Moved grown flock to new coop...now I'm stressed.

[roz]

Where to start! So hopefully I don't have anything to feel bad about. We have a grown flock of 7 hens that are 2+ years. We got them as juveniles and missed out on the baby chick experience, so we decided to get baby chicks this spring. I originally told my sons we would keep 6-8 for the new 4x 4 coop. We had (until tonight) 7 hens in our old 4x6 coop. They talked me into moving the 7 older hens into the smaller coop (since i had said we'd have 6-8 in it), so that we could keep more baby chicks since we had to order a larger minimum order anyway. I agreed to do this before seeing how small a 4x4 coop was, so my husband and I have been busy adding a bump out for the nesting boxes making the total sq footage floor space wise 21 sq ft including the nesting area. It also has 7 square feet of roosting space because we have bars on two sides running perpendicular to each other. They have a 96 sq foot run attached as well, and we will be moving their coop to fresh ground monthly. So we moved them into their nice grassy run late today...they were happy rummaging through the fresh grass, but sunset started approaching and they were getting antsy to go back to their old home. I dont know why i thought they would just hop on up into the new coop. I had to have my son help me put all of them in the coop tonight. Our Cochin has been broody, and I feel bad for her because she seemed stressed about it. I watched them for a few minutes. 2 of them got up on the roosting bars and then jumped back down. They are all sleeping on the pine shavings tonight. Am I being silly about feeling bad, or was this a bad move on my part all together. The coop does seem small with them all in there, but if you go on the recommended space of 2-4 sq ft per chicken, I'm right in the middle, and I guess I was feeling like they'd have it better in the smaller coop because it will allow us to move it around the yard. We originally had 11 in that flock in our 4x6 coop, so I thought it would be fine.

 

[CarolJ]

Give it a few days. Chickens adapt pretty well. The first day in a new place they might be a little nervous, but I'll bet tomorrow they'll all be settled in and feeling at home.

 

[roz]

Thanks Carol. I love your colorful egg basket picture.