Rearranging the Chicken Living Situation

Now that the chicken flock has been drastically reduced in number I decided to move things around a bit.  I didn't butcher the two hens that came with the meat chickens and they were getting close to the age when they would beginning to lay, so I needed a place for them to do it.  I couldn't put them in with the older hens because the enclosure was too small for that many hens and the older hens would likely beat up the younger ones in such a small space.  At first I thought I would just move all the chickens into the large enclosure and put the laying house in with them.  Great idea, except that the five roosters that I had left had a field day for about ten minutes chasing the older girls around the enclosure and generally being jerks.  So I came up with another plan.

The smaller enclosure would now become the bachelor pad for all but one of the roosters (one lucky boy gets to live with the hens).  This worked for about a day, but one of the bachelor roosters was getting so beat up by the other three that I decided to put him in with the hens also, as long as he could behave himself - which so far he has.  The other three roosters still seem to be able to get along well enough so they get to stay together.  The nesting house was still needed for the hens, so I cut a hole in the back of the large enclosure and pushed the house up tight to the pen and opened the door to the inside.  It seems to be working out well, and one of the younger hens has already laid her first egg in the box with the older hens.

The other problem that I had to deal with was the open end of the small enclosure that was where the hen house attached to it.  Since the hen house wasn't there anymore I simply covered that end with some leftover chicken wire and held it in place with a pallet and pushed it up against the side of the   large enclosure.  I didn't want to wire off the end permanantly since this is my main way to access the inside of this run.  The bachelor pad is not a very large space for the roosters and they don't have a great roosting set up, but it is better than nothing and they still have shelter from the sun and the rain, so it will be a good temporary fix until the weather gets cooler.  I still have plans for butchering three or four more of the roosters, but for now they get a reprieve until I have some freezer space open up for them.  Then in the spring I will use the small enclosure as a brooder to raise the next batch of meat chickens.  Until then I will enjoy having lowered feed costs, and a few more eggs in the fridge.