Went a little overboard, need options please

[Charles07]

Coop:

Space for 16-18 birds, occupied by 9 hens (1 of them broody on 22 eggs) and 1 rooster

Mesh pen:

Space for 30 birds or so, occupied by 10, 14 week olds

Incubator:

16 eggs set for lockdown the same day that the brooded eggs should hatch

Plastic tub:

Space for...not too many, occupied by 3, 5 day olds



My brain is fried and I only have 2 weeks to find a workable solution.

 

[Charles07]

I am not moving out of my home.

 

[Charles07]

You people and your enabling...

 

[squeakyballs]

If you can put 3 chicks in a tub... you need 5.3 more tubs for when the eggs hatch.

When those chicks start outgrowing the tubs... move Mesh-Pen-Chickens into the Run because they should be big enough (bringing the total of Run chickens to 19... one over the limit).

Then you can move the 19 tub-chicks to the mesh run (the two groups should be more or less the same size by that point)

Frick, I forgot about the broody and the 22 chicks.

You need another run!

 

[Wolfwoman]

Start building...

 

[gryeyes]

I have just gone through something similar, but on a smaller scale. I now have four coops and a Duck House, which the ducks don't use and I have appropriated as a coop for four bantams (two Silver Sebright ROOS, a Buff Brahma ROO and a Black Cochin pullet). I had 3 coops until this weekend, before I converted a Little Tykes Playhouse into the fourth coop. I was about to go nuts with "where can I put" some birds, but fortune smiled and the four Middles (18 weeks old) decided they were Big Chickens now and simply moved into the Big Chicken Coop with the 8 month olds. That freed up a coop..... and I promptly bought four chicks to house in it.

Overboard? It's a sliding scale.

 

[crtrlovr]

Quote:
Yup. and someone sneaky has greased the slide...

 

[Charles07]

The irony is that my wife is the one that wanted chickens and I am the one stuck with the obsession.

 

[Gold Griffin Chicken Mom]

Broody Hen needs to be in a secure (small?) run with those babies that hatch. Build a baby run with a dog-house size house? Just my suggestion.

BTW, I feel your pain. I need the decal that says "Chickens are like potato chips. You can't just have a couple..."

 

[PortageGirl]

Build a platform brooder space for chicks. I did that some years ago, a double-decker brooding area for young birds, you can brood different ages on different levels... When you can't spread out, go UP. That helps for the short term, you'll still need space for when they all grow up!