Can a coop be "too big?"

[newchicksnducks]

It sounds like you're doing great in pre-planning Too many of us get our birds, THEN decide to hurry up and build a coop! Then we often make it just big enough to handle the minimum, not thinking of how we might like to expand....sigh.

The roosts should be higher than the nest boxes to prevent the chickens from roosting (and dirtying!) in the boxes. My boxes are 18" off the ground so that they can walk around under the boxes. My roosts are above the droppings board which is 32" off the floor. First roost about 36", then the next one about 48". I have a ramp so that it makes it easier for my heavier Jersey Giant to go up and down w/less wear and tear on her joints.

The roost and boxes are on opposite sides of our 8x8 coop. The top pic shows a small "holding" area we made when integrating our younger chicks to ones that were 5 weeks older. We had to put a lid on the holding cell so that the older girls would not fly in with the younger ones!

Good luck!

 

[FortWorthChicks]

Add more chickens for warmth

 

[maurerwerks]

43 chickens! what in the world do you do with all those eggs?!!

 

[lauriruth]

Welcome To The Addiction!!!!!

 

[crazyhen]

18 feet is great. You can use 10 feet for your laying flock, 4 foot for your introducing area with wire between and the rest for your storage and New chick area. I open the introduction area in the fall and they all have 14 feet to scratch around it. It has worked great. One section of my coop is very dark and not many windows. The hens and roo go there to sleep and huddle together. No heat. They have done fine in the mtns of NC. this year with the cold temps of 16 or 17 degrees at nite. I put a flock block in there too. If they don't go into the run they still have something to peck at. Gloria Jean

 

[Oakville Shooter]

I need to hurry up and get this thing built. Yesterday afternoon, I had the bright idea that going from 10X16 to 10X20 that I would have room to keep rabbit cages in the Winter. This afternoon, I was talking with my FIL and showing him what/where I had in mind. He suggested stretching it out to 10X24. That would allow a coop size of 10X16 and leave another 10X8 for storage, rabbits and a brooder. Sounds pretty good to me. I have been laying it out on graph paper and thinks that it is doable. I just need the snow to go away so that I can build it. Otherwise it will be bigger than our house if I keep expanding.

 

[rittert3]

I couldn't imagine one to big and will deffinatly build as big as I can

 

[tri-5-ron]

Quote:
I am also a newbie to this obcession, and am in the process of building my first coop. (Ok, we had one when I was a kid, but that was almost 40 years ago).
Mine is 12 x 24 feet, 6 1/2 feet tall at the side walls, and about 8 1/2 feet tall at the peak.
(I originally wanted it to be 12' x 36', but I ran out of fairly straight boards before I realized it).

The coop is currently in the building process, and is 4' x 8' inside the pen.
I don't even have any birds yet, but the kids are getting more pushy about it every day, so we may go pick up some chicks this weekend. We only want to get 8 to 10, no more than 12 birds. (chickens that is), (some Pheasant and Quail will hopefully be coming to the flock in the future).
I did not pre-plan any of it, but it is coming along pretty well, and can be seen in this thread below...
many of your questions were asked by myself recently, and kindly answered by the many members here. You might find some others answers to your soon to be coming questions too...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=294732&p=1


Now that I'm well beyond the point of no return, and since hindsight is always 20/20,....
I DO wish that I would have started out with a double row of concrete blocks first. (one row buried at ground level, and one row above ground level), before starting with the lumbar. (Heck, I even own a dang concrete company,.... )You'd THINK that would have come to mind ??? Major FACE-PALM !
NOW, I will be trenching below the bottom boards, and backfilling with the concrete.

The coop will be suffecient for the amount of hens that I will have, and can also be expanded 4' x 12' later , and fairly easily, if necessary.

I have a history of going a bit overboard with whatever project I get myself into,
(just ask my wife, or check out some of my customized toys to verify that !)

and the Coop/Pen will be no different.
It will have auto feed and waterers, micro-misting systems on timers in the hotter part of the summer. The Coop roof, will be rigged with Greenhouse style, roof vent, temperature activated accuators, for automatic ventilation control.
Solar powered accessories will include, Motion Sensor Flood Lighting on the exterior, as well as a Dual wire Electric Fence around the lower peremiter to deter any Opposums or Cats or Rats that venture too close. Solar powered LED Rope Lighting will be used on the inside of the pen, ( and maybe on the coop interior to).

The Pop door will eventually be Auto open/close, and may be both Solar, and Photocell controlled. (still trying to figure that one out, lol ).

I'm even going to give the hens a solar powered fountain sprinkler mounted in a large glavanized wash tub, with about 3" to 4" f water in the bottom, for them to "Romp and Play in the Sprinklers" on the hot summer days, like my own kids like to do... LOL!

So Yeah, I'd say start off big, and hopefully you wont need to expand by the time you've got all your birds.
lust my rambling thoughts from a fellow newbie...
this should be fun for us, and a great experience for my kids too.

Have fun planning it all out, Ron

 

[Oakville Shooter]

Hey Ron, it sounds like you have got quite a bit planned out. But it sounds great. I have been following your thread too. Looks good!

 

[patandchickens]

No, a coop cannot *ever* be "too big". If you're happy building and paying for it, the chickens will be happy livin' in it

The thing where people sometimes (understandably but incorrectly) claim that you need a smaller coop is if you are in a cold-winter climate. People say 'the coop has to be small enough for the chickens to keep it warm'. This is just plain WRONG, for several reasons. First, chickens bodies are not warming the air very much. Second, there are plenty of other ways of encouraging the coop to stay not-too-cold -- insulation, solar heating, etc. And finally and very most of all, you can quite easily partition off a smaller area WITHIN the coop if you need to, so that the chickens can roost in *there* (or you can run a lamp in there if you feel you really need to), giving them a smaller more-easily-warmable area while still ALSO giving them the full coop's worth of room to roam around.

So, build it as big as you can stand. You won't regret it

Good luck, have fun,

Pat