AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Hi everyone, I have just joined the forum and introduced myself in the newbies section. I am a new to chicken ownership and have a few specific questions relating to housing setup. I'll list them below and hopefully I can get some suggestions and or confirmation that I have the right idea.

I have bought the Royal Rooster coop, which has nesting boxes upstairs and is about 2 Square metres of floor area below. I am a keen gardener but am dealing with a garden that has high lead levels so all my gardening techniques and impending chickens need to be kept of any actual bare earth.

http://www.royalrooster.com.au/coops/tw ... eluxe.html


Therefore, I have ordered that biggest coop I can fit in the only available space, which is the one above. Ultimately I would like to be able to 'semi free range' the chickens in my raised garden beds but this is in the future. For now, I have to consider that the chickens will need to be actually living in the coop. Now for my questions:

1. Am I correct that 2 chickens would be the maximum that I could fit in there, for their own comfort?

2. The coop will be going directly on a concrete slab adjacent to the house. I would like to raise it and the line it and fill it with a layer of material for them to scratch in. Would plain old bricks work to raise it? And I have read that people use anything from pool liners/linoleum/horse stall rubber(?) to line coops. Any suggestions? Finally to make a floor, I bought pine shavings and then have been reading good reports about using construction grade sand. Someone suggested some fresh soil as well as pine shavings? Any thoughts?

2a. I have straw for the nesting boxes. How often does one change it? Or any other suggestions?

3. Finally, I need to plant a deciduous tree/bush/plant of one end of the coop to provide better sun protection by the time summer comes around again. I do not want the chickens nibbling away at the leaves as it is going into a high lead soil and the leaves will concentrate the lead. Is there anything that chickens wont eat, that is deciduous, provides good shade?

Thank you for any help in advance!
chilli

They look so nice

You have to let them out for a few hours every day if you have a small coop like that

Yes I found the same as chickenpox they need time out on the grass every day

We tell new members a minimum of 2 hours per day but better if its 5 per day

Thats good advice to let your members know WP

Thats why I should join one I guess

Yes its a good reason but watch out for some that discriminate, I will send you the details

Yes people have to be careful
Please ask here in a private message or email about a club so your kids are not bullied or targeted by bad people