26 chicks, and a small-ish "coop" in need of ALOT improvement

[Stray]

Hello there,
I'm a 16 year old Okie, one who is totally addicted to chickens.

. I don't know how large my soon to be "coop" is at this time, but I want to know how big a coop needing to house 26 hens need to be. What I have now I know won't be big enough (unless my dad DOES let me convert the shed which IS big enough, which I doubt he'll do but fingers are crossed

). Currently it looks like someones old workshop complete with cabinets galore

, ok so only four cabinets and a few drawers. It's great for chicks, but not so much once they get big. My mom does want me to use the bigger shed, all it needs is a bit of insulation, a run, a little square door for the birds to get to the run, nesting boxes, and roosts, but I doubt my dad will let me use it. I know I've said alot, but my point is is that I need to know the FTxFT I need for this amount of birds.

 

[gpamela3499]

Send pictures!!

 

[Emzyyy]

Im in the same exact position you are in except I have been begging my dad to help me with a coop for almost a year now, and finally one day when he came home I just cleaned out the rotting shed all by myself and reboarded the rotting side, not done yet though. I have 18 chickens, LOL I don't consider my crippled chicken Felix a chicken she is completley over the top spoiled. My dad started me on chickens brought the first 2 home and thought I would grow out of it by the time I was 16 but here I am even more into it than I was before, most my friends think its odd but now I have 2 other friends who have gotten chickens. Ben even hatched his own. Good Luck with your coop keep us updated

 

[SussexInSeattle]

You don't say what exactly your dad is storing in this old shed? Could he be convinced to buy himself a new rubbermaid or tin shed for $200+ change from the Home Depot, and give up the old frumpy shed for the girls? You have to pay out to get back. If he feels a new shed would better keep whatever he has, he may bend.

Offer to help set up the new shed and even install his old cabinets in the new shed somehow. Apparently he needs a counter top in there too, see what you can find at freecycle or craigslist that someone may just want to get rid of in the free section.

 

[Mahonri]

You need 100 Sq. Feet of coop and a huge run.

 

[Stray]

Quote:
The shed's are not used for anything at the moment, we just resently aquired our home. My dad doesn't even want the chickens on the property after a few months, he still doesn't see the threat in a raccoon or an oppossum, an he's got a place lined up for rent to put the horses on that he wants to put MY birds on with no real safety, but that's a good twenty minute drive from home and I don't want to be up all night worrying if my girls are safe or being eatten by some nasty vermin. He wants to use the larger shed as storage when we get everything settled which doesn't make much since, since we have a storage thing rented, and he says the smaller one will be big enough, it's like (guessing) 5'wx10'L, I'm not sure but I don't think that's big enough for 26 STD birds. My last two chicks I purchased at the local feed store I named them Romeo and Juliet.. bad choice after my dad made my cage them outside, a 'coon had gotten them.
Anyways, he's to blame for the loss of my last flock, that's 200$ down the drain.

 

[Anny]

For 26 hens I would say it should be ATLEAST 104 square feet inside the coop and at least 260 out side. But then again bigger is always better.

 

[Stray]

Quote:
Thank you