Moving Chickens to New Coop

[Heatherella]

Hi everyone! I have two groups of chickens in separate sheds/ coops. One group that is 5 years old and one that is all young pullets. I am doing some reconfigurations to accommodate for the baby goats we just brought home (weeee!!).

I plan on moving the older ladies into a smaller shed because we are down to only 6 hens in that flock. I plan to move the pullets (flock of 15) into the big coop.

I’ve never moved the chickens around before, and I’m concerned they might stop laying or be stressed by the move. Does anyone here have any words of wisdom or advice on how to make the transition? My thought is they will settle in just fine. They will have a fenced in run with hawk netting. So many predators here that I can’t free range without supervising.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Just do it. Get it over with. They will adjust.

Chickens often don't like change but they are also adaptable and get over it. It's possible you will have a temporary reduction in laying. It's possible you will not. It's possible some will go into a stress-induced molt. It's possible they will rearrange the pecking order. Anything is possible with living animals.

What I'd expect to happen is a small dip in production for a few days but not a total stop. Probably no great changes to the pecking order. I'd put fake eggs in the nests to help them start to lay in the new (to them) nests. I'd move them at night partly as it will probably be less disruptive but mainly because it is easier to catch them when they are on the roosts. Makes it easier on you.

I know you read horror stories on here about all kinds of things. Those are usually the exception, when things don't go well. Many of us do this type of thing a lot and usually it is no big deal.

 

[Heatherella]

Thank you for the awesome suggestions! I wouldn’t have thought of putting the eggs in the nesting boxes. I still have the ceramic eggs I put in there when they were babies.

I hope this goes well. They’ve been such awesome birds all these years. It just makes more sense to give the larger flock the 8x10 space.