Cole's Backyard Coop
After researching Chicken Keeping on BackYardChickens.com, we decided to build an urban chicken coop and have some backyard chickens of our own in our average size urban backyard. We live in a chicken friendly area and decided to remodel an attached garden shed into a chicken coop. My DH is handy and together, we planned how it would look and the features it would have. Mostly, I came up with the ideas and my wonderful DH said "Yes, dear!" and he brought the ideas to life for his wife =) If you have an attached shed like we do, it's perfect to convert into a coop. Here's what we did with ours....
First, we gutted the shed down to the support 2 X 4s. The shed measures 12L X 4W X 8 or 9H (at the highest point). It has a full size steel door entrance and concrete floor. The back wall of the coop is the concrete wall of the house which adds additional protection from the elements here in FL and the shingled roof is part of the house roof. We framed the entire space with 2X4s and primed everything before painting. We wanted a concrete walkway to the coop and flower bed so we marked off where that would go.
Plywood walls of the coop are up, 1/4 hardware cloth wire has been installed and no-rot door frame is in place. We then begin pouring the concrete walkway.
Concrete is dry and work continues. It is starting to look like a coop!
We added an small window and area where the chickens could go outside, scratch in the dirt and dust bathe.
We wanted the shingled roof to match our house roof....of course!
The nesting area complete with decor and we put a pegboard up for a broom and rake...used daily =)
Roosting area and water container. We spread about 2 inches of shavings over the concrete floor
We finished the ceiling and installed a light
We suspended the feeder from the ceiling and added a gate to hold in the pine shavings and the chickens.
The finished backyard coop! We planted boxwoods and put brick pavers over the concrete walkway and DH built a deck
The Cozy Chicken Coop!
Our 8 pullets... 2 Barred Rocks, 2 Ameraucanas, 2 Golden Comets, 1 Black Sex Link, and 1 Lavender Orp
Looks like someone is laying her first egg!!
The rest of the girls started joining in over the next few weeks and now laying lots of eggs!
Looking for treats!
Rainbow of eggs!
Thank you for looking at our backyard coop! We love it and hope it gave you some ideas for your coop 
Looks good, but also looks kind of small."
...........
48 sq ft for 8 birds is just fine. 6 sq ft per bird. Not that I disagree with the "free ranging" question. I'm sure the girls wouldn't mind wandering around the yard.