Questions about building a divided coop.

[Pete's Chicks]

We are planning on getting 2 silkie hens and 1 silkie rooster as well as 4 standard hens. I'm hoping someone has suggestions on how to build a divided coop.

Also, we are thinking of building 2 chicken tractors for summer use and one more permanent coop for our Wisconsin winters.

I have access to some recycled wood so it would be easy to make a coop about 57 inches square. Is this a size I could divide between the two types of birds? Could I just use a wire wall in the coop to keep them separate?

We'll be getting the silkies in June, and the other chicks in April. The silkie rooster will be about a year old and the silkie hens about 6 months. The other hens will be little chicks when they arrive.

I would like the silkies to eventually be a 4-H project for the kids. Son number one can join 4-H next fall.

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks,
Joanne

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Pete's Chicks :

We are planning on getting 2 silkie hens and 1 silkie rooster as well as 4 standard hens. I'm hoping someone has suggestions on how to build a divided coop.

Also, we are thinking of building 2 chicken tractors for summer use and one more permanent coop for our Wisconsin winters.

I have access to some recycled wood so it would be easy to make a coop about 57 inches square. Is this a size I could divide between the two types of birds? Could I just use a wire wall in the coop to keep them separate?

We'll be getting the silkies in June, and the other chicks in April. The silkie rooster will be about a year old and the silkie hens about 6 months. The other hens will be little chicks when they arrive.

I would like the silkies to eventually be a 4-H project for the kids. Son number one can join 4-H next fall.

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks,
Joanne

Yes you can use a wire wall to keep the birds seperate. I would use 1/4" hardwire cloth. I have 2 coops that are seperated. One coop has 2 sections and 2 runs, and the other coop has 3 sections and 3 runs.​

 

[patandchickens]

4 1/2' x 4 1/2' isn't going to give you much *room* in the divided halves... maybe a trio of silkies or other smallish bird in each half. Four standard hens in 2 x 4 1/2 is pretty tight. It could work if you a) are lucky and b) are assured of them wanting to spend all day every day outdoors year-round. Depends on your climate and what your run is like.

The actual building of the divided coop is not complex, you just build a divider

Some people would have a cutout in the divider so both can share a waterer; you do have to make sure nobody scoots to the wrong side when you've got the waterer out to clean/refill, though, so it is a little bit extra work.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Rufflemyfeathers]

My chicken coop is one long coop divided off into 5 different sections just with chicken wire but I have bigger turkeys in one and put my small silkies next to them and along with the chicken wire dividing each pen I also use the plastic type hardware cloth that is black half way up so turkeys don't peck at them.

 

[Chickenmaven]

Since your silkies will be older, I believe you should have to problem keeping your birds all together.

I have had Silkies in with standards all along - no problemo. We have two Silkie roos & one standard. Interestingly, we have one Silkie roo that was part of our original batch of chicks. We had no Silkie pullets at that point. Anyway, he considers himself to be a "standard" guy. Will not mate the Silkie hens that we have acquired. He is such a little gentleman with "his" girls - the Polish, Hamburgs and other small standards.
The coop you describe will be pretty small, so if your birds have full use, they should do well.