Lost our last chicken, need help in starting over

[SantaCruzDude]

We lost our last chicken today, I had to put down our sickly girl. We had 2 chickens which lasted around 3 years. We have indoor rabbits(one over 6 years), a dog, a cat and other reptilian and fishy family members. We raised our 2 girls as chicks and they were welcome members of our family, egg laying machines for the first year in a outdoor coop, even our pittie loved her feathered friends. We lost our 1st chicken 8 months ago, she was around 2..looked egg bound and just passed away. Now we lost her sister and she couldn't hop up a 6" opening into the house. We want more chickens but somehow we feel like we missed something. They had a coop, good food, mealworms and free range when we were around. What are we missing? We want more chickens but we want them to be healthy and happy. We'd like 4-5 chickens, have room for a coop, outdoor safe roaming fenced in(when we are around). That said, if your housing 4 chickens, how much room, cleaning standards, bugs/illnesses or what are we missing? I want to give any pet in my home a good life so please educate me on what I can do to give them a healthy life. We had a bad freeze this year, our girl was in a dog crate in the house with hay until freeze passed. Give us your feedback on how to keep a healthy flock, so much out there.

 

[jennychick45]

Well if you let them free range the coop only has to be a place for sleeping and laying eggs and for 4 chickens it would be ok to have a small movable coop with a small run attached. If they are not free range you may want to build a larger coop with a larger run that they can exercise themselves. As far as keeping them happy and healthy I would give them treats like mealworms happy hen pucks with seeds and other things in them. And in winter maybe just put heat lamps in the coop. Clean your coop based on size and tht will help a lot I clean mine out about every 2-3 weeks. Feed them the appropriate feed based on age and supply them with fresh water. You may want to check out other forums on managing your flock. Hope I helped and sorry to hear about your chickens.