Big coop

[JValera]

Hi Howard

Thank you so much

I'm thinking to breed 100 chickens hen layers .

I'm thinking on this space .... 48 feet large by 16 feet wide = 768 Sq.feet

Some breeders said that is 10 SQ. feet per chicken

Will be .. 70 on this size

If I open the door coop for free range on the day

I don't know if I can put more chickens.

thank you so much

--Jorge

 

[JValera]

Hi

Thank you so much

I'm thinking to breed 100 chickens hen layers .

I'm thinking on this space .... 48 feet large by 16 feet wide = 768 Sq.feet

Some breeders said that is 10 SQ. feet per chicken

Will be .. 70 chickens on this size

If I open the door coop for free range on the day

I don't know if I can put more chickens. ??

thank you so much

--Jorge

 

[JValera]

Hi Ridge

thank you for your information

I underestand but not to much..Honesty

I said on this space : 48 feet large by 16 feet wide = 768 Sq. feet

I will open the door of coop, for free range on the day

can I put 70 chikens or 100 chickens for example ??

thank you so much , please let me know

--Jorge

 

[Howard E]

So here is a seldom recognized factor of building a building.

You suggested measurements of 48' x 16' = 768 Sq. Ft.

That is 48' + 48'+ 16' + 16' = 128 linear feet of exterior wall

Or, with the same linear feet of wall, 128' x 4 = 32 LF per side

Then 32' x 32' = 1,024 Sq. Ft.

The point being, the closer you get to building a square vs. a long and skinny rectangle, the more usable area or interior volume you get for the same amount of wall materials.

The only reason for building a 48' x 16' is if you wanted to make 3 pens of 16' x 16' or 6 pens of 8' x 16'. In any case, you can safely use the factor of 4 SF of floor space per bird as a starting point. So your 768 SF building should support:

768 / 4 = 192 birds

Build it square at or perhaps 28' x 36' (also 128 LF) and you get 1,008 SF

Then 1,008 SF / 4 = 252 birds

or 24' x 40' (making two pens of 24' x 20' or 480 SF / 4 = 120 birds

120 x 2 = 240 Birds

Or........about 100 other scenarios, depending on how many pens, how many birds, etc.

 

[JValera]

Thank you Howard so much, Perfect information....I underestand now.

I think that maybe I expand one small size to 24 feet , because

if I put 100 chickens, I will need 4 nestling boxes of this....IT"S Correct ?

Will be : 48 feet large by 22 feet wide

I don't know if for 100 chickens ..How many boxes nests I will need

Yes, definitely for this quantity of chickens, I will open the coop door for free range during of day.

Let me know Please,

Thank you my friend
--Jorge

 

[Howard E]

48' x 22' = 264 birds at 4 birds per sf. Maybe more if they are leghorns. Of course you don't have ot put that many birds in a coop, but you could if you wanted to.

The number of nests is 4 to 5 birds per nest, so for 100 birds, 20 to 25 nest boxes. Since each of these has 10 nests, you would need 2 or 3 of them. 4 groups of boxes of the type you show would be enough for 160 to 200 laying hens.

Or again, for this many birds you may want to consider a community nest.

If you partition your building into multiple pens, the factors still remain.........3 leghorns per SF or 4 sf per bird for larger breeds, and 1 nest box for each 4 to 5 birds. That applies to each pen you make.

Once again, this assumes you are building a house for laying hens. If this is intended to be a barn for a breeding flock, all these factors will generally still apply, but my guess is you will need to partition this barn into numerous smaller pens to keep these flocks straight, and will incubate any eggs in incubators and raise the chicks in brooders.

Again, all this assumes the birds will be housed indoors. Once you open the door to let them outside, this opens a whole new set of issues to deal with.