- Apr 20, 2015
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Well.. I find the space issue very difficult.
For the trios, I had two hens that were raised together. I bought a roo for them and kept them in a 2x5 ft cage. All was well for half a year, then one hen started attacking the other. I moved them to an aviary about 4 times as big, and they have coexisted peacefully ever since. So for trios, I won't recommend going smaller than 4x10 feet, but that's not to say it'll never work. Some people have trios on 4 square feet and it works. Some people might have them on 100 square feet and it doesn't work - though even if it doesn't work on 100 square feet, it should be possible to arrange the cage so the bullied one can get out of sight enough for them to coexist, even if it's not peaceful..
Pairs are less likely to fight and chase each other, though I have had a few not particularly well behaved roos that would occationally chase the hen around and also some that plucked their hen. For these pairs, an aviary might help prevent such behaviour. Trouble is, you don't know before the problem starts and that might take months. Other pairs might do well on 2x3 ft or similar, but I'd always give them as much room as reasonably possible - more room makes bad behaviour less likely to arise and you do want to prevent it from even starting - behaviours such as plucking quickly become habits your birds will never loose.
But again, some birds might do just fine with less space.
For the trios, I had two hens that were raised together. I bought a roo for them and kept them in a 2x5 ft cage. All was well for half a year, then one hen started attacking the other. I moved them to an aviary about 4 times as big, and they have coexisted peacefully ever since. So for trios, I won't recommend going smaller than 4x10 feet, but that's not to say it'll never work. Some people have trios on 4 square feet and it works. Some people might have them on 100 square feet and it doesn't work - though even if it doesn't work on 100 square feet, it should be possible to arrange the cage so the bullied one can get out of sight enough for them to coexist, even if it's not peaceful..
Pairs are less likely to fight and chase each other, though I have had a few not particularly well behaved roos that would occationally chase the hen around and also some that plucked their hen. For these pairs, an aviary might help prevent such behaviour. Trouble is, you don't know before the problem starts and that might take months. Other pairs might do well on 2x3 ft or similar, but I'd always give them as much room as reasonably possible - more room makes bad behaviour less likely to arise and you do want to prevent it from even starting - behaviours such as plucking quickly become habits your birds will never loose.
But again, some birds might do just fine with less space.
