A few years ago I shared about the
temporary play pen we put in our chicken coop. It was great for TEMPORARY while we learned about what we needed and what was useless. Now we've moved on to something a little more permanent.
DH made frames for the 2 pieces of fencing that separate the chickens from the chicks. The panels hang on the wall when we aren't using them. It's easy to zip tie or wire the corners to make an L shape when we set it up and that makes going in and out simple. We have two "people" doors on our coop and one of them enters right into the area of the play pen making clean up easy.
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| view from door |
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| view from other door |
What isn't pictured is the top- because we forgot we would need one! So I've been laying a spare piece of fencing over it to keep Mama from hopping
out and other hens from hopping
in. But next time DH is home we will rig up something a little more permanent for that also. :) I got everything set up just in time! Five eggs hatched before Mama decided to leave the nest and I put the rest in the incubator. I'll slip the newer hatchlings under Mama in the evening and she will (usually) accept them. This is how I've gotten some Mamas to raise our turkeys and guineas in the past.
This setup is perfect for us! There's a light for the times we have chicks without a Mama but I prefer to let broody hens raise their own clutch. When the chicks are too big to fit through the run fence, we will take the play pen down. By then, the other chickens will be used to the little ones and there will be less squabbling!
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| barnyard mix hatching. |
