2+ years to get approval for chickens

[Acre4Me]

Actually it's 50 sq ft with 8ft walls 10 ft to peak inside with enough roosts for 28 birds and has 8 nesting boxes. And the run is 380sq ft. 16'x24' At 6.5 ft high 1/2 opened (covered w/one inch chicken wire) and 1/2 covered. I should be fine. I always over build just in case.

Advice often given on here is to put smaller opening wire on top of your main wire on the bottom couple of feet. Raccoons are known to reach in to try to take a chicken, but end up decapitating them, when they can’t pull them through. Also, adding an apron of wire (about 18” or more) around the base of run helps deter digging animals.

Do you have a ridge vent or open eaves? If not you will want to create more ventilation to help remove the moisture the chickens produce by breathing and pooping. Guessing your area is rather humid, wet generally, so you can only have as little humidity as is outside, but you want to prevent it from building up higher than outside humidity. I know you can get decent snow, but temps aren’t too crazy low where you are.

 

[aart]

Actually it's 50 sq ft with 8ft walls 10 ft to peak inside with enough roosts for 28 birds and has 8 nesting boxes. And the run is 380sq ft. 16'x24' At 6.5 ft high 1/2 opened (covered w/one inch chicken wire) and 1/2 covered. I should be fine. I always over build just in case.

28 birds in 50sqft is factory farming type spacing.

@Acre4Me has good points about ventilation.

 

[N F C]

Congrats on finally getting the ok!

 

[HuffleClaw]

Hello and , @Danielstribe Congratulations on getting approved for a few girls We hope you find the BYC community as awesome as we do!

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Actually it's 50 sq ft with 8ft walls 10 ft to peak inside with enough roosts for 28 birds and has 8 nesting boxes. And the run is 380sq ft. 16'x24' At 6.5 ft high 1/2 opened (covered w/one inch chicken wire) and 1/2 covered. I should be fine. I always over build just in case.

That still seems a bit small to me. My coop is 8' x 10' and the run is 8' X 14' and is OK for my 6 chickens, but more birds than that I think they would be fighting more.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Sorry, excuse my manners. Still thawing my brain from the polar vortex LOL! BUT: Welcome to BYC! Glad you joined us. Lots of great people with tons of chicken wisdom.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Something else to consider @Danielstribe: Snakes can get through the 1" chicken wire as well as weasels and mice. One of the biggest adrenalin rushes I have experienced in my life was reaching into the nesting box to get the eggs and a water moccasin popped his head up to say "Hey!" That happened when I lived south of the Mason-Dixon line. Go with 1/2 inch hardware cloth, at least 19 gauge.

 

[Acre4Me]

Welcome to BYC! Yes, we are all finally thawing out from the Polar Vortex! Snow is finally melting, the -12F (-36F windchill) here is history.

Here are some pics of my coop (similar in sq ft space to yours, but tallest point is only 8ft high inside). Lots of ventilation in ours, but less in winter to protect from the really cold winds, but still quite a lot for the flock. This was build stage last spring.

Ladder roosts inside on a hinge, so they can be lifted for easier cleaning. Birds were 4 months here. We had up to 21 in here, including younger 5 months chicks before we sold some. They did fine, I think because they can get away from each other fairly well. We are considering adding a fixed roost at the very back, higher than the current top roost, attached to the studs, and twould be able to choose that as well.

Here are 21 of them in this space, including 2 cockerels. We have since sold 9 of them, including 1 cockerel, leaving us with 12 chickens (and only 1 cockerel). Note, there are still 2 lower roosts that the birds could use, but of course they all like to be as high as possible. The female Jersey Giant (bottom right, very large pullet) does like her space, so is usually not crammed in with the others, whereas the male Jersey Giant doesn't seem to mind being crammed in (he is middle top, blocked by the SLW that is standing). The 4.5 month old chicks are, as expected, working their way up the pecking order and are roosting on the second highest roost ... an improvement from the month before when the flock relegated them to pretty much the bottom roost!

Yes, planning on getting some more chicks this year, but we can either send to freezer camp or sell at livestock auction the ones we don't want. We will have extra males because I have some straight runs coming, and will need to get rid of the ones we don't want to keep one way or the other.

 

[chickengr]

congrats! it was worth waiting.

your chicken inn looks great.

 

[Danielstribe]

That still seems a bit small to me. My coop is 8' x 10' and the run is 8' X 14' and is OK for my 6 chickens, but more birds than that I think they would be fighting more.

The recommended space for a coop is 2 sq ft per bird and for a run it's 8 to 10sq ft per bird. You could easily add more birds.