Building a Coop in my barn, have a few questions.

[Duke392]

I am new to the group, just signed up. My grandparents always had chickens and I was around them quite a bit, but I am just now getting my own. My in-laws have a laying farm and usually have around 50,000 chickens at a given time, but they are all ugly white and just bred as layers. My wife went and picked up 25 chicks from a local hatchery today. I have a barn out back that has an enclosed lean-to on the end. The enclosed area is about 25x8 ft and has a cement floor. This is the area I will be converting into a chicken coop. I have plenty of land for them to free range on but was considering a run for those days when we are busy and not at home to let them out. How big of a run would everybody suggest and should this run be left open all the time, or should I still close it up at night. Also, how many nesting boxes would you suggest I build into my coop. Ticks and other bugs are bad this year and we are hoping the chickens can help to keep the bugs down around our house along with the help of a small flock of guineas. Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

[Stiggy]

be careful with the cement, and don't have high perches as the landings will hurt their feet, also a chicken ladder can help if they actually use it. deep wood shavings ( sawdust) for bedding is always a good idea. shutting them in at night is a good idea, although it can be annoyingto have to let them out every morning. you will want to have a large run that is predetor proof, aka dug down at least a foot with wire in an L shape ( to make burrowing harder, or you could concrete it in. you will need hardwire mesh over the sides ( 1/2 inch no bigger ) and if your really worried chain link fencing over top of that. it wont be cheap but if done right it will be a good investment and you will know that you girls are safe and if everything is predator proof then leaving them to come and go as they please should be fine. if you intend to have 25 then I would say a min of 5 nest boxes as they wont all lay at once. also nesting boxed should be lower than the perches, and the perches as I said before shouldn't be to high. bugs can be controlled, we used jays fluid origionally ( which is now almost impossible to buy her anymore) and now we use a ripcord diesel mix or a water, dishwashing liquid carbaryal mix which kills off the bugs and the mites ( mites are a no no and can be very bad for birds health) . if space isn't an issue and given your large house then I would say a 5m by 5 m space or larger would be good. it would be great for them to be able to free range when possible and im sure they will love you for it and reward you with nice egg.

 

[Duke392]

I will let them free range as much as possible. They will have plenty of area to do this. We keep about 3-4 acres mowed and the rest of our place I brush hog or let some of the other critters range and keep managed. My grandparents never had runs for their chickens, they always had a decent sized coop and would just let them out on the nice days a few times a week. I have considered just doing that, since it would be much easier to keep predator proof. What do you think about using a ground up walnut hull as a medium to put in the bottom of the coop? Once it gets soiled, I can shovel it into the tractor bucket and haul it away and fill some ditches around the place with it. I have access to as much of that as I want. It is ground to about the size of a BB and is pretty clean and dust free. We use it in the bottom of some of our other animals cages and pens, such as lizards and hamsters.

 

[Michael OShay]

I am new to the group, just signed up.  My grandparents always had chickens and I was around them quite a bit, but I am just now getting my own.  My in-laws have a laying farm and usually have around 50,000 chickens at a given time, but they are all ugly white and just bred as layers.  My wife went and picked up 25 chicks from a local hatchery today.  I have a barn out back that has an enclosed lean-to on the end.  The enclosed area is about 25x8 ft and has a cement floor.  This is the area I will be converting into a chicken coop.  I have plenty of land for them to free range on but was considering a run for those days when we are busy and not at home to let them out.  How big of a run would everybody suggest and should this run be left open all the time, or should I still close it up at night.  Also, how many nesting boxes would you suggest I build into my coop.  Ticks and other bugs are bad this year and we are hoping the chickens can help to keep the bugs down around our house along with the help of a small flock of guineas.  Thanks in advance for the advice.

You should have a minimum of 4' sq per bird in the coup & 4' sq more for each bird in the run (more would be better). You need to use 1/2 " hardware cloth on all areas of the run as opposed to chicken wire which is not predator proof. You need at least one nesting box for every four hens. As long as your run is predator proof you can leave the door between it and the coop open for most of the year, but I would shut the coop door after they come in to roost on cold winter nights.

 

[Duke392]

With the building being 25x8 ft, that would give me 8 sq ft per chicken in the coop. As for the run, I was looking at doing something around 25x20 ft. Just going on 20 feet from my coop and making it the entire length of the coop. That would give them 20 sq ft each in the run. Like I said in in the above post, I may just choose to let them out as often as possible to free range and not build a run just to keep it a little more predator proof. I have a little while to work on this since we just picked up the chicks this morning. As of right now they are content in the garage with their warm light. Thanks for the advice and hope to hear more thoughts.

 

[Stiggy]

as to the question
What do you think about using a ground up walnut hull as a medium to put in the bottom of the coop

yes that can work, and will work well but you will also need something that will absorb water/ muck, hence the sawdust. however if that works for you then by all means. alternatively you could use it then add some saw dust to it.

 

[Michael OShay]

With the building being 25x8 ft, that would give me 8 sq ft per chicken in the coop. As for the run, I was looking at doing something around 25x20 ft. Just going on 20 feet from my coop and making it the entire length of the coop. That would give them 20 sq ft each in the run. Like I said in in the above post, I may just choose to let them out as often as possible to free range and not build a run just to keep it a little more predator proof. I have a little while to work on this since we just picked up the chicks this morning.  As of right now they are content in the garage with their warm light.  Thanks for the advice and hope to hear more thoughts.

 

[Michael OShay]

Sorry I accidentally hit the wrong button. Those dimensions will give your chickens plenty of space.