I've just been looking at a triple hutch someone below linked through to - it seems a good price. The coop I have the boys really isn't big enough, even extended, and I'm kicking myself now for buying it.
Anyway. Triple hutch - 6' x 2' each layer - makes 36' of living space in the hutch. Would this be enough space for them in the winter if I couldn't let them have any run/free range time?
At the moment, I open the door of their coop at 7am and close it at 10pm when they come in for their supper, so the size of the coop doesn't matter in the slightest. We don't have any cats in our garden, thanks to the dog, and there's loads of cover from birds of prey and the like. I know it's a risk, but I consider it to be a small one when the upside is seeing them bumbling about happily.
But this is summer. Thinking ahead to winter, I think they're going to be utterly miserable in their hutch. The bedroom bit is tiny - it's a chicken coop - and it's the only bit raised off the ground so stays dry in the rain (the coop is covered but the floor gets wet anyway in the rain). Come rainy weather they're going to have less space than the hutch I rescued them from.
This wasn't the plan :?.
I have it in my head that a triple hutch - or indeed double hutches - are compromised because of the amount of space the hole to the lower ground takes up. Is this true?
I'd be able to extend the ground floor run part of the hutch by an extra 4', so they'd have access to 10' x 2' run all the time, and the two upper hutch levels. And obviously if it's a decent day I'll let them out to free range.
Thoughts?
D x
Anyway. Triple hutch - 6' x 2' each layer - makes 36' of living space in the hutch. Would this be enough space for them in the winter if I couldn't let them have any run/free range time?
At the moment, I open the door of their coop at 7am and close it at 10pm when they come in for their supper, so the size of the coop doesn't matter in the slightest. We don't have any cats in our garden, thanks to the dog, and there's loads of cover from birds of prey and the like. I know it's a risk, but I consider it to be a small one when the upside is seeing them bumbling about happily.
But this is summer. Thinking ahead to winter, I think they're going to be utterly miserable in their hutch. The bedroom bit is tiny - it's a chicken coop - and it's the only bit raised off the ground so stays dry in the rain (the coop is covered but the floor gets wet anyway in the rain). Come rainy weather they're going to have less space than the hutch I rescued them from.
This wasn't the plan :?.
I have it in my head that a triple hutch - or indeed double hutches - are compromised because of the amount of space the hole to the lower ground takes up. Is this true?
I'd be able to extend the ground floor run part of the hutch by an extra 4', so they'd have access to 10' x 2' run all the time, and the two upper hutch levels. And obviously if it's a decent day I'll let them out to free range.
Thoughts?
D x
