Building a New Coop

[Tpottle]

I am not much of a handy man and need to get a new coop. Where can i get chicken coop plans and instructions for building one for 50-100 egglaying hens for free please help me out . I was hoping to find an old shed or play house but no having much luck..

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Welcome to BYC!

Well, it's sort of good that you didn't find an old shed or playhouse. A structure that small wouldn't be large enough to properly house 50-100 birds. They would stress out and pick at each other.

For a happy, healthy flock, it's recommended that chickens get about 4 square feet of INDOOR floor space per bird. Outdoors, I've heard as much as 10 square feet (chickens can do quite a number on the ground of their run).

As to coop plans, BYC has tons of coop pages with lots of different ideas that you can adapt to your own needs. Some are more detailed (with blueprint-type drawings) and some require you to use your imagination to decide on the measurements. You could always send a message to the coop page's designer asking for more specific measurements or directions, though.

Here are the coop designs: https://www.backyardchickens.com/coopdesigns.html

 

[tiffanyh]

50 chickens would require 100 to 200 sq/ft coop (preferably 200).
100 chickens would require 200 to 400 sq ft coop (preferable 400).
Without proper space you will end up with cannibalistic type traits.

So for 50 chickens you are talking about 10x20 coop. That will be an bog undertaking for someone who isn't handy. You may wan tot consider getting a prefab shed.

Welcome to BYC and good luck with you coop!!

 

[digitS']

For that many birds, try Virginia Tech especially.

University of Minnesota links page: Poultry Housing for Small-scale Farmers, http://www.ansci.umn.edu/poultry/resources/housing_small-scale.htm

Welcome and Best of Luck,

Steve

 

[pkeeler]

Here is a link:

http://www.shedsandstoragebuildings.com/chickencoops.html

If you really are not handy, then you could buy a pre-fab shed at Home Depot or such. A 10x20 shed would probably run $3000, but you wouldn't have to do a thing. I believe their sheds have to be within 100' of a driveway or road. Maybe it is 100 yards. I think there is an extra fee if farther.

If you built it yourself, it can be fun. I had zero knowledge of carpentry and framed out my 6x10 coop. Get a good book on DIY sheds, as the internet seems to lack basic carpentry info (really basic stuff like how to tighten a circular saw, what size nail and how many). I would think it would cost you about $1000 to build and 40 hours.

If you are going into the egg buisness, you could write the amounts off your taxes. But you have to show a profit in 3 of the next 5 years.

http://www.buildeazy.com/shed_1.html

I would stay away from shed kits. The savings is minimal versus just buying a basic shed from HD or Lowes or BJs.