1 coop or 2?? Opinions

[heby]

I currently have 9 hens and 2 roosters- a leghorn and a RIR. I also have 21 chicks. So I have been wondering if it would be easier to split the group in half when I add the younger ones and have 2 separate coops with a rooster in each. I allow my chickens to free range everyday, mostly all day. They even go out in the rain at times. So if I did 2 coops I would just alternate the days of letting them out to free range. Or should I just make my coop bigger and put them all in there?? My babies are in a brooder in the garage right now so I still have a while before adding them. I'm just trying to compile some opinions before drawing up my coop/s for my hubby to build. haha

 

[cnicho05]

Hello,

I ran into the same problem a few years back when I was raising a larger group of birds...all of which were hens. To solve the problem I built two coops and connected them to one another, making one larger coop out of the design. I used a wide section of PVC pipe to connect both coops which were about two-feet apart. I then used metal goat fencing to build a run around the front of both coops allowing me to access the rear of each coop for cleaning and egg collection.

The benefit of having two coops came when it was time to clean. I could close off one coop and eaily clean it without the worry of loosing any of my hens.

 

[MountainOrchard]

I have a small flock of 8 right now, but I love the idea of having two coops down the road. Seems like a really nice system!