Mrs

[Chortle Chook]

Just read this in 'Practical Poutry' July issue and thought I should bring it to people's attention, espcially anyone new to keeping chooks. This time last year when I was starting out I went by seller's guidlines and wasted my pennies on a coop that was way too small for my plans.

 

"As a rule of thumb chickens should be given as much space as possible. Every hen house you see for sale nowadays has a quoted bird capacity . . . but it's important to understand that this is only intended as a guide for roosting purposes. It doesn't mean that a six-bird house is big enough for this number to live in permanently; it's just a space that's suffiently large for them to sleep in comfortably. . . "

 

Actually the complete article in ''Practical Poutry' "Buying for beginners" is well worth a read

[mum-2-olly]

i agree cheaky chook, i have seen a hen house and run advertised in pets at home and has very ltd run space for the girls, or a few pennies more i had a purpose built one which is huge!

[zakjon-98]

I couldn't believe the size of the pets at home one either. It said that it was for 3-4 chickens and the run didn't look bigger than 2m.

I don't buy from pets at home I buy the same brands cheaper at other places .

[Henchanted]

Hi

 

I have just posted an answer to the thread about 'choosing a hen house on the same theme. It never fails to astonish me that pretty much most (in my experience -all) manufacturers can confuse/mislead people about size!

 

A hen-house advertised at The Royal Bath and West Show, on Friday, takes 6-8, but the run is barely big enough for 2 !!! I did not want to spoil my day by speaking to the seller about it, but I was disappointed

 

Present company not accepted because you have to search for the information, and only if you know you should look for it,ie if you know it is an issue/consideration, because there is a disproportionate focus on the hen house capacity.

 

I think that if it was made clearer and as much fuss made about how much run space you need, there may be fewer people taking up chicken-keeping , but they will be better informed and so more likely to enjoy the hen keeping experience and not give up, the way so many do now because they soon realize their run is too smal but can't always upgrade.

Edited June 6, 2011 by Guest

[Chortle Chook]

I haven't got huge experience of chook keeping (only on year) but I feel sure that if you have enough space for your chooks then nasty squabbles that result in injuries could be avoided and intros are made that much easier. With nearly all animals (including humans) if you pack 'em in too tightly then agression results.

[Benaberry]

Brilliant information, and agree that this isn't made clear by manufacturers.

 

We spent ages hunting for the right coop (just wish that we could have stretched to a cube at the time) with a run that I felt comfortable with in size, as most just seemed so tiny. This ended up with us having a house that's supposed to take 8-10, purely because it has an 8ft x3ft run; I never originally intended to have more than 3 or 4 (blissfully ignorant of the highly contagious nature morehens at the time ). However, I certainly wouldn't have been happy even leaving my original 3-4 cooped up in the built in run on a permanent basis, and no way would I have inflicted that on 8-10.

 

As soon as the flock started to expand, the netted off 'supervised evening ranging' area got made into something a bit sturdier and more permanent, albeit resembling something out of 'The Good Life' at the moment, being built from old rabbit runs, bits of old barbecue and a panel covered old baby stairgate for access, covered with garden netting to stop Delilah escaping - this way the girls, all 9 of them now, are able to be out from about 7.30am until it's dark, with over 3 times the original amount of space. No way could i have had them all locked up in that run, which suggests it can take it...

 

I nearly cried at a local independent pet store the other weekend, that we've discovered have just started selling chickens (so of course I had to be nosey) - they were selling 2 or 3 chicken starter kits, with I think the same houses as the Pets at Home one, and the chickens they were putting in were Light-Sussex-type hybrids and either a Speckledy or a Black one (kind of a reverse-Sussex) - the growers they were selling looked crowded already, heaven help them in a few weeks when they've filled out to POL .

 

Even more upsetting was the pair of Pekins, being sold with an old-fashioned ark I wouldn't even put a guinea pig in; think it was about 3 feet long and 18inches high

 

Also wanted to add, it's not just chickens - many rabbit owners are just as guilty, in ignorance, of keeping bunnies in much too small a hutch - again, spent ages last week looking for a new home for my buns, and it was a real nightmare trying to find one with a run I felt comfortable with for my ; again, the information provided by manufacturers is so misleading

[zakjon-98]

 

Also wanted to add, it's not just chickens - many rabbit owners are just as guilty, in ignorance, of keeping bunnies in much too small a hutch

 

 

when I was looking for houses for my rabbit they looked so cruel he is a house rabbit now and his cage is bigger than alot of hutches i saw. Although he mostly wanders around the house causing trouble than being in his cage!

[Chortle Chook]

I have to acknowledge here that it was my OH who put his foot down at keeping our first 4 banties in the original starter coop that we bought for "3 standard hens or 6 bantams". Though reluctant for me to get hens in the first place, once my four little banties were here, he said "That's cruel, they can't stay in that for more than the odd day when you go away". We now have 8 banties with a coop for 12 sandard hens. They get daily FR fun too.