What to use to separate chickens while still being in coop?

[SquirtSapphire]

I've been reading and searching a lot, but can't seem to find an exact answer that I need.
Basically, my problem is that with the 14 chickens I have, I'm only getting 6 eggs a day. I don't mind having a few old hens, but if that many aren't laying eggs, I don't want to be feeding that many. The ideas that I've liked so far is separating them into a cage for 3 or 4 days to see if they are laying eggs or not, then tagging their legs with certain colors to tell which ones are layers. I've got some ideas but wanted to see if anyone else had dealt with this before, and if they had any pictures to show for it, because those help me the best.

I can't post a picture to show my coop, since i'm new. I will see what I can do later. But I have one corner of my coop that I could possibly build two shelves in out of wood and make a front wire door. My question, about how big does it need to be, if I'm going to keep a full grown chicken in it for about 3 days?

 

[maybejoey]

Chickens only have a certain amount of eggs same as human females do.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Chickens need 4 sq ft of space per bird. So I'd say around 8, just to let them have more room.

Do you have a run attached to your coop? If so I would just take each chicken and let it be in the run during the day by it's self, then at night put it back in the coop, and then in the morning put it back in the run.

~ Aspen

 

[cat1994]

Mrs. Fluffy Puffy :

Chickens need 4 sq ft of space per bird. So I'd say around 8, just to let them have more room.

Do you have a run attached to your coop? If so I would just take each chicken and let it be in the run during the day by it's self, then at night put it back in the coop, and then in the morning put it back in the run.

~ Aspen

x2​

 

[SquirtSapphire]

They have a complete shed and run that are attached. I open the shed doors in the morning, leave them open all day, and they are in the run all day long.Then I close them up at dark. And it gets too hot in the coop to shut them in there with doors closed because then there is no breeze.
The ideas I got were from the Coop ideas, mainly the chicken brooders. I guess this way it could end up being used as a brooder next spring as well, which, now that I think about it, is probably a smart idea and will keep me from having to make some sort of brooder next spring.
Basically, now I'm thinking a portable cage that can be used for holding one, maybe two chickens at a time, for 3 days, so that I can see which of my chickens are actually laying. However, in the spring it would be wonderful if it could double as a brooder. I was liking the simpler designs, listed below.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=36979-the-hot-chick-room
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=49391
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=41661
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=52152

It would be made from the scrap wood and extra hardware cloth I have left over from the chicken coop itself, as well. I have the idea in my head, what I mainly need to know is what size it should be? I won't have more than 10 baby chicks in the spring, and it probably won't even be that many. Depends on how many chickens we get rid of before then, I suppose. But definitely not over 10 regular chicks. So taking that into consideration, how large should it be to house a chicken or 2 for 3 days at most?

Thank you in advance, guys

 

[Arielle]

Have you considered a trap-- where a hen can go thr door into the nest box but not out. you then see if she left you an egg. just a thought --might be less work than making a mini coop

 

[SquirtSapphire]

I did think about one sided doors in front of the chicken coop but wasn't sure how to go about that. As for traps, the only thing we have is a raccoon trap, which is definitely too small for the chickens. I was trying to go with left over materials we already had, consisting of a decent amount of wood and 10 foot of hardware cloth.

Hopefully this link will work, but this is my chicken coop as it is so far. it is 8 x 8 ft. http://tinypic.com/r/2jcam1c/7