New house came with 5 chickens. Are these proper living conditions? (Please read)

| My husband and I recently purchased a new home two weeks ago. The seller asked if we were interested in keeping her 5 chickens (all females) and me being a huge animal lover, said “absolutely!” I never cared for chickens before, but I was more than willing to take it on. Me not knowing much about chickens, the situation seemed good. She explained that we “didn’t need to buy much” since the set up was already there… or so I thought. I started doing extensive research and realized that their run is too small. Which was fine, I was willing to eat a few hundred on getting them a more spacious run. But yesterday, I cleaned the coop for the first time, and realized just how small it really is. The coop is just a sectioned off portion of a very old shed. The chickens were fighting for space on their (maybe) foot and a half long roost. Everything was poorly hammered/drilled into the walls, so I couldn’t take anything out to properly clean it. I immediately started crying. I feel so bad for these poor chickens. The previous owner left a very thoughtful care sheet, which made me believe she truly loved these girls… but I feel like this setup says otherwise. We also found out from the neighbors that these chickens used to free roam before she put her house on the market. I’m assuming because free roaming chickens go against the zoning laws in the development, she panicked, and quickly threw this setup together. I’m feeling very overwhelmed financially and time wise, I feel as though they deserve a place to roam and better living conditions. But purchasing a whole new setup definitely was not accounted for in our budget. We also have a few friends with land/farms that are willing to take them. I’m so torn. I can’t tell if I’m overthinking and overreacting to all of this. [link] [comments] |
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