Newbie - Is my set-up acceptable?

[likeamicrobecowboy]

Hello friends,

I used to own chickens in a previous life in the USA, but now I'm embarking on a journey to begin adventures in the south of the UK and am refreshing my memory. I've been lurking on these and other forums for a bit and wanted to submit my ideas to you to make sure I'm on the right track, as well as get any advice on ways to improve the plan.

I'd like to adopt 3-4 chickens from the British Hen Welfare Trust. I know they offer former free range and former battery hens, who have different space requirements. I'd like to give all chickens as happy a life as possible, so I went for maximum requirements where I could, considering space and cost. I've discovered most pre-fab coops with attached runs are woefully undersized for outdoor space requirements, and so I've tried to mix and match as best I can.

Jim Vyse's Arks and Houses come highly recommended, so I'm planning on picking up this six-chicken house: https://www.jimvysearks.co.uk/produ...ing_wp_cron=1621153706.9272630214691162109375.

I plan to build my run to my own requirements, and have quickly doodled some plans here:

This would yield approximately 7.43 sq metres. The whole thing will use hardware cloth (except underneath the corrugated roof). The floor will be similarly wired, with weed membrane placed over, and bedding over that.

I'll let the hens roam when I'm in the garden tending my bees or plants, but I also plan to pick up a foldaway run for unsupervised time in a free-range style environment (my garden is not suitable for "true free-ranging"). I found this one which seemed suitable, and gives an extra 2.82 sq m of portable space which I could move around the garden each day:
https://homeandroost.co.uk/product/xl-folding-canterbury-rabbit-run/

Do I have sufficient space for these lovely ladies? Anything you'd warn about or otherwise advise?

Many thanks!

 

[chrismahon]

You are quite right- coop and run combinations are woefully undersized. The run size determines the capacity of the coop, not the physical size of the coop itself- some of them are far too small even for one. We passed an example the other day (they sell the same Chinese rubbish in France as well) with 6 bantams squeezed into about 2 m2. Your fixed run size is OK, as I think 2 m2 each is sufficient, although the more the better. Avian Flu is a yearly occurrence now so your hens will be confined to their run for perhaps 4 months of the year. That extra run is a good idea, but moving them from one to another risks losing some and is going to be time consuming. My preference would be for a netted enclosure and we have several here. We release them into their enclosure after they have eaten pellets in the morning, otherwise they fill up on grass and have insufficient protein intake to lay regularly. Urban foxes can strike at any time, even when you are in the garden, so that's a risk you will have to take.

Regarding your choice of hens; losing ranging area causes a lot of stress, so ex-free ranging chickens may be a problem when confined, even in a run that size, I don't know? They used to sell them in the UK near us for £1 each and the previous owner of our house had some in a small run and they looked healthy, but that was a long time before we had chickens of our own and acquired the "stockman's eye'.

 

[Marigold]

Hi Cowboy, and welcome to the Forum. It looks as if you’ve done a lot of research and come up with some really good plans and ideas for your setup. I don’t know if you’ve followed any of the threads on here in this section, written by people starting out like you are, but they do contain a useful amount if discussion, photos and ideas. Everyone’s circumstances are different, but if your setup provides adequate space, security and shelter, you won’t go far wrong. I’ve found there’s never any problem in getting hens to return to the main run once they’ve cottoned on to the idea that a rattly tin contains corn, and is worth following as fast as possible, wherever it goes to!
If you buy any kind of ex-commercial hens, they are not likely to worry about being overcrowded or stressed out in the run area you suggest. They are mature birds, not flighty youngsters, and will be from calm breeds used to living together in a large flock, so they should settle down easily, with no problems about the need for quarantine or when integrating them with other birds already in the premises. You could always fit some extra perches at a higher level in the run - my current flock of 3 girls actually prefer to roost up on their high perch rather than in the coop, which all the previous birds have used happily for the past ten years! The coop stays beautiful clean as they only go in it to lay.
Do keep in touch and let us know how you get on. We’re always interested in each other’s birds and plans for newbies!