Hello! It's been quite a while since I've been here. When I first got chickens about 6 years ago I built a raised coop which I could stand in, basically a shed on stilts. It's about 8' x 8'. The roof of the run didn't do well and something got in and killed my flock last year. I replaced the flock of 10 with 5 new chicks last June. The old coop was getting to be too much for me to keep clean so I wasn't cleaning it like it should have been, so I decided to downsize this year and purchased this coop...
All being said, I enjoy the new coop and the waist height drawer, which makes it SUPER easy to clean. We did attach it to a 4 x 4 frame for stabilization. My oldest has converted the old coop into a bunny house and is using the run, except the 8 x 8 portion which is under the raised coop. I attached the new coop to the old run by building a walkway for the chickens. All-in-all the chickens have 138 square feet of run space now and this teeny tiny coop (which is only about 40" x 20" coop space, not counting the three nest boxes). Thankfully, they spend VERY little time in the coop. In the large coop these 5 chickens all piled up in ONE nest box to sleep. Thankfully I was able to break them of that habit and they no longer sleep in the nest box!
I have decided to increase my flock size so that I have 10 again. I need to increase coop space. I was planning on doing this anyway because the current size will not work for 5 hens spending more time in the coop in the winter. I am going to build an additional small raised coop, probably about 5 x 5 or 6 x 6, which I will attach to the current set-up. (I really should have just done this to begin with but got sucked into the premade smaller coop, lol). I'm likely going to do 6 x 6 and make a similar waist height poop tray or poop hammock type clean up system which can be accessed from outside the coop, as that was my sole reason of getting out of the biger walk-in coop, no more back-breaking shoveling. I will also have a large door on at least one side which will give complete access to the coop for "just in case" situations.
So, after all that....my question is this. If I go with the 6x6, it really would likely be enough room for all 10 chickens (if they all decide to use it) at 3.6-sq. ft. per chicken in the coop and 17.4-sq. ft run space per chicken (including what will be under the new 6x6 coop), which they will have constant access to. In order to maximize all the space I am considering not putting nest boxes in the new portion since there are three in the small current coop. Three nest boxes should be more than enough for 10 chickens. Do you anticipate there being a problem with the boxes in one building and not the other? I know a lot of it will depend on the dynamics of the flock, etc., which I will address if I notice problems. But, in the event everyone gets along fine, would there be any reason it would not be okay to keep the nest boxes in the small coop only?
Thanks!
All being said, I enjoy the new coop and the waist height drawer, which makes it SUPER easy to clean. We did attach it to a 4 x 4 frame for stabilization. My oldest has converted the old coop into a bunny house and is using the run, except the 8 x 8 portion which is under the raised coop. I attached the new coop to the old run by building a walkway for the chickens. All-in-all the chickens have 138 square feet of run space now and this teeny tiny coop (which is only about 40" x 20" coop space, not counting the three nest boxes). Thankfully, they spend VERY little time in the coop. In the large coop these 5 chickens all piled up in ONE nest box to sleep. Thankfully I was able to break them of that habit and they no longer sleep in the nest box!
I have decided to increase my flock size so that I have 10 again. I need to increase coop space. I was planning on doing this anyway because the current size will not work for 5 hens spending more time in the coop in the winter. I am going to build an additional small raised coop, probably about 5 x 5 or 6 x 6, which I will attach to the current set-up. (I really should have just done this to begin with but got sucked into the premade smaller coop, lol). I'm likely going to do 6 x 6 and make a similar waist height poop tray or poop hammock type clean up system which can be accessed from outside the coop, as that was my sole reason of getting out of the biger walk-in coop, no more back-breaking shoveling. I will also have a large door on at least one side which will give complete access to the coop for "just in case" situations.
So, after all that....my question is this. If I go with the 6x6, it really would likely be enough room for all 10 chickens (if they all decide to use it) at 3.6-sq. ft. per chicken in the coop and 17.4-sq. ft run space per chicken (including what will be under the new 6x6 coop), which they will have constant access to. In order to maximize all the space I am considering not putting nest boxes in the new portion since there are three in the small current coop. Three nest boxes should be more than enough for 10 chickens. Do you anticipate there being a problem with the boxes in one building and not the other? I know a lot of it will depend on the dynamics of the flock, etc., which I will address if I notice problems. But, in the event everyone gets along fine, would there be any reason it would not be okay to keep the nest boxes in the small coop only?
Thanks!
