Author Topic: Voluntary overcrowding!! (Read 2008 times)

fruitful · « **on:** October 23, 2012, 11:21:23 am »

Earlier this year we added to our collection of eight free range chickens by buying a further eight together with a second coop. The newbies were confined to a run attached to the coop for a week or so to get them used to each other and to teach them where they lived! Once the run was removed they obligingly continued to go to bed in that coop and in due course started to lay there as well. So - all going swimmingly until one of the grandchildren, un-noticed by me shut the pop hole meaning that they all went to bed in the other coop that night!! The result is sixteen chickens literally sitting on top of one another in a coop designed for eight. It needs cleaning out twice as often and the eggs are now always dirty

I have tried everything I can think of to get them to return to their own coop without success. If we close up coop number one they all go to bed in the second coop but as soon as number one is available they all go back to that one again. There is no sign of spider mite in either coop, we have tried moving them over when they are sleepy in the hope that if they woke up there they might regard it as home - nothing seems to work. I am reluctant to confine them to the run again as they are now used to being free range - any ideas please!

jaykay · « **Reply #1 on:** October 23, 2012, 11:27:44 am »

Lol, mine do the same, just sociable I guess

The way I look at it, although you have to clean that coop out twice as often, you don't have to do the other one so it evens out.

As for the eggs, just replace, or top up, the bedding in the nest boxes more often. My nest boxes are external, ie sticking out and accessed by their own lid from outside, so I just stick extra shavings in, inbetween clean outs.

in the hills · « **Reply #2 on:** October 23, 2012, 12:16:38 pm »

Yep,

for a variety of reasons mine have at times done a bit of coop hopping.

Sometimes moving them at night for a while works but if you've tried that then it probably means going back to them being confined to their own coop and attached run for a while. It usually only takes a week or so. It depends how crowded they are as to whether it is a problem or not. If they are too crowded then it maybe more of a problem in the summer than now in terms of it getting humid etc in there ..... respiratory diseases and so on. Also more stressful, possibly, for hens lower in the pecking order.

colliewoman · « **Reply #3 on:** October 23, 2012, 12:31:56 pm »

Bolt the 2 coops together and take out the joining walls to make it one big coop?

JMB · « **Reply #4 on:** October 23, 2012, 04:30:11 pm »

We had 2 hens abandoned under our bin. Took 3 weeks of carrying them out of the temporary house at bedtime in to the main coop until they integrated.
Anyway, not sure this will help, but we put heras fencing round the coop (open during the day) and lured them in with feeders in the evening, then shut them in there so they'd learn to go up the ramp.
I couldn't face penning them in all day either.
Having said that, most of mine sleep in the tree now.
Our next option was going to be bolting the 2 coops together which someone has mentioned.
Good luck!
J xxx

chrismahon · « **Reply #5 on:** October 24, 2012, 06:46:13 am »

Sounds like they need to be divided with runs for a period and then let out again. Problem is they will have paired up (two make friends and stay together) so you need to spot that and separate accordingly.

Not an easy job! But overcrowding brings loads of problems.

Buy one big coop and put the others aside in reserve is an alternative.

aaronsundin · « **Reply #6 on:** October 24, 2012, 07:37:06 am »

Could you maybe re attach the run and start again ? Or are the chooks too big now ? We have 2 coops in use at the moment , last night I had 2 in one and 10 in the other . Each night it's a case of doing a head count to see who's where . Also this time of year now it's getting colder they seem to prefer to stick together at night to stay warmer.

Mrs Snoodles · « **Reply #7 on:** October 26, 2012, 08:22:39 pm »

Moving some exbatss and meat girls who ended up getting names tomorrow. I have resigned myself t a similar situation. 13 ladies in a coop for 8. They will be toasty over winter though

plumseverywhere · « **Reply #8 on:** October 27, 2012, 08:37:28 am »

Every evening, around dusk you will find me in our chicken run lifting out 3 or 4 hens from one house and putting them into the other smaller one. If they had their way, they'd all huddle up but I'm not happy as I'm paranoid about the bugs. Maybe instinct tells them that the bugs won't survive this frosty weather, I don't know. But each night, I get muttered and clucked at. Having said that, last night I found a bovans goldline already in the smaller coop all alone, so maybe its sinking in!