What about two coops?

[Hennyhandler]

I have a coop and run but am thinking about adding on. My question is if I wanted to add another coop to it too could I do that and they use both or would they just always use the one. Would they ever seperate to do so? I'm not for sure on this after i got to thinking about it.

 

[usschicago1]

I believe there is a member who has two coops attached to one run. Im going to pm them to look

 

[M To The Maxx]

How big is your run now. We attched our 2 runs together. But there were not any birds in the other coop. How many roos do you have?

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Right now I am working on 3 coops that will eventually be attached to one big run that can be made into 3 if necessary.


I heard that if you raise chickens in one coop that is where they will return to everynight even though you may have more than 1.


Let me go get the link to what I am working on.

ETA--Here you go https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=286294

 

[gsim]

kChooks are funny. I have two troughs made of PVC house guttering. One on left was always for feed, one on right was always for water. I moved water outside permanently for having to always clean litter out of the watering trough. Now both are feed only. It has been 3 months and still the chooks will empty the original feed one and leave the other one 3/4 full.

 

[sben451]

We have two adjoining coops. Each has a pop door opening into a common run (approximately 25 x 25). Everyone pretty much returns to their respective coop by sundown every afternoon. We did, however, leave each group in their coop for several days so they know where their "home" is located.

 

[Hennyhandler]

I have one rooster and 10 hens. My run is not super huge. I can't really remember off the top of my head at the moment exactly how big. I don't want to force them into seperate coops especially since they've always been in one. I was just curious. What if I had a little one that really wasn't a coop but was just a little one for them to get out of the heat or cold in the respective elements during the day. Would they use this?

 

[ole-crone]

We have four interconnecting coops. The chickens choose their favorite to sleep in or lay their eggs. We open one door for them to have access to the outdoors. Coop A is the original, mostly used for sleeping by the older chickens. Coop B is dark and dreary in my opinion but they love to lay eggs in the nest boxes in there. Coop C is Long and light - we normally open the door to this one since on cold days it is the most sheltered. Coop D is a Star Plate coop - covered with wire and plastic in the winter. This is their 'spa' coop. They are fed and watered in here and they like to take dust baths. I think having the choice of places to go helps them keep occupied during our long cold winters and we don't have pecking-type problems. (We have around 80 chickens).

We also have three other coops in their own yards. The chickens are all moved to the complex in fall so we only have to concentrate on one area for food and water. It also helps to have all of the chickens putting off body heat when the temps hover around or drop below zero. This winter I think it got down to -20.

 

[FrenchToast]

Quote:
Wow, I was going to ask the same question today!!! My DH keeps adding to our collection so we are going to need a bigger coop or another one.
I just love BYC !! I never really need to ask questions because someone always beats me to it !!!! Thanks

 

[New2Peeps]

I have 2 small coops for my 7 girls and they arrange and rearrange themselves all the time as far as sleeping goes. Sometimes 3 in a coop and sometimes 4 but they split off into 2 groups. I have the feed in one coop only and they all gather in there to eat. They lay eggs in both coops nestboxes and certain hens have their preference of boxes. I am going to add 3 more girls this spring so I imagine there will be another rearrangement of pecking and sleeping order. It actually works out well since it gives the girls on the low end of the pecking order their own space. The small coop has an attached run and both are in a big fenced yard.