Silkies and Velociraptors Coop

[anatess]

Hi all. I tried searching but there's just sooo much stuff on BYC that I can't find what I need. I'm very new to chickens. I've only had chickens since last September when my chickens were just babies. They lived in an old aquarium in my bedroom until a couple months ago when I finally got a chicken coop.

Well, just a few minutes ago, my husband called to tell me he got me 4 velociraptors. I know that's not their name, but I don't know what they're called. They're little chickens - a lot smaller than my silkies. My silkies are little chickens too - like half the size of the regular chicken but these velociraptors are even smaller than the silkies and really skinny with long bare legs. They remind me of velociraptors and they even run like one.

Anyway, I was wondering if anybody is familiar with this breed and if they can be kept with the silkies in my chicken coop.

The "room" part of the coop is 2'x3' big with 2 1.5'x1.5' extensions for a brooding nest. My 5 silkies are wierd - they all huddle together in one brooding nest leaving the rest of the "room" unoccupied. The room has a door that opens to a ramp that goes down to the screened-in area that is 3'x4'. I open the door to that area in the daytime and put a dog kennel against it that is another 2'x'4' area. I wanted to just take out the dog kennel and let the chickens roam my entire backyard (80'x40') but my husband says we have to figure out a way to scare the hawks away from the backyard first.

So, my first question - how many silkies maximum can my current set-up house? My 2nd question - anybody know what these velociraptors are, if they can live in the same coop as silkies, and how many velociraptors maximum can my current set-up house (without the silkies)? I'm thinking if they can't live with silkies, I can just buy that exact same coop for the raptors.

Thank you for your help.

 

[mpmb1227]

If they are bantam, which it sounds like they are, then I would follow the typical rule of thumb-two square feet per bantam inside the coop. So that means, if you have five bantams, you need a total of ten square feet at minimum (5x2 dimensions or equivalent). Your coop sounds like it might be a tad too small, but it's hard to say. As far as the "velociraptors," if you can provide a photo, it would be much easier to determine what they are. Perhaps they are modern game hens? They are small, skinny, with long legs.

 

[Pyxis]

Without knowing the real breed name it's hard to tell you much about them, but with being very small and described with long legs, perhaps modern game bantams? A picture would help.

As to your coop size questions, allowing 2 square feet per bird, which is generally recommended for bantams, in that coop you could fit 3 silkies. You have enough run space for really only one or two chickens, since each bird should have ten square feet of run space, but bantams can deal with a little less.

So you coop is actually pretty small already for the number of birds you have and I wouldn't go adding any more.

 

[mpmb1227]

^

 

[anatess]

Eek! And here I thought my coop is too big for my 5 silkies!

Would I still need to buy an extra "room" area for my silkies if I can figure out how to have them free range in my 80x40 backyard?

I'll take a picture of the raptors when my husband gets home. I googled modern game hens and there's many different chickens that came up. I did see one picture that looks like the ones I'm talking about:



But there's no info to go with it.

 

[Pyxis]

Eek! And here I thought my coop is too big for my 5 silkies! Would I still need to buy an extra "room" area for my silkies if I can figure out how to have them free range in my 80x40 backyard? I'll take a picture of the raptors when my husband gets home. I googled modern game hens and there's many different chickens that came up. I did see one picture that looks like the ones I'm talking about: But there's no info to go with it.

The inside of the coop is very important if you are in an area that gets a lot of rain or snow or has cold winters because at those times they are going to be in the coop all the time. Free ranging is not gonna help with that. So yes, you really do need more space, especially since you are now adding even more chickens. I'm not quite sure what you mean by buying another room, is this a prefab coop? Because if so I recommend you just replace it and build something, they don't hold up very long. That picture is a brown red modern game, yes.

 

[anatess]

I'm in Florida. We wear flip flops all year long.

So, I found out the velociraptors are Modern Game Bantams. They're tiny chicks right now,, about 3 inches standing up. I currently have them in a 10 gallon aquarium with a heat lamp so I have a few weeks before they'd need a coop, I think.

Yes, my coop is a slightly used coop some guy bought from Tractor Supply and sold on Craigslist because he decided to get a bigger coop. He has regular chickens and they can barely stand up in the space under the room.

I haven't figured out how to post pictures from my iPad...