My chickens seem cramped?

[Alfia]

Hi all, we recently got chickens and a coop through a rental company. We are thinking of keeping them permanently but are not sure yet, so I don't want to invest in a bigger/better set-up just yet (we're using what the company gave us). From reading things here, it sounds like my ladies are cramped. Their run is about 2.5 feet wide by 5 feet long, which definitely does not meet the 8 square feet minimum space suggested for each of them. I try to let them out to free range as much as possible, but it's usually just an hour or two a day. Will they be ok in this space? Aren't two hens supposed to have more than this? Attaching a pic.

 

[clarkbre]

Yes. That is a cramped set up even for 2 hens. If you keep only the 2, they would require about 20 sq ft (5'x4') in the run and 8 sq ft (2'x4') in the coop. If you're into keeping hens, I would plan on adding 2 more for a flock of 4 and make a similar style coop over a run but in a 4'x10' footprint with a 4'x4' coop. That would be the absolute minimum to build, take up little space and still be enough for the flock. It would also be very economical in standard material size to minimize waste during the build.

If you don't mind me asking, what is the rental agreement/arrangements?

Running some rough numbers, if your rent was $25 a month and you multiply it by 24 (2 years), you would have $600 towards a VERY nice coop/run that was an appropriate size. That would be a healthy start to the hobby.

 

[Alfia]

Thanks for the suggestions! That's what I'm thinking about for the fall...just have to convince my husband that four is better than two. Also, on a side note, I've read that Red Stars (which these ladies are) can sometimes be aggressive if you introduce new hens into the lot? But I would love some Easter Eggers! So I'm not sure how we would handle that. Anyway, the rental agreement is actually a set fee from April-November, and they came with feed and bedding and everything. Having read a lot here, it definitely cost more than acquiring (or building) a coop and hens on our own would have cost, but we were willing to pay knowing it would be a trial. My husband was really not into the idea of chickens when I signed us up, and now he has already come around to liking these two and being open to keeping them. Our dog, on the other hand, has not yet realized they are not something for him to catch and eat... (He's not allowed in the yard anymore, don't worry!)

 

[Alfia]

Yes. That is a cramped set up even for 2 hens. If you keep only the 2, they would require about 20 sq ft (5'x4') in the run and 8 sq ft (2'x4') in the coop. If you're into keeping hens, I would plan on adding 2 more for a flock of 4 and make a similar style coop over a run but in a 4'x10' footprint with a 4'x4' coop. That would be the absolute minimum to build, take up little space and still be enough for the flock. It would also be very economical in standard material size to minimize waste during the build.

If you don't mind me asking, what is the rental agreement/arrangements?

Running some rough numbers, if your rent was $25 a month and you multiply it by 24 (2 years), you would have $600 towards a VERY nice coop/run that was an appropriate size. That would be a healthy start to the hobby.

Oops, so follow-up question, will they be ok until November in this set-up??

 

[clarkbre]

Oops, so follow-up question, will they be ok until November in this set-up??

The 2 will likely be ok in there but make sure they get out as much as possible to freerange. Any chance of adding a small fence or enclosure for them to expand the area?

Thanks for the suggestions! That's what I'm thinking about for the fall...just have to convince my husband that four is better than two. Also, on a side note, I've read that Red Stars (which these ladies are) can sometimes be aggressive if you introduce new hens into the lot? But I would love some Easter Eggers! So I'm not sure how we would handle that. Anyway, the rental agreement is actually a set fee from April-November, and they came with feed and bedding and everything. Having read a lot here, it definitely cost more than acquiring (or building) a coop and hens on our own would have cost, but we were willing to pay knowing it would be a trial. My husband was really not into the idea of chickens when I signed us up, and now he has already come around to liking these two and being open to keeping them. Our dog, on the other hand, has not yet realized they are not something for him to catch and eat... (He's not allowed in the yard anymore, don't worry!)

Not sure about introducing new to the existing as I don't have much experience with that.

It's funny your husband has come around to them. When we built our first coop/run in '14 I thought my wife was crazy to get chickens. The build was fun and once the chickens were using it, I warmed up to the hobby quite a bit.

