I hope someone can provide me with some inspiration, as I'm pulling my hair out.
I've only got three hens and I'm trying to build up my flock, but i'm struggling to work out the best way to accomodate what I have.
I have one hen with three chicks that are 3-weeks old (two roosters and a hen), one hen that's gone broody and taken to a box, and one hen that's pretty lonesome out there on her own.
Mum and her 3-chicks are being kept in a run separately until the chicks are older, but they are moved to an outbuilding over night.
Broody hen is in with lonesome hen, but I'm getting ready to move her to sit on some fertilised eggs I got from a local poultry grower.
And it's all becoming a bit of a PoA, and Mrs C (who is normally very tolerant and patient) is getting a bit fed up with it all.
So I need a solution.
Prior to the arrival of the new chicks (fertilised eggs hatched by mum), the three girls shared a coop and run happily together, but now with a flock at various stages of growth/maturity/etc, I need a workable solution.
I live in a semi-rural location but with lots of neighbour, and keep my girls (the roosters won't be here once they find their voices) at the bottom of the garden in a spot that's quite shaded with plenty of leaf litter to pick through.
The space is about 20' x 28'.
I'd like to come up with a way of moving the flock out of the shed to live in this area all year round but with a way that I can keep new mum and her chicks safe from lonesome hen, and provide privacy and security for the broody hen whilst she sits and, we hope, gives us some more hens.
Any suggestions for how to create a maternity unit (for broody hen and eggs), a creche (for new mum and chicks), and a space for lonesome hen in the same 20' x 28' area?
If I can create that 'system' the girls can be happy, safe and secure in, I can invest the time and money doing the work to support the current situation and any future broodiness/chicks.
I do have a smallish chicken coop with nesting box that could house ~6-medium sized hens (https://arkus.co.uk/medium-chicken-house/) as well as the existing shed coop, and I'm more than capable of constructing whatever it is I need to make the system work.
Hope that makes some sense, if not please ask for any clarification you might want and I'll do my best to answer.
I've only got three hens and I'm trying to build up my flock, but i'm struggling to work out the best way to accomodate what I have.
I have one hen with three chicks that are 3-weeks old (two roosters and a hen), one hen that's gone broody and taken to a box, and one hen that's pretty lonesome out there on her own.
Mum and her 3-chicks are being kept in a run separately until the chicks are older, but they are moved to an outbuilding over night.
Broody hen is in with lonesome hen, but I'm getting ready to move her to sit on some fertilised eggs I got from a local poultry grower.
And it's all becoming a bit of a PoA, and Mrs C (who is normally very tolerant and patient) is getting a bit fed up with it all.
So I need a solution.
Prior to the arrival of the new chicks (fertilised eggs hatched by mum), the three girls shared a coop and run happily together, but now with a flock at various stages of growth/maturity/etc, I need a workable solution.
I live in a semi-rural location but with lots of neighbour, and keep my girls (the roosters won't be here once they find their voices) at the bottom of the garden in a spot that's quite shaded with plenty of leaf litter to pick through.
The space is about 20' x 28'.
I'd like to come up with a way of moving the flock out of the shed to live in this area all year round but with a way that I can keep new mum and her chicks safe from lonesome hen, and provide privacy and security for the broody hen whilst she sits and, we hope, gives us some more hens.
Any suggestions for how to create a maternity unit (for broody hen and eggs), a creche (for new mum and chicks), and a space for lonesome hen in the same 20' x 28' area?
If I can create that 'system' the girls can be happy, safe and secure in, I can invest the time and money doing the work to support the current situation and any future broodiness/chicks.
I do have a smallish chicken coop with nesting box that could house ~6-medium sized hens (https://arkus.co.uk/medium-chicken-house/) as well as the existing shed coop, and I'm more than capable of constructing whatever it is I need to make the system work.
Hope that makes some sense, if not please ask for any clarification you might want and I'll do my best to answer.
