Building New Chicken Coop- need help on space!

So I am building a new coop for my laying chickens. I would like to be able to have enough room for at least 20+ if I decided to buy or breed anymore in the future. At the moment I have six hens that I collect eggs from to eat. I have six chicks under a brooder at the moment which will join them when they are older. I was wondering how big should I make the coop so It's comfortable and spacey for the hens? My run will be huge for sure as I have a terrible fox and hawk problem so I don't like letting those girls free-range when I'm not around. Thanks! - Pugg

Bigger is always better. The "rule of thumb" is 4 sq ft per chicken, in your case that is 80 and an 8x10 coop would suffice. Since lumber comes is certain fixed sizes (8 ft is a common length here), I usually round up to size that requires less cutting, like 8x16 or 12x12.

Twenty hens x four sq. ft. per hen is eighty sq. ft. Build bigger than that! I've got five sq. ft. per bird, and 1/3 are bantams, and in winter snow it gets pretty cozy in there. Snow? Australia? Maybe not so much. Covering the run with netting at least will protect them from hawks, also important (here, anyway). Mary

Thanks guys! Can't wait to build this coop! All my chooks are in this big run divided by 4 pens. My coops are on the ground and are quite small and I hate it They are hard to clean, and I always worry about the rain flooding them.

You might want to follow the link in my signature to get my thoughts on things that affect room requirements. I don’t give you hard and fast numbers, more of things to think about. I always advocate giving them more room as compared to less. The more room I give them the fewer behavioral problems I have to deal with, the less hard I have to work, and the more flexibility I have to solve problems that do occur. I like making my life easier.

Here in the States most new building materials come in 4’ or 8’ standard sizes. I don’t know what dimensions you use Down Under but it’s probably similar. If you plan your design based on the standard dimensions you can build a coop with less cutting and waste and get the maximum size out of the money you spend.

One of the factors that affect size requirements is how you manage them. If you leave them locked into the coop for long periods after they are awake you need more room than if they have access to outside. Chickens don’t understand the concept of space in a coop versus space in a run. To them, space is room wherever it is when they need it.

It sounds like you have at least one rooster, maybe more, will let broody hens raise chicks with the flock, and will sometimes have a mixed age flock. It also sounds like you may have trouble not having a lot of extra chickens. That 20+ number probably means a lot more than 20. All these are reasons to provide extra space. I almost always have a mixed age flock. One thing that has helped the younger mix with the adults is that I have two separate roosts. One set is my main roosts on one end and big enough to give them all plenty of room. The other is about a foot lower than the main roosts and horizontally separated but still higher than my nests to give the young ones that are uncomfortable sleeping on the main roosts a safe place to go that is not my nests. That has saved me a lot of trouble and a lot of poopy eggs. Be generous with space now. You’ll appreciate it later though it is more expensive.

I don’t know where you are in Australia or what your winters are like, but I suspect they will have access to that run practically every day. With that plus with the way I think you are going to manage them I’d go with a minimum of an 8’ x 12’ coop. You should be able to get by with that without major problems but if that number grows much over 20 I’d suggest an 8’ x 16’. 8’ is wide enough for you to be able to work in there. The wider you make it the heavier your roof support needs to be which runs costs up. It’s generally better to make it longer rather than wider.

Good luck!

Thanks for that Advice Ridgerunner! I do let my hens sit on eggs every now and then. I also have 3 roosters. I'm in SA and the winters are TERRIBLE here. I plan to make this coop as big as I can, if I go over my "chook Budget" I'll probably end up making another. I'm trying not to, chickens are just so addictive. I live on 20 acres so I do have plenty of space for a large coop, now I can start planning