4 Hens With Food and Water Inside

[CamaroErin]

Hi Everyone, I plan on soon building a new coop and need help coming up with adequate dimensions. It will house 4 hens and would like the option to include food and water inside. I was thinking 5ftx5ft. Thoughts?

 

[sourland]

Provided a run for more space, that should be enough space. If confined to the coop full time, most likely problems would arise.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Don't know where you are located so I don't know what kind of weather you are facing. Don't know how much room you will have outside or when that outside space would be available. Both of those are big issues.

If you are buying building materials most items come in 4' or 8' dimensions, at least the less expensive common versions of those materials. If you keep those dimensions in mind you can usually save cutting and waste. 6' isn't that bad, the cut-offs can often be used to build nests.

Will it be elevated or on the ground? If it is on the ground and not elevated I'd probably want a walk-in.

Without more information I don't know what to recommend. A 4x6 would probably make a real nice coop in most circumstances.

 

[redfoxco]

We're in the middle of building a new coop for our 3 hens (and maybe a few more someday). We went with 6'x6' for the coop portion (there's also an attached run) and have had surprisingly little building material waste. We just bought mostly 12' 2x4s and used 1.5 sheets of 4'x8' siding per side.

ETA: We're building a walk-in coop with 6' high eaves.

 

[aart]

It will house 4 hens and would like the option to include food and water inside. I was thinking 5ftx5ft. Thoughts?

Go bigger.

Welcome to BYC! @CamaroErin (what year Camaro?)
Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, and then it's always there!

 

[Cindy in PA]

I started raising chickens from reading a magazine article 27 years ago. I decided on 12 chickens & my husband built me an 8 by 8 coop that could technically house 16. I have never regretted starting out with a decent sized coop to begin with. Of course I wish it were bigger! Go as big as you can. Besides 8 by 8 or multiples use 4 by 8 sheets really well!