Can my coop be to large?

[Chicken Boo]

This started out as an 8 x 12 coop.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=334568

 

[dawnwinds58]

Forgive the rambling but I'll say what I need to all here.

We built a great 12x12 chicken house, built on concrete block pillars off the ground, and of pallets we broke down. They were regular 4x4's and the framing from jet ski ship crates from the local marine outlet. Got some engine crates from the local automotive stores, just where ever we could find them. The biggest framing, base roof structure wall 2x4's, and floor decking, we bought. The time roof was also purchased. We bought nails. All boxing, nesting, window framing, roost, door, and ramp materials were "sweat equity" and time investment of 1 summer. The whole family collected all summer.

When we got it together, I found 2 cans of a discontinued Thompson's water seal in "redwood' the color of the old park benches and painted the whole out side of it. It had 2 windows covered in "rat wire" hardware cloth. There was a clean out door the width of the the roost at the floor level. Now what you have to know is we were on hills, steep ones. The back of the chicken house was 4 ft off the ground. The door coming into the chicken house was level, and the left side facing the house was level. Both the other sides had extreme drops.

We put board walls, 6" , around the area of the roost and filled it with hardwood shavings from a cabinet shop. They sold their mass of shavings, but the scatter we could pick up for free, and dirt isn't offensive to a chicken. We did not lock the chickens away from the under side of the roost. They kept it clean and turned so no flies/maggots survived, and turned it like a massive composter. They made the finest, lightest compost for us you ever ask for.

I had over 86 chickens and 10 Toulouse geese in that house. As you walked in the first surprise was the yellow laundry baskets I used for nests, flea market giveaways as they were cracked. There were scavenged bricks in the bottoms to keep them flat, a rail in front tilting them up towards the wall, and holes drilled in them to release any moisture that might collect. All of them were filled with old, last year hay. There were 6 of them. ALL the chickens laid in them.

Just over from the farthest nest was an old big truck tire, top curve cut out, filled again with the hay. The occasional early nester of the geese would be there.

I locked everyone up at night due to fox and coyote.

The yard was 25x100 of 6ft chicken wire. To get everyone in for the night, the family would start at the far end together and in a line walk towards the chicken house. One by one they would go inside because they thought it was "their idea." We'd just gather at the door and close em' up for the night.

When my Toulouse got old enough to breed we cleared a fence row of brushy over grown ground, just the fence area, not inside. We gave them the chance to build the kind of nests geese like, low, brushy cover, hidden. The girls loved it.

Now alot of people say geese don't need water. I have found given access to water deep enough, increases egg fertility. Heavy bottom ganders don't exactly climb well. In water, they have the bouyancy to mount a goose, and the water also supports both their weights so the goose isn't hurt or made uncomfortable by the weight of a large gander. We didn't have a pond. Fix? We had a Jon boat, old metal, and we braced it up, plugged it up, filled it with water, and built a ramp up. Breeding problem solved. The water collects "goose pucky" which can be drained out during cleaning to a garden.

After raising farm poultry for so long, I came to some conclusions. I had twice the house and half the yard I needed. If it weren't for the predators and hawks, I'd free range. I would lose far too many birds that way. Between them all, I had a clean dirt yard and no grass at all, so don't figure to have them on green pastures is they are contained.

If you have a way to protect them, by all means, free range. If you fear predators, do "chicken tractors." If you aren't able to "tractor" get a lawn mower with a bagger and give all the trimmings to them, they love it.

Not all of this applies to topic, but I get start talking poultry and get out of hand. I hope some of this may help someone. Just pick what you need and ignore the rest.