New hens and no coup?

[aart]

I'll say it...that coop is way too small for 7 birds,
unless(maybe) you allow them to sleep in the nests.
...and I see no ventilation.

Detrimental to their health and a very difficult space to manage the integration of new birds.

 

[KingOfFools]

Wow.... I never thought it was a bad coop for them all. I appreciate the honesty... I can take criticism. Looks like I'm going to the drawing board then. Thank you everyone for that advice. I love those dumb birds and I want them happy and healthy. I'll have to figure something out.

 

[KingOfFools]

Okay, well I'm going to try and modify what I've got first. It needs more room and more ventilation. I'm on it...

 

[aart]

Wow.... I never thought it was a bad coop for them all. I appreciate the honesty... I can take criticism. Looks like I'm going to the drawing board then. Thank you everyone for that advice. I love those dumb birds and I want them happy and healthy. I'll have to figure something out.

Good! I appreciate the appreciation, my blunt honesty is not usually appreciated :-\

Plan a larger coop/run adjacent and that small one will work good for raising chicks or isolating a few new birds before integration.

Not sure what you can do in the short term, I think your primary problem is an integration problem.
Read the links in my signature on space and ventilation......
......and here's my notes on integration something in there might help.

Good CLuck to yas!


Here's some notes I've taken on integration that I found to be very helpful.
See if any of them, or the links provided, might offer some tips that will assist you in your situation:

Integration of new chickens to flock.

Consider medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
Poultry Biosecurity
BYC 'medical quarantine' search

Confine new birds within sight but physically segregated from older/existing birds for several weeks, so they can see and get used to each other but not physically interact. Integrating new birds of equal size works best.

For smaller chicks I used a large wire dog crate right in the coop for the smallers. I removed the crate door and put up a piece of wire fencing over the opening and bent up one corner just enough for the smallers to fit thru but the biggers could not. Feed and water inside the crate for the smallers. Make sure the smallers know how to get in and out of the crate opening before exposing them to the olders. this worked out great for me, by the time the crate was too small for the them to roost in there(about 3 weeks), they had pretty much integrated themselves to the olders.

If you have too many smallers to fit in a crate you can partition off part of the coop with a wire wall and make the same openings for smallers escape.


The more space, the better. Birds will peck to establish dominance, the pecked bird needs space to get away. As long as there's no blood drawn and/or new bird is not trapped/pinned down, let them work it out. Every time you interfere or remove new birds, they'll have to start the pecking order thing all over again.

Multiple feed/water stations. Dominance issues are most often carried out over sustenance, more stations lessens the frequency of that issue.

Places for the new birds to hide out of line of sight and/or up and away from any bully birds.

Read up on integration..... BYC advanced search>titles only>integration
This is good place to start reading:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/adding-to-your-flock

 

[lazy gardener]

Also, regarding roosts. Most of the pre-fab coops have roosts that are totally inadequate for the needs of a chicken. They may be too close to the wall or ceiling, and almost always are too small in diameter. A chicken will do well on a roost that is 2" x 4" lumber size laid with the wide side up. They need enough room to jump up and down without bumping walls or their flock mates. Remember, that they spread their wings when they go up and down! If you can imagine yourself jumping up and down off a 18" high stool, you get the picture: what do your arms do? How does your center of gravity move? It's impossible to jump without shifting your COG forward and back, as well as spreading your arms. Now, imagine someone with huge entitlement issues standing very close, on a stool to either side of your stool, as you try to jump up and down off your stool. I expect that if they catch an elbow in their space, you'll get a thump on the head. That's pecking order! So, when you build that add on, give them roosts that they'll be happy on!

 

[KingOfFools]

Well that is perfect timing. I was just discussing with my wife about the roosting bars in the prefab coop we have being useless. They are pretty much on the deck, and very close to the wall. It's like this decorative stuff you see on the sides of hoods on cars, it's there to say it's there but has no actual purpose so now the buyer looks like a moron.

Think I might ventilate my existing one, and remove the larger door, and seal the small door. Then I'll just build something from scratch. I've been wanting to build something for them anyway.

 

[lazy gardener]

If you start from scratch, you can build the coop of your dreams... of course within budget considerations. I'd suggest that you look at the many pages of information under the "coops" tab on the top bar. There's also a lot of threads about coop and run design and maintenance.