Tornado warning.
So I figured I should grab my chickens and have them in the basement due to the weather. From this I learned a few things:
1st) It is very difficult to round up chickens in the rain and get them all into one dog kennel with any kind of quickness, had the tornado actually come through my area I think I would have been injured or killed due to the amount of time it took me and my wife to get them rounded up and into the one large kennel, and then transporting them. For emergency transport of chickens I recommend the small(basically cat sized) kennel's. One for each of them. This way you can simply grab them one at a time, put them in a cage and move onto the next one. They are relatively cheap ($20), stackable, etc. This way you can grab multiple cages and get to your shelter. If it is an evacuation scenario they are also easily managed until you get to your destination. I've considered one of those wire cage kennels that fold down fairly easily and well, yet are sturdy when setup, with a wire floor. This way you could set the kennel on a patch of grass/bugs and let the chicken/s safely stretch out and such while you were stopped for a lunch break or enroute to your final evacuation location. Though I would add landscape cloth to keep the chickens heads inside of the kennel and avoid the sight movement exciting predators(including dogs visiting the same rest stop).

2nd) Indeed they were smelly and noisy very quickly. They did stay the night down there, but were quickly moved outside in the AM. So if someone were to keep them in the house I'd certainly recommend a room built for them with some sound proofing, an Air Purifier, and probably the peat moss too.

I think the amount of time cleaning would not be worth the trade off for not having to go outside to get the eggs.

I do not have the funds for a sound proof & air purified room in my basement so here is what I've done...

 

[chickenannie]

I've never done it, but I remember reading about someone else doing it on here, and their biggest complaint ended up being the very bad smell and the amount of dust that was generated by the chickens living in their basement for several months.