Show Me Your Isolation Areas

[thecatumbrella]

We're starting to plan out our next iteration of coop and run. I'd love to see (or hear about) how you separate chickens that are sick, broody, or bullies.

• Does one isolation area cover all these scenarios?
• Do you have multiple "bays" for multiple chickens?
• Do you prefer to place it in the coop or run?
• Do you provide extras, such as a nest box (for non-broodies) or a roosting bar?

Our previous setup wasn't ideal. It took up too much run space when not in use (it was practically a chicken apartment ), and wasn't 100% weatherproof at the walls. We've also used a dog crate within that space, but I didn't love that for long-term recoveries. I'm hoping to come up with a creative solution for the next round.

 

[PoppasGrill]

We use a store bought small coop for isolation , it has a nesting box and a short roosting bar. Think it was fairly cheap at Rural King store.
Mostly use it for the bullies / roosters when they start getting out of hand.

 

[thecatumbrella]

We use a store bought small coop for isolation , it has a nesting box and a short roosting bar. Think it was fairly cheap at Rural King store.
Mostly use it for the bullies / roosters when they start getting out of hand.

Interesting. So are they out of sight from the flock? Or does it have a little attached run?

 

[PoppasGrill]

Interesting. So are they out of sight from the flock? Or does it have a little attached run?

It has a small in closed area, only 3’x5’. We have a couple of them that we use for new chicks for the first 5-6 weeks and they can see and hear the rest of the flock. Makes integration pretty easy.
We have locked up a bully hen in it , and a couple hens that were getting ravaged by roosters, to give them a break.
We have also locked up a couple of asshat roosters for a few days, it usually calms them down for a while.

 

[K0k0shka]

I don't have enough room for my ideal setup, unfortunately. Ideally, I'd have one of those tiny dollhouse prefab coop+run combos to use as an isolation unit, and I'd place it inside the main run. But I live in an urban area and don't have enough room for that. So what I do instead is I have an outdoor isolation area, which is a partition of my run separated off by chicken wire and with a gate on it. When it's not being used, the gate is propped open and the flock can use that part of the run. When in use, I close the gate and put feed and water in there (it already has a dust bath and climbing areas), and the isolated chicken can still see and be seen by the flock, they just can't get to it, so I don't need to re-integrate. This area is mostly predator proof and has shelter, but not enough for the chicken to overnight in, so I need to bring the isolated chicken into the coop at night, where I use a large dog crate as its sleeping quarters. So the isolated chicken sleeps in the crate in the coop at night, and spends the day in the run partition. Moving it twice a day is more work than I'd want to do, but that's how it is. If the chicken being isolated is currently laying, I add a milk crate with hay in it as a temporary nest in the run. If the chicken is broody, I just keep her in the dog crate with food and water (but no bedding) until she breaks. The crate has a roost in it, so the isolated chicken can sleep on the roost at night. I don't have a good way to isolate/quarantine a contagiously ill chicken, unfortunately. The best I can do is put the dog crate in my basement, which is about 100 feet from the chicken coop/run and inside my house - sort of far enough, but I'd be the common denominator and even if I change shoes/clothes, I probably still can't ensure strict biosecurity, so if a chicken gets contagiously sick, the rest are just gonna have to hope they have strong immune systems...

 

[thecatumbrella]

It has a small in closed area, only 3’x5’. We have a couple of them that we use for new chicks for the first 5-6 weeks and they can see and hear the rest of the flock. Makes integration pretty easy.
We have locked up a bully hen in it , and a couple hens that were getting ravaged by roosters, to give them a break.
We have also locked up a couple of asshat roosters for a few days, it usually calms them down for a while.

That is an incredibly nice setup! I wish I had that much space. AND to have the entire structure roofed!

 

[StinkyAcres]

Obviously a larger coop is preferable. But your isolation area doesn't look too bad to me. I use dog crates but keep them indoors. I keep an XL dog crate and a small crate in my unheated walk-out basement for hens that need a space out of the freezing cold and/or need lots of attention from me. Right now I have the small crate in the coop to keep an old hen with leg problems from roosting high up at night. I think I will eventually move the XL crate out into my 10'x12' coop and keep it there permanently for use as a chick integration/hospital area. I have to wait until I have room (I currently keep a sheep in the chicken coop).

 

[thecatumbrella]

I don't have enough room for my ideal setup, unfortunately. Ideally, I'd have one of those tiny dollhouse prefab coop+run combos to use as an isolation unit, and I'd place it inside the main run. But I live in an urban area and don't have enough room for that. So what I do instead is I have an outdoor isolation area, which is a partition of my run separated off by chicken wire and with a gate on it. When it's not being used, the gate is propped open and the flock can use that part of the run. When in use, I close the gate and put feed and water in there (it already has a dust bath and climbing areas), and the isolated chicken can still see and be seen by the flock, they just can't get to it, so I don't need to re-integrate. This area is mostly predator proof and has shelter, but not enough for the chicken to overnight in, so I need to bring the isolated chicken into the coop at night, where I use a large dog crate as its sleeping quarters. So the isolated chicken sleeps in the crate in the coop at night, and spends the day in the run partition. Moving it twice a day is more work than I'd want to do, but that's how it is. If the chicken being isolated is currently laying, I add a milk crate with hay in it as a temporary nest in the run. If the chicken is broody, I just keep her in the dog crate with food and water (but no bedding) until she breaks. The crate has a roost in it, so the isolated chicken can sleep on the roost at night. I don't have a good way to isolate/quarantine a contagiously ill chicken, unfortunately. The best I can do is put the dog crate in my basement, which is about 100 feet from the chicken coop/run and inside my house - sort of far enough, but I'd be the common denominator and even if I change shoes/clothes, I probably still can't ensure strict biosecurity, so if a chicken gets contagiously sick, the rest are just gonna have to hope they have strong immune systems...

We have a similar setup then. I liked your idea of having it be part of the main run with all the chicken amenities, then just shut the door if someone needs to go in. But yeah, I didn't love shuffling a chicken back and forth from coop to isolation at the crack of dawn. Maybe someday we'll have big enough properties to build what we want. I'd probably need to get out of New England though

 

[Sally PB]

I use a set up like this for integrating chicks when they are big enough not to need heat. This is just 2x3 fence with some garden pole/stakes woven through it, then stuck in the ground. The fence is 4' high, and I have janky old chicken wire fence ziptied to it to span the area from the top of the fence to the roof of the run.

The ramp leads up to the coop. There is also a people door; the cinder block is the step up into the coop. The adults use the people door, the littles use the ramp and the pop door.

This is the chicks' area inside the coop. The mugshot here is little Pip, back at 5 weeks. And YES! depsite the comb and wattles showing, Pippy is a girl!

The left side of the coop was the chicks' area. I took down all the fencing and gate, and saved them for the next time I need to have a separate area. I have learned to make "modular" pieces for any coop furniture. Put it in with a few screws, then take it out and store it.

I have an XL dog crate I use as a brooder in our house. I also have a small dog crate that I use as a broody breaker. That goes inside the coop so the the broody stays "with" the flock.

 

[PoppasGrill]

That is an incredibly nice setup! I wish I had that much space. AND to have the entire structure roofed!

That is our barn, half has concrete floor, we keep our chicken troughs in the barn for feeding, so the store coops / chicks are exposed to the flock.

We have a hillbilly coop condo separated into 4 coops due to chicken math, so it’s easier to feed them in one place.