Advice needed on new hen house please.

[knittywittywoo]

We got 2 hens last year and this year I'd like to up it to 4. The house and run we have is only suitable for 2 so I need bigger.
I've looked everywhere and the ones that say suitable for 4-6 birds are only slightly bigger than mine.
The hens roam the garden alot of the time but there is times when they do have to stay in the house/run so I want it as comfortable size as possible.

I've convinced Hubby that we need this one...( ebay link )

Huge Poultry Chicken House Coop - Our largest unit on eBay, also, Poultry Hatching Incubation, Pet Supplies, Home Garden (end time 20-Mar-09 08:13:52 GMT)

He's reluctantly agreed but says I must have 6 not 4 if I want a house that size, no problem for me.

It's on buy it now at that price but also auctioned, missed by £5 last night

I just need chicken keepers opinions that this is ok, you may see faults with it that I wouldn't.

Thanks.

[MaureenHall]

That house looks fantastic! Why stop at 6 hens?

[knittywittywoo]

Oooohh, you are sooo bad.

[Bephlam]

That's quite similar to mine, only we built ours from scratch. Ours can accommodate 12 hens - but we keep large birds so only plan on having 7-8 in it at any one time.





It looks like a good house...I'd say go for it - or...build your own to your own specifications (ie: more birds!!)

[knittywittywoo]

(ie: more birds!!)

I think I can only cope with 6. 2 can be bad enough sometimes when they decide to hide etc.

Your house looks great, we had looked into making one but with the cost of sheds and then the mesh it will work out a similar price. Plus I'd have to get Hubby to build it and this can be delivered quicker.

It says it can hold 18 ( ish ) so should be ample room for 6. Once I started measuring out on the ground I realised how small some of these coops really are.

[TEB]

Whilst browsing came across this site, the prices looks really cheap to me Untitled Document and delivery is only £9.00,
anybody use them before !!

[knittywittywoo]

I had seen this site but when I measured out the floor area wasn't as big as the coop they have now. I know the house is raised but I still wanted a bigger run.
They look nice and well made but measure the floor space out to make sure it's the size you need.

[MaureenHall]

Whilst browsing came across this site, the prices looks really cheap to me Untitled Document and delivery is only £9.00,
anybody use them before !!

It seems that the floor area is just over a square metre which should be fine for 4 - 6 birds. I like the design and the price is reasonable too

[Glutton4...]

I think I can only cope with 6. 2 can be bad enough sometimes when they decide to hide etc...

I don't think it matters how many, you'll always get 2 that misbehave LOL! We've got 16, most of them come back if I get some corn in the corn scoop (it's a large purple plastic one!) and tap the sides so they can hear it. There's still 2 that will only come back when they're ready.

Fab coop - similar to my first one, but I didn't have the run.

[lettucegrow!]

Whilst browsing came across this site, the prices looks really cheap to me Untitled Document and delivery is only £9.00,
anybody use them before !!

This is like the one I bought from ebay Sunday ( or OH did for me) Someone bought two for his family who decided they couldnt be bothered with chooks. Got it a bit cheaper than the website but I agree the run isn't huge but you could always expand it quite cheaply I reckon -could become chook palace.

[dozey1]

I went to buy one of these yesterday, i asked the chap if it was weld mesh but it wasn't only ordinary chicken wire so i didn't get one, just going to upgrade the one we have.

[Hilary B]

These houses sold with 'integral run' never have quite enough run space for the number of hens they claim to hold. The house is usually OK, but if you intend the chooks to spend much time in the run, it needs to be a LOT bigger than they usually allow. If they are going to have 'free range time' every day, those runs MAY be OK for say... 2/3 the number they suggest as maximum. If they only get let out 'some days', I would keep the number below half what they suggest, or add extra run.

[RichmondHens]

I agree with Hilary B. House size is less important than run size. They tend to snuggle up together at night so yes you can fit quite a few in a relatively small space when they roost, but in the day they need as much space as you can give them, otherwise squabbling/feather pecking etc starts to happen and also in wet weather the run gets v muddy, which brings its own disease problems. I think it's easier to give the hens free range of the whole garden, and just fence off the areas you don't want them to have access to, eg veg patch. That works for us.

[knittywittywoo]

My 2 do have access to the whole garden when I am in the house. I don't want to leave them roaming free while I am away from the house. They can't get out the garden I don't think. ( well they haven't done yet since we got them last July ). I am more concerned about something getting in to them. Thats why I want the biggest run possible for them, so I can shut them in safe but they still have room outside.
The house they have at the moment with the run attached is 2 ft 3 deep and in total 7 ft length. I don't want more than 2 in there even if they do roam the garden most of the day. There's always the odd day I might be out and want them safe.

[Hilary B]

My 2 do have access to the whole garden when I am in the house. I don't want to leave them roaming free while I am away from the house. They can't get out the garden I don't think. ( well they haven't done yet since we got them last July ). I am more concerned about something getting in to them. Thats why I want the biggest run possible for them, so I can shut them in safe but they still have room outside.
The house they have at the moment with the run attached is 2 ft 3 deep and in total 7 ft length. I don't want more than 2 in there even if they do roam the garden most of the day. There's always the odd day I might be out and want them safe.

The less often they will be 'staying in' the smaller the run can be, but unless they will be 'out in the garden' most days for some hours, it's best to have between half and 1 square yard per bird (2 in the run described is close to the upper end of that space range, so you COULD probably keep 4 in there, but not recommended) depending more on how lively they are than size, and if they only get much 'out' time at weekends, perhaps up to double that (that is my own 'rule of thumb', and plenty of hens seem to remain content with less). Hens which only ever get kept in the run on rare occasions will probably be OK with very little run-space.