After moving last summer, we left the coop and the flock to the new home owners and have started our coop(4x8)/run(10x8) build for 8 new chicks. It's been fun but I am already thinking of adding another 4x8 run and 2.5x4 coop for a flock of 4 bantams.

My wife has officially created a chicken farmer out of me!!!

 

[3KillerBs]

You are right, that's awfully small. Can you expand the pen in any fashion? It also seems to be very poorly ventilated and might get extremely hot come summer. Where, in general, are you located? (You can add it to your profile to help people give better advice because climate matters).

If you want to end up with 4 chickens after this trial period is over My Little Monitor Coop was designed to meet all the minimums for 4 hens and originally had a 4x8 run plus the area under the coop, which gave them a nice space to be outside but out of any weather that might be happening.

If your coop is in the sun all day and you can't move it to a spot with afternoon shade I suggest that you get some kind of shade structure to put over it. When we moved to this property and had to put the coop up in a less-than-optimum place while the house was built I got a cheap picnic fly to put over it.

 

[Krugerrand]

The 2 will likely be ok in there but make sure they get out as much as possible to freerange. Any chance of adding a small fence or enclosure for them to expand the area?

You could put the whole thing inside of a dog kennel (sometimes used can be had cheaply) or a hoop run. I'm planning on building a hoop run like this soon:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...n-have-a-few-questions.1074479/#post-16415828

Think about what you would want going forward and see if you can implement a solution now that will work for or can be easily repurposed to what you envision.

 

[Krugerrand]

as an FYI for those who may not be familiar ... here is a rental company in my parts of the world:
http://www.rentthechicken.com/p/western-pa-and-surrounding-areas.html
I've seen some other companies in other areas, too.

We gave this serious consideration for this spring, but then decided to just go ahead and put the money towards building what we wanted and what would work for us. Plus, I wanted the kids to have a chance to bond with chicks. Getting eggs right away wasn't as big of a priority.

I think the business model is interesting ... and worth investigating in some other ways.

 

[Ridgerunner]

From reading things here, it sounds like my ladies are cramped.

Some people really believe in magic numbers for chickens. They really believe that you need x square feet per chicken, whether you have 2 chickens or 200. I'm a proponent of providing as much room as reasonable, you can follow the link in my signature to see some of the reasons why. If you build new I'll advocate for erring on the side of more rather than less room.

But I also believe in trusting what you see instead of what you read on the internet. How are your chickens acting now? Are they trying to eat each other? Are they fighting or picking each others feathers? Is the poop building up so thick it's stinking or you are spending a lot of time managing it where giving them a bigger area to poop in might reduce that work load?

Looking at your photo It looks like you haven't had them very long. There is still grass inside their area. I can't give any guarantees on how they will behave, no one really can with living animals. I suggest basing your decision on whether they need more space on what you see. Those two do not look crowded to me. If they are not acting crowded I don't think they are.

 

[Alfia]

The 2 will likely be ok in there but make sure they get out as much as possible to freerange. Any chance of adding a small fence or enclosure for them to expand the area?


Not sure about introducing new to the existing as I don't have much experience with that.

It's funny your husband has come around to them. When we built our first coop/run in '14 I thought my wife was crazy to get chickens. The build was fun and once the chickens were using it, I warmed up to the hobby quite a bit.

After moving last summer, we left the coop and the flock to the new home owners and have started our coop(4x8)/run(10x8) build for 8 new chicks. It's been fun but I am already thinking of adding another 4x8 run and 2.5x4 coop for a flock of 4 bantams.

My wife has officially created a chicken farmer out of me!!!

Too funny. I just told my husband what you wrote, and he was like we'll see... Anyway,I just measured and we do have the space for about a 4'x10' (or maybe 5'x8') run if we end up keeping them. I'm hesitant to build a bigger run right now for two reason: if we DON'T end up keeping them, I don't necessarily want all that grass destroyed (I know, it's a superficial reason, but I've worked hard to get grass to grow in that area!), and 2) I'm worried about predators, mainly foxes, digging under. The run they came with has fencing on the bottom so they are safe, and I worry that we'd be liable if something happened to them because they were in a different run (it didn't say anything about that on the agreement). We do have foxes in our neighborhood (as well as a Cooper hawk that hangs out on my block).