Please help... I am really worried

[azygous]

If you can rig up one foot of roosting space for ten hens, that would be a perch ten feet long, or two perches five feet long each, you could make the tiny coop work, but it doesn't appear big enough to handle that requirement.

As for the hen who was dirt bathing and getting her feathers plucked, try not to worry about either her behavior or the plucking behavior of the others. That's normal social behavior while dirt bathing. The others probably were simply getting carried away. Watch them over the next couple of days, and you will be able to see if this is an actual problem that is developing.

Feather picking is a complex issue with many causes. It's a mental habit as much as nutritional. Sometimes you can discourage it if you see a hen picking feathers and you flick her on the back of the head with your finger. Keep close watch on them, and interrupt the picking when you see it happening, and you may be able to nip it in the bud. After they develop the habit, it's a real nightmare to get them to stop.

 

[jillam]

Thank you for your responses. Here is a pic of my perches that are in what I was considering their "coop". I guess my real question is: can I close up the little coop or take it out and they can just roost there at night? Or do they absolutely need to have something more closed in? I can add a larger house for them but I am hoping they can just consider the whole thing their house. I really love them and enjoy having them so I want them to be happy and have what they need but if it's not necessary (it's going to be super hot on the inside of any closed up coop) I don't want to add it. Can they just get used to sleeping "outside"?

 

[jillam]

Whoops forgot to add pic. My hen that they were pecking on while she was dirt bathing is fine btw.

Here she is today. Can anyone tell me if they are RIR's? TSC never said so I was assuming...

 

[Lelilamom]

Are all your hens a solid color like that, or do some have cream coloring or white mixed in with their red? She looks like a Red Sex or a RIR. It sounds like she was taking a dirt bath. Mine do the same thing. As for feather eating, well, unfortunately, mine got a taste for it and now several are missing quite a few feathers, so it's important to curb that if you can.

Definitely take out that tiny coop. Put in a covered roosting bar inside that very nice run you have. Even three pieces of ply-wood to form a lean-to against the wall with a roosting bar two or three feet off the ground inside it. You can always close it up, expand it or make it prettier later.

Good luck

 

[topdog24]

Whoops forgot to add pic. My hen that they were pecking on while she was dirt bathing is fine btw.



Here she is today. Can anyone tell me if they are RIR's? TSC never said so I was assuming...

 

[azygous]

Chickens absolutely do not need a completely enclosed coop to sleep in! Especially there where you live, you want all the ventilation you can get!

Once I toured an old homestead farm near where I live in Colorado. It had all sorts of outbuildings and it was all built in the 1800s. It's out on the plains where the winter blizzards are brutal. Yet the chicken coop was merely a three-sided affair, completely open to the south. I'm sure those chickens who lived there back then did just fine, as I'm sure your will.

Your perch looks terrific, by the way!

 

[jillam]

Ok thank you so much!!!! That's pretty much what I was hoping to hear! I am going to close that coop up and they can sleep outside in the run on the perches there. I'm hopeful that in a couple months, when they are supposed to start laying eggs, I can open it back up and they will use the nesting boxes for laying eggs instead of sleeping and pooping in them.
About their color, the hen I showed the pic of "Lilly" is the lightest colored one. The rest are dark red. Thanks again for your help!

 

[jillam]

Ok, sorry, one more thing: the flies are so bad in and around their coop (well they are just bad everywhere here really, it's a horse boarding stable...) has anyone ever put up a fly control system and can it hurt the chickens? Do flies even bother them?

 

[topdog24]

Fill ziplock bags half way with water and xrop a couple of coins in each one , place bags arond the run anout 3 ft apart about eye level, use tacls to attatch them where convenient, dont laugh, I know a lotof people that swear by thos and there os scientific proof it works

 

[jillam]

Great idea! I have seen patio restaurants here with those. I'm going to give it a try! Thanks!