Keeping hens in a stable

[Mo]

Silly question, but my run needs a major revamp and another thread has given me an idea.
Could I keep hens in my daughters spare stable? And would I have to take up the rubber flooring first. I imagine that they would scratch it to pieces.
How do others go about adapting.

[Lady Muckpicker]

Hi Mo

When their usual enclosure in an orchard became boggy towards Christmas, I kept my chickens in a spare stable also (night time only). There is also rubber matting down in there and I put a layer of straw on top. They haven't scratched the matting at all but as I'm due to keep them in for a week I could be back saying they've shredded it to bits. I've got a few hay bales and other bits and bobs in there and they all settled down very well.

[Lady Muckpicker]

I also meant to add that I put several cat litter boxes in there thinking they would use them as nest boxes but they took no notice of them. I found several eggs on top of a bale of hay, and a couple of others in a little gap at the side of the horses' blanket box. I've got several very large trays which I fill with sand which they use as dust baths and placed these close together and all the chickens perched on them overnight instead of the perches I put in especially.

[Mo]

I put several cat litter boxes in there thinking they would use them as nest boxes but they took no notice of them. ....... dust baths and placed these close together and all the chickens perched on them overnight instead of the perches I put in especially.

Typical hens.

[tosca100]

Rubber matting can cope with horse shoes so it should cope with hen claws. We stored some under a hen coop once as we had nowhere to put it, no problem.

[Richard]

Sounds a wonderful situation Mo.

Richard

[bilbobaggins]

I have a flock of 10 which live in a stable all the time, it has a concrete floor and I put bales of straw down for them which them spend hours scratching in, I have a concrete area outside as well which was fenced off to give them an all weather run, but that is only really possible on a permanent basis, I also cut a pop hole in the stable wall which leads to the run part of an old coop which I use when I need to keep some separate. I have put up chicken wire just to stop them going over the top into another stable and also have wire so I can leave the top door open. Mine roost on my large step ladders which are stored in the eves which they access via various crates etc which are also in there.