Building a coop for 6 chickens

[dslrcowboy]

I'm new to owning chickens but have worked on a chicken farm with about 120k birds I'm looking at building a coop for 6 chickens about 4x6 by 3ft(to the low part of the roof )with a run underneath that's 6x6 by 2ft tall.do you guys think that's big enough / if so what is the max bird count for a setup like this

 

[cavemanrich]

First

You are at max having 6 in your coop. The run is suitable to hold about 3. Of course you can keep the 6 in what you have , but overcrowding causes all sort of problems. If you could increase run size or let them free range, then things would be more ideal. This is calculated for 6 standard chickens.. If you were to have bantams, then the acomodations would be more fitting. The guide not rule. is 4 square feet in coop and 10 square feet in run per chicken.

WISHING YOU BEST

 

[sawilliams]

4sq ft ground space per bird in the coop 10 sq ground space for bird in the run (unless they will be allow yard time as well)

 

[ChickenMammX4]

I have 6 good size chickens, the area they have in the coop is 8' x 9' with a 8' x 16' run. We don't free range so having extra room is nice. Even so, I wouldn't add more than 2 or 3 more birds to my set up. Having a large area cuts down on behavior issues and is easier to maintain.

 

[dslrcowboy]

Thanks all its much appreciated

 

[dslrcowboy]

 

[21hens-incharge]

Remember when designing the run are that there will be times that one is under the coop and must be fetched out. ie: broody and not in a good place to be, sick or injured and needs help.

Drop down or removable sides on the lower part helps a lot.

Your sketch looks like it could work. I personally like having a run I can walk into and no access under the coop for them. I do not enjoy crawling under to get a chicken. (been there done that)

If you can go bigger that is always better when it comes to chickens.

For a visual for you I am including a pic of one of my old coops that was 4x6 and had the 2 foot tall under space. It may give you ideas for yours..... or not.


I built it inside the existing run which was very difficult.

Inside the coop.

Space saving idea. This was mounted to the clean out door.

 

[dslrcowboy]

Thanks for the insight I'll make sure to build a couple doors in the bottom this is the base I'm building it on

 

[21hens-incharge]

That looks to be one heck of a sturdy base! Keep the good planning going and things will work out.

 

[dslrcowboy]