Big enough coop?

[FC16]

Still not very clued up on this, would this be big enough for 4 average sized hens and a cockerel? It’s only for them to sleep in as they’re free range in the day.
Not sure if it’s big enough would appreciate other opinions

 

[aart]

Short answer......NO!

 

[3KillerBs]

No.

Rules of Thumb

• If it looks like a dollhouse it's only suitable for toy chickens.
• If it's measured in inches instead of feet it's too small.
• If your walk-in closet is larger than the coop-run combo you're thinking of buying think carefully about whether you have an utterly awesome closet or are looking at a seriously undersized chicken coop.
• If it has more nestboxes than the number of chickens it can legitimately hold the designer knew nothing about chickens' actual needs and it probably has other design flaws too.

For 5 chickens you need a minimum of 20 square feet -- 4 feet by 5 feet. The nestboxes don't count toward that figure.

Additionally, in order to get the 5 square feet of ventilation you'd need in the correct place -- over the birds' heads when they're sitting on their roost -- and to put that roost in the correct place -- above the nestboxes -- you need at least 4 feet of height.

My Little Monitor Coop is designed to meet all the minimums for 4 hens: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-little-monitor-coop.76275/ It's currently housing 5 successfully because I have a vastly-oversized run.

 

[3KillerBs]

They have plenty of space they aren't crowded at all most people with my coop have more then 5 in it omlet says 10 but I wouldn't do 10 I wouldn't leave them in it during the day and there not in a coop with poop everywhere like my wood one that they have the option to go in and all 5 every night go in the omlet

4 square feet per adult standard-sized hen is the recommended *minimum*.

The numbers that manufacturers of prefab coops claim they can hold are based on the legal minimums for commercially-kept birds -- birds that are often debeaked to prevent aggressive behavior from doing damage and which are kept in an intensively-managed system with artificial ventilation where they will be culled by the time they're 2-3 years old.

While it is true that there are no hard-and-fast RULES when it comes to living animals, people here at BYC have seen many, many people come to seek advice for health, behavioral, and/or sanitation problems that have boiled down to not giving their chickens adequate space and/or adequate ventilation.

 

[suburbanfarmermi]

we are new to keeping chickens and I spent a month or two watching you tube videos and I dont think I found anyone happy with their prefab coop.

we ending up building our own. We spent a lot more but it will last and should have some value if we want to sell it some day.

 

[Windrider]

If it looks like a dollhouse it's only suitable for toy chickens.

Heh. Every time I see you quote this, I think: "Well, just like Chihuahuas are toys in the dog world, Seramas are toys in the chicken world."

I think those tiny doll-house coops would be fine for the tinier bantams, but I had the usual recommended dimensions for full sized hens for my bantam cochins and it only seemed "about right," not palatial.

 

[CKfarm22]

Still not very clued up on this, would this be big enough for 4 average sized hens and a cockerel? It’s only for them to sleep in as they’re free range in the day.
Not sure if it’s big enough would appreciate other opinions

We looked at this one, and trust me when i tell you, It WAY smaller in person. Definitely not big enough for 5 chickens.

 

[McChooky]

We looked at this one, and trust me when i tell you, It WAY smaller in person. Definitely not big enough for 5 chickens.

When experts here say the minimum is 3-4 sq ft per bird in the coop and 10-15 sq ft per bird in the run trust them! My young 6 pullets recently began feather pulling in their 78 sq ft coop and enclosed run. (30 sq ft coop-48 sq ft run) Soon after the feather pulling began I stepped up the pace and finished the 120 sq ft addition I was making. It only took being crowded a short time to cause aggression in my small flock.Fortunately for me it stopped soon as they had more room. Living in small quarters causes a flock to fight one another.

 

[FC16]

Thanks for your help everybody, didn’t realise how small it was. Will now be looking for a much much bigger one

 

[CKfarm22]

we are new to keeping chickens and I spent a month or two watching you tube videos and I dont think I found anyone happy with their prefab coop.

we ending up building our own. We spent a lot more but it will last and should have some value if we want to sell it some day.

That’s exactly what we did. We spent 3 months looking online for a prefab and we weren’t happy with any sizes, and the one that would be big enough was $1000 for just the coop. We ended up building our coop and run, it might not be perfect but it’s sterdy and it costed less then buying one.