Can a coop be "too big?"

[valentinebaby]

I think you should definitely spend time blueprinting your plans - including how many sheets you'll need for each wall. You really don't need anything taller than 7' and if that helps to spread the wood out over a greater square footage, then make it larger than taller. Since I originally didn't think I would want anything larger than 4' x 8' floor space (I was wrong!), I didn't see any point in cutting off that extra foot at the end of the sheet. However, if I had make a larger coop, say 8' x 10', it would have made sense to cut that foot off and use it on another wall to save on cost. I LOVE my passive ventilation design, but don't know if that would work up in Canada too well. However, with that said, this winter has been hugely cold and full of snow (had more here in North Texas just today and the last batch hasn't even melted all the way yet!) and I left the heat lamp on most of the December into January nights. Now that I received my last electric bill, I only do that when it gets into the 20's - ouch! didn't know it would affect my bill that badly!

 

[barred-rocks-rock]

Always make your coop way bigger than you ever will need it. You will get addicted to chickens and want more and more and more and mor........

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Can a coop be to big you ask? NEVER

I wish I had went bigger from the start then I would not have five coops sitting in my yard right now!

 

[CityChook]

I'm going to play devil's advocate here: Yes, it is possible to go too big. But is that a bad thing? I'm not so sure.

Going big is going to cost you more money. It takes more insulation. More lumber. More bedding. More windows. More heat. More hardware wire. And yes, more chickens. Then again, going big the first time around will probably SAVE you money down the line when you are addicted and end up having to build ANOTHER coop....

Once it starts snowing, your birds may or may not want to go outside. Everyone's different. Will you be glad that you have the extra square footage indoors so your chickens can party inside? You betcha. Will it be tougher/more expensive to keep warm? You betcha.

Bigger roofs need more snow support. Construction will be important. I'm an advocate for the gabled roof for shedding snow, but to each his own.

I'm always going to be an advocate for "bigger is better." I'm extremely glad to have built my coop bigger than I needed to. Just do it with full disclosure.

Most important - have fun!

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

You can't go too big. My whole barn is dedicated to the chickens & turkeys. I had to build another one for the horses. I also built a 16' X 24' that houses Silver pheasants & Seramas. I'm thinking about building more! Of course, I now have over 100 birds, so, building bigger is GOOD!!!

 

[PhilErvin]

BIGGER IS DEFINITELY BETTER. I'm real proud of my coop and run but I had no idea how addicting this would become. Once my girls started laying eggs and I found that everyone I knew wants to buy them I have been planning my next BIGGER AND BETTER COOP.
I like your idea of using the additional space for storage and what not until you need to expand into that space.
Good luck.

 

[savingdogs]

Well I see you are in Virginia and I would expect that your winters would get pretty cold. We find that our chickens don't go in the coop much in the summer, as they enjoy the plants and bugs, but in the winter when it is raining or snowy out they like to stay inside the coop. More space would be GOOD for cold weather then in my opinion.

We have a small coop that we don't step inside, we have a top that lifts almost off to access. This works well for us but we do wish we had some storage for all the chicken supplies. Because we live in a rainy climate, that means the chicken stuff lives in our mud room inside the house instead of inside the chicken coop! So in your planning make sure you make lots of space to store stuff, not necessarily for the birds themselves. Bags of feed, shavings or bedding materials, bags of treats, your bag of scratch, your supplies for birds of various ages and oyster shell packages. Egg cartons. We did not account for all the chicken "stuff". We also wish we had a seperate area to put broody hens.

Our chickens themselves huddle together in a group to sleep and only use a very small part of the coop for sleeping. But that is where about 80 percent of the total poop seems to go so make sure you make an easy clean up arrangement for under the sleeping area. I think what we did best in our coop was the roosting area. We used an example from a book. My husband made a wooden box with a top that slants down from about two to about 18 inches, like a ramp. Chicken wire across the top of this, then slats, like stair steps, that are a good size for roosting on. The box sits next to the side of the coop where my hubby cut a hole to access a pull-out tray we slide into the back of the box. A little flap closes out the wind from the outside. Works awesome. I may not be describing it right, let me know if you want more detail on it, but the chickens love sleeping there and always have.

 

[moonlyghtegirl]

Too BIG!!!???? NEVER...buy more chickens!!!

 

[Dixiedoodle]

Never! Build the largest building you can afford! I love my coop but I now realize it is not big enough. I should have designed and built one large enough to have four sections/ rooms.. In the last 10months, I have needed rooms for a stray chicken (she has been quarantined for almost four weeks about 200yds from the coop) that needs to be introduced to the flock with a wire between them for a few days, I now want more blue/green egg layers, thinking I want a whole flock--w/ a roo. Maybe some bantam Cochins or some Marans! I have wanted to remove my roo, to give the girls a break, decided I want a broody to raise chicks with, Needed a 'medical ward', for injuried birds and would love to have a secure space for my water buckets, feed bins, medical supplies,shavings rake, poopy scoopers and poultry dust/DE. but have no real space/area for any of these.

Again my answer is NEVER too big!

 

[Oakville Shooter]

Following valentinebaby's advice, I have been playing around with the graph paper this morning. I think I have decided to Go with the 10X16. I have quite a bit of treated 2X8 lumber ranging from 10-16' (mostly 16') where I dismantled my parents deck back in the summer. I can pretty much frame the floor and build the roof with this. Going this big is a bit more than what I want to spend, but it is doable. And I think that I will really appreciate it later on down the road. It may be cheaper to spend a bit more in the beginning than to have to build a second or third coop later.

I think I will drop the long side walls to 6' which will save a few sheets of plywood. By going with an A-Frame roof, I can still have it tall enough in the middle to walk comfortably upright while cleaning the coop.

I am undecided on a roof material. The easy options are OSB and shingles or metal panels. I am leaning towards wood and shingles. I think that covering the ridge will be easier for me to do using this method. I can also put a ridge vent in that way.

Any thoughts on installing the "whirlygigs" or turbulator vents on the roof? They should help with ventilation.

How high off the floor should the roosts be, or does it really matter?