4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[ClareandDavid]

Hi - I am hoping someone may be able to help us !

We are fairly new to the wonderful hobbie of chicken keeping since my work friends bought us a omlet voucher for us to buy our first house - we chose a lovely pink classic and then got our 3 beautiful girls. We have a black croad langshan called Doris, a lavender cochin called Mabel and a light brahma called Madge and they are delightful and 2 have started laying so we enjoy it even more (if that is possible!).

 

Of course, as we were warned by reading your forums, chicken keeping is addictive and we want more. We thought about going for a cube but we wondered if anyone has 2 classics ? We don't know if there would be a problem once they were free ranging and would they go 3 in each or would they all try and cram into one ? We may think about making/buying a WIR and attaching the 2 classics at either side to it so they have plenty of room whilst we are at work.

Would love to hear from anyone who has 2 coops and know how it works out !!

 

Thanks and love the forum !!

[percy049]

I only have one coop, but if you put your new girls in the new coop, they go in there to sleep, and your old girls will continue to use their old one (that will be until you merge them, and then they might all cram in together )

[ClareandDavid]

I only have one coop, but if you put your new girls in the new coop, they go in there to sleep, and your old girls will continue to use their old one (that will be until you merge them, and then they might all cram in together )

 

 

Hi - thanks Percy

It is the 'merging' bit we are worried about as we like to let our girls free range as much as possible out of the run. Would love to hear from people who have more than one coop ...

[chicken bark]

I had more than one coop for a while that both contained hens. In the end they decided which hen house they preferred even though they had started off in different ones.

 

There is a lot of help in the 'introductions' thread on this forum. As long as you take time they will work it out for themselves. Multiple coops or one big coop - both ways work.

[percy049]

we're doing our intros now... can give you some help if you want

[karlotta]

They might all try and cram in one, but then they might not! I've had phases where everyone tries to cram in together but right now everyone is being nice and sensible and spacing themselves out a bit better.

 

With regard to intros, once they've eyeballed for a bit, I find that the more room you can give them the better... put a few new feeding/water stations around and go for it. As long as they are big/old enough to take care of themselves you should be fine in a free-range environment. It's when the are confined to a run that it gets trickier!

 

Don't forget to quarantine new ones away from the old ones when you first get them.

[Lydia]

Hello and welcome

We kept 6 hens in 2 classic eglus for about a year. They were both in view of one another and both had the same 2m standard run plus 2 extensions. What we found is that we had 2 separate flocks even when they were freeranging together and this is because they spent a lot of time separately when we were out or at work or whatever.

 

They generally all got on, give or take a bit of handbags, but there was a definite 'Upper Class' and 'Lower Class' of hens and they only really merged as a flock when we introduced the WIR and they all lived together 24/7.

 

When we moved all of them into the WIR they generally chose where to sleep - sometimes we had 4 and 2, sometimes we had 5 and 1, sometimes we had 3 and 3 and once we had 6 in 1 eglu. It didn't seem to matter who had previously slept where but it was OK because once they are asleep, they didn't care.

 

These days we have a cube (which I loathe and I would have rather kept the 2 eglu set up but I am in the minority) attached to our WIR and, at present 12 hens in residence. We have kept the eglus for intros and they get loaned out to others too, as well as providing temporary holiday accommodation to my sister's guinea pigs each summer. They continue to be very useful and the run panels are good for keeping hens off bits of garden you wish to preserve.

[sandyhas3chucks]

I had 8 in a WIR and 3 Eglus. there was a set house for set girls then head chook decided she wanted to move so they swapped then there were ,musical beds.

then I brought 2 most disabled girls indoors when it started to get too chilliyand removed 1 Eglu.

then there were 2 deaths leaving 4 out and 2 in and then as it got colder they decided cosy togethernesss was best.

[Chicken shack]

Go On get a you know it makes sense

[Janty]

Before we had the WIRs built, we had two classics and two cubes. On a regular basis, we used to have up to eight hens crammed in one eglu whilst the rest all crammed into one cube. I gave up in the end and just let them sleep where they wanted to. Even tonight, I have two cochins and four brahmas in one cube, five sleeping in the rafters of the WIR and the rest of the girls in the WIR all in one cube.

[Cinnamon]

Before I got a Cube I had 8 hens & 2 Classics.

I found that they all - yes all 8 of them - slept & laid in one Classic,so it made sense to get a Cube to give them more space.

[Space Chick]

I have 15 girls (4 of which are bantams) that insist on sleeping in one cube