Is my house and run too small?

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Gemjt

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Is my house and run too small?
« on: April 04, 2011, 22:55 »
Hello! Novice chicken owner desperately needs help!  I bought 2 Sussex red and two litle bantams yesterday....the chap sold me a house with a run, measurements 5.9 x 3ft. I am now concerned this is too small, I was assured it wasn't when I bought it.....
I am also concerned about ventilation, there are no specific vents in the house, just little gaps where the roof meets the Walls of the house-is this enough?

I know I sound pathetic, I am new !
Karl, Lewis, Jensen & Guy.... all Girl chickens named after t'husbands hero's (and one of mine)....... Rossi and Murdoch....all Girl cats - again, named after t'husbands hero's!  the things you  have to agree to when you want new pets!

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Casey76

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Re: Is my house and run too small?
« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2011, 07:10 »
Good morning, and welcome to the henhouse Gemjt :)  Why don't you pop over to the welcom forum, and intruduce yourself and your chickens... be warned photos (of the chickens!) are a must in these parts  :tongue2:

OK, so you have two Lf (large fowl) and two bantams.  I deally your run should be at least 1sqm per LF bird, but if the hens are going to be in there all day we like to give them a little bit more room, perhaps two or three sqm each... which would mean your run needs to be about 9ft x 6ft, if you count the bantams as half a LF.

Will you be letting the hens free range in your garden at all?  If yes, then the size of the fixed run can be reduced a little.

Do you have all of the accoutrements required (waterers, feeders, small pots for hard grit and oystershell etc)?  It is always better to have more than one of each, especially the waterer, in case it gets knocked over during the day.

Good luck!

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chasechicken

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Re: Is my house and run too small?
« Reply #2 on: April 05, 2011, 12:34 »
I'll second those points.  Probably a bit of a tight squeeze for them but if they're out during the day it's probably ok.  Although if they ARE out during the day.. kiss goodbye to everything in your garden..... but that's another topic altogether hehe :-)

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billathome65

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Re: Is my house and run too small?
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2011, 10:37 »
Hi and welcome all I can say being new to this is my dimensions where similar and I had no room to expand so I did the next best thing I built up the base by two foot and even though it's the same length and width the extra hight has helped and I only have 2 Chucks if you can let them out then that will save you having to worry too much. Just my thoughts.

Here's what I did

Before:


After:
The best way to learn to do something is to do something.

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Gemjt

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Re: Is my house and run too small?
« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2011, 19:14 »
Hello all, thanks for your input it's greatly appreciated. I did decide my house was too small so I built an extension! The chickens now have double the floor space, I added an extension that is 3.5ft by 6ft in addition to te existing house.... They are much happier now.
I have one feeder and one water drinker for them and they can come out to play in the garden when we are at home (so they probably came out for about 5 hours over the weekend in total.  They pecked out all my onion sets so the next Job after the extension this weekend was to fence off the veg plots!

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ManicMum

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Re: Is my house and run too small?
« Reply #5 on: April 11, 2011, 22:04 »
I see you are already in the mindset of fencing off where the girls are not allowed, rather than where they are allowed - very normal approach on this forum, but you seem to have been "trained" so quickly!!
ManicMum



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