When do my Chicks decide its too cold to sleep outside the Coop and will go inside themselves?...

[dlholmes]

I have a Chicken Coop that has an "upper room" where there are four nesting boxes and room plenty room for my six girls to sleep together in front of the boxes on the two roosts. The "outside (downstairs) coop" has two roosts in it - one about waist high and one only about six-inches off ground. I live in the mid-south Tennessee area and in the next few days, it will get in the single digits at night and teens during day. The girls have free range of the coop and a large pen area the door opens into.
I have two girls - the alfa and beta - who will sleep inside the "upper coop" when it is cold. But the other girls have continued to sleep on the outside coop's waist-high roost - something they started when the temperatures were so stuffy and hot. I have closed up the window outside the "upper room," but it still has plenty of ventilation since a recent reroofing project allowed for a good-size ventilation gap near its ceiling.
My question is: do I allow ALL my girls to decide its cold enough to go inside the "upper room," or do I manually place them and shut the door going out in the morning to open it?

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.

plenty room for my six girls to sleep together

Not really. You don't.

I have two girls - the alfa and beta - who will sleep inside the "upper coop" when it is cold

This is proof that you don't have enough room in your coop. It is also sorely lacking in ventilation.
Rules of thumb: you should have 3.5-4 sq ft of floor space per bird in the coop that does not include the nest box space; you should have 12" of roost space per bird and as close to 1 sq ft of permanently open ventilation per bird as possible.

I think that your coop doesn't offer enough ventilation which also makes it too dark for the lower ranking birds to feel comfortable going into the coop at night and managing to avoid a beat down from the higher ranking girls. Ventilation is also critical during the upcoming cold snap as keeping the coop as dry as possible prevents frostbite.

You should strongly consider adding more ventilation to the coop ASAP and expanding when you can. Good luck.

 

[Blue Raptor]

I have a Chicken Coop that has an "upper room" where there are four nesting boxes and room plenty room for my six girls to sleep together in front of the boxes on the two roosts. The "outside (downstairs) coop" has two roosts in it - one about waist high and one only about six-inches off ground. I live in the mid-south Tennessee area and in the next few days, it will get in the single digits at night and teens during day. The girls have free range of the coop and a large pen area the door opens into.
I have two girls - the alfa and beta - who will sleep inside the "upper coop" when it is cold. But the other girls have continued to sleep on the outside coop's waist-high roost - something they started when the temperatures were so stuffy and hot. I have closed up the window outside the "upper room," but it still has plenty of ventilation since a recent reroofing project allowed for a good-size ventilation gap near its ceiling.
My question is: do I allow ALL my girls to decide its cold enough to go inside the "upper room," or do I manually place them and shut the door going out in the morning to open it?

Welcome to BYC!! Merry Christmas!

 

[Meri Maura]

Rules of thumb: you should have 3.5-4 sq ft of floor space per bird in the coop that does not include the nest box space; you should have 12" of roost space per bird

I agree with what you said, but I would like to add:
I had a large 12x12 chicken coop (you can see it by clicking my coop) and it held 70+ chickens for years and I haven't had any problems, not even the days when I let them out late.

 

[dlholmes]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.

Not really. You don't.

This is proof that you don't have enough room in your coop. It is also sorely lacking in ventilation.
Rules of thumb: you should have 3.5-4 sq ft of floor space per bird in the coop that does not include the nest box space; you should have 12" of roost space per bird and as close to 1 sq ft of permanently open ventilation per bird as possible.

I think that your coop doesn't offer enough ventilation which also makes it too dark for the lower ranking birds to feel comfortable going into the coop at night and managing to avoid a beat down from the higher ranking girls. Ventilation is also critical during the upcoming cold snap as keeping the coop as dry as possible prevents frostbite.

You should strongly consider adding more ventilation to the coop ASAP and expanding when you can. Good luck.

thank you for your reply. I will take your comments under consideration....
still seeking answer to my question....
have a Merry Christmas...

 

[CNJ]

My chicken only go in my coop to lay eggs and to sleep at night. They hang outside most of the day and I think the younger ones still trying to figure out what to do when it rains. I don't micro manage them, I let them figure it out them selves.

 

[dlholmes]

My chicken only go in my coop to lay eggs and to sleep at night. They hang outside most of the day and I think the younger ones still trying to figure out what to do when it rains. I don't micro manage them, I let them figure it out them selves.

that's what I have been letting them do so far... thanks for your comment

 

[dlholmes]

Welcome to BYC!! Merry Christmas!

sorry you had to leave your chickies....
And have a Blessed Christmas

 

[007Sean]

Howdy, and Welcome to Backyard Chickens.

Happy to have you here with us. Enjoy your time here at BYC!

Thanks for joining our community!

 

[featherhead007]

Welcome to the club. Seems like you need a rooster to help with your decisions.