advise on prefab chicken coop

[bellaisa]

I may try with just my current coop then. for some reason I thought I read 4 sq ft which is why I was concerned.

Sorry did not notice you were replying to someone else's post. my current coop is 8 by 6 with 12 birds. So I believe that means I should be able to get additions 6 with no problems hopefully.

 

[kwhites634]

I may try with just my current coop then. for some reason I thought I read 4 sq ft which is why I was concerned.

BTW, you'll need 36 sf of coop space for your 18 birds, if they're large fowl

 

[The Phantom]

Do you have problems with the birds in the winter? That was my main concern my birds do not like snow and won't go out till we shovel the run in the winter. They did good this year but we only had the 12.

Nope. They all snuggle in there. During the day they take turns roosting and playing on the floor

 

[PirateGirl]

@bellaisa many folks on here will recommend 4 square feet of coop and one foot of roost per LF. Sometimes you may get away with less, if you have bantams, if your birds free range, if your birds are not locked up at night or in poor weather and have other options to roost or hang out. You can always try with your existing setup before jumping into buying or constructing a second coop. Watch for signs of stress beyond the new pecking order being established with the introduction of the new birds. Your concerns about winter are valid. What may work in terms of space now, may no longer work once they spend more time indoors over winter. You don't want to be doing emergency coop construction in the snow. You could start a new thread with pics of your existing coop and ask for advice on how it could be modified to better accommodate more birds. Perhaps an addition would be easier than all new. Your chickens are likely used to the space they have now and by adding 6 new birds at one time, I suspect they are going to notice and feel it cramps their style. The pre-fab coop you posted does look better than some others I've seen. When you go back to look again, check to see if there is perhaps venting other than the windows, up along the roof, perhaps under the eaves. Also measure the floor space of it excluding the nest boxes.

 

[bellaisa]

@bellaisa many folks on here will recommend 4 square feet of coop and one foot of roost per LF. Sometimes you may get away with less, if you have bantams, if your birds free range, if your birds are not locked up at night or in poor weather and have other options to roost or hang out. You can always try with your existing setup before jumping into buying or constructing a second coop. Watch for signs of stress beyond the new pecking order being established with the introduction of the new birds. Your concerns about winter are valid. What may work in terms of space now, may no longer work once they spend more time indoors over winter. You don't want to be doing emergency coop construction in the snow. You could start a new thread with pics of your existing coop and ask for advice on how it could be modified to better accommodate more birds. Perhaps an addition would be easier than all new. Your chickens are likely used to the space they have now and by adding 6 new birds at one time, I suspect they are going to notice and feel it cramps their style. The pre-fab coop you posted does look better than some others I've seen. When you go back to look again, check to see if there is perhaps venting other than the windows, up along the roof, perhaps under the eaves. Also measure the floor space of it excluding the nest boxes.

I will upload pictures in the next few days. I think we are going to make external nesting boxes so that will free up some space. this time of year I don't worry about space since they have a 10 by 50 run and free range at least 2 hrs a day on 5 acres. It is the winter I worry about and I agree I don't want to wait until snow to find out we have problems.

 

[PirateGirl]

Pictures will help. Maybe adding a roost as well as a covered porch area or 3 sided lean to on one exterior wall of the existing structure or covered part of the run to give additional sheltered space in times of bad weather, that might do the trick.

 

[bellaisa]

Pictures will help. Maybe adding a roost as well as a covered porch area or 3 sided lean to on one exterior wall of the existing structure or covered part of the run to give additional sheltered space in times of bad weather, that might do the trick.

Here are pictures of my current coop.


i can't figure out how to rotate the pictures. One side of the coop would be hard to expand as we would have to eliminate one of the gates into the coop. We had already planned to make external nesting boxes this year. They have 16 ft of roosting space so that should be enough. The run extends along my dog run which I like as I think it helps keep predators away. I wish we would have installed the windows higher but not much i can do about that now.

edit to add the second pop door on the grey garage is the dogs door; and I can't take over that garage unfortunately.

 

[rosemarythyme]

It certainly doesn't look like a bad coop but it is pricey. Then again better quality premades are all in that range (I've been looking at so many coops and sheds lately!)

And as a general rule most folks prefer 4 sq ft per standard bird on here. I'm trying to give mine a little more than that with my next coop, to take into account bad weather when they don't want to be outside at all.

 

[lazy gardener]

I will not house my birds in less than 4 s.f./bird.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I will not house my birds in less than 4 s.f./bird.

Same here. I just don't see the need, don't feel it's fair, it's going to get messy so much faster, you have more potential for fighting, and sometimes there are situations where they have to stay inside for extended periods of time and who wants to be cooped up in an overcrowded situation?