I'm in a bit of a pickle

[mr_dave]

Welcome to BYC!
One very important consideration when talking about housing is.
What is your climate?
If it's rather mild and you can make the run predator and weather proof,
you may get some relief there.
ETA: Ah the frigid north......lots of snow too?
that makes everything more difficult, unless your prepare for ease,
especially during those nasty days long storms some of us get.

I'm in SE Idaho. It's a desert. Summers get above 100F, winters occasionally down to -40F, but -20F is more common (most winter days sit between 0-15F). It snows, but usually there isn't more than 8-10" on the ground at any time. It rarely rains.

Given the super-cold temperatures, I was trying not to make too much unused space that the chickens have to heat (I have it wired for electricity, but I'd like to avoid using heat lamps, as I've read all that accomplishes is making the chickens fail to acclimate).

 

[aart]

I was trying not to make too much unused space that the chickens have to heat

This is fallacy.
Good ventilation(which is critical even in winter) makes a coop 'holding heat' moot...
....and they keep the majority of their heat under their feathers.
Birds create a lot of moisture, breathing and pooping, that moist air needs to rise out of coop.

You'll want that electricity to keep their water thawed tho.
I strongly recommend getting your birds to use horizontal nipples,
as they are much easier to keep thaw with a submerged heater in an insulated vessel.

 

[mr_dave]

This is fallacy.
Good ventilation(which is critical even in winter) makes a coop 'holding heat' moot...
....and they keep the majority of their heat under their feathers.
Birds create a lot of moisture, breathing and pooping, that moist air needs to rise out of coop.

You'll want that electricity to keep their water thawed tho.
I strongly recommend getting your birds to use horizontal nipples,
as they are much easier to keep thaw with a submerged heater in an insulated vessel.

Excellent points. Thanks!

 

[mr_dave]

Sorry for the nighttime photos... But here it is. It's in Death Star II mode: still under construction, but fully operational. You'll see ducks and chickens are kept separate by a mostly hardware cloth fence (with a couple feet of chicken wire when I ran out). bottom 3' is hardware cloth buried 6", the rest is chicken wire.

 

[mr_dave]

The big square hole under the best box is going to be storage for feed and such once I build some doors for it. Not a lot of room, but enough for a couple 50 lb bags

 

[Percheron chick]

You only have 3/14 that are pullets. The remaining 11 are S/R so you should have 5 cockerels in the bunch. Now you're down to 9 in a 35 ft2 coop. Perfect.

 

[mr_dave]

You only have 3/14 that are pullets. The remaining 11 are S/R so you should have 5 cockerels in the bunch. Now you're down to 9 in a 35 ft2 coop. Perfect.

About when can you differentiate between cockerels and pullets? We're between 4-6 weeks old (some from the first batch, some when we went overboard and got more).

 

[Percheron chick]

Should be able to now. Post some pictures and we'll help you out.

 

[aart]

Pretty nice little coop and run.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

Beautiful coop.
If you do have some cockerels, that will help, but currently you don't have enough roost space for the number of birds you have when they grow to full size. Will look for your posts in the breed/gender thread.