Chicken Coop / Sheds For Canadian Winter

[Countrymanfowl]

Minimum 4 sq. ft. per bird. 50 chickens x 4 = 200 sq. ft. That’s a minimum. More room is better; when cooped up in the winter behavior problems come along when they’re crowded. 8 sq. ft. per bird would be great. Plus a run of 10 sq. ft. per bird.

Do I still need a run if I have a chain linked area? And could 6 feet per bird be sufficient or should it be 8? It seems many people here on the forums recommend 8.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

Most people find chain link doesn’t provide enough predator protection. If there are raccoons or weasels, they can either reach (coons) or squeeze (weasels) I’m easily through chain link and kill chickens. If there are hawks, they will attack from above.

Any of those animals will come right near the house, at least they do in New England.

Others will have other opinions. I would start by lining the lower 3 ft. of the chain link with hardware cloth, half-inch, heaviest gauge you can find, and also create a HE cloth apron that extends out the bottom of the fence. Many articles around here on how to do that.

If you need hawk protection, a place to start might be aviary netting over your chain link run.

Read up on the coop articles and threads here; there is a lot written on this.

I’ve never seen anyone recommend 8 sq. ft. per bird, but that would be great if you have it. I was pointing out that for 50 birds, you need a minimum of 200 sq. ft, not 50 sq. ft. to have just 4 sq. ft. per bird.

 

[Countrymanfowl]

Most people find chain link doesn’t provide enough predator protection. If there are raccoons or weasels, they can either reach (coons) or squeeze (weasels) I’m easily through chain link and kill chickens. If there are hawks, they will attack from above.

Any of those animals will come right near the house, at least they do in New England.

Others will have other opinions. I would start by lining the lower 3 ft. of the chain link with hardware cloth, half-inch, heaviest gauge you can find, and also create a HE cloth apron that extends out the bottom of the fence. Many articles around here on how to do that.

If you need hawk protection, a place to start might be aviary netting over your chain link run.

Read up on the coop articles and threads here; there is a lot written on this.

I’ve never seen anyone recommend 8 sq. ft. per bird, but that would be great if you have it. I was pointing out that for 50 birds, you need a minimum of 200 sq. ft, not 50 sq. ft. to have just 4 sq. ft. per bird.

Well the 8 feet is for winter in the coop. I personally thought that was a little much but people will argue with me on that. I say 6 feet is a happy medium. I also think some people see normal squabbling and put that up to "I don't have enough space". From what I've seen on the forums at least. 8 feet sure is great but not doable all of the time. But at the same time the farmer has the control of how many birds he owns too.

 

[Cryss]

The formula for the minimum area per bird is 4sqft/bird coop inside area, 10sqft/bird run outdoor area. And yes, this is the standard for those winter months when they may need to remain indoors. I've never seen anyone reccomend 8 square feet per bird for inside or outside.
So:
4sqft X 50 birds is 200sqft coop inside area.
10sqft X50 birds is 500sqft run outside area.
Keep in mind the nest area is not included in the coop dimensions.

 

[Countrymanfowl]

The formula for the minimum area per bird is 4sqft/bird coop inside area, 10sqft/bird run outdoor area. And yes, this is the standard for those winter months when they may need to remain indoors. I've never seen anyone reccomend 8 square feet per bird for inside or outside.
So:
4sqft X 50 birds is 200sqft coop inside area.
10sqft X50 birds is 500sqft run outside area.
Keep in mind the nest area is not included in the coop dimensions.

In one of my threads recently, someone said 8 I believe as well. Will have to track it down.

So what if you don't have an actual run but the coop is inside a fenced area? Is a run recommend for other reasons?

 

[Blooie]

I don’t think my role here is to be a critic of motives or future plans for anyone. I don’t truly understand what you’re trying to do, but I’m not judge and jury. You just want help with a coop/run that will comfortably house your chickens and do well in weather extremes.

I think a wood coop is always best, simply because you have a lot more flexibility in the build and for getting adequate ventilation. But boy, I sure get the “funds are limited” and “no building skills” sword hanging over your head. That’s where we were when we built. We also had the added pressure of living in town on a corner lot, and it’s a pretty old fashioned place here. Folks still walk by on evening strolls, ride bikes or their horses past the house, and stop at the fence or porch to chat. Yeah, Mayberry still exists right here in Wyoming and the last thing we wanted was an eyesore on the corner, especially since I was a member of our town council at the time.

Hubby and I were in our mid-sixties when we built ours and we both have some disabilities. Between the two of us we couldn’t stack a straight sandwich. We only had a little help on the one day our son was off work and able to help with the rafters. Somehow in transferring the plans from scribbles to a working idea I had written 6’x8’ twice...once for the length and width of the coop and then for some reason I’d written it again, so it looked like I also wanted the roof 6’ high at the back and 8’ high at the front. Oops! But that high, sloping roof turned out to be a gift the way it shed snow and aided in ventilation.

Our coop isn’t insulated. I don’t like insulation in there in the winter because what I want is a good exchange of outside air for the moist air inside. Wood breathes. Insulation covers the “mouth” and slows that respiration. Chickens put out an inordinate amount of humidity, more than we would think. And ammonia can cause respiratory distress in chickens even at levels we can’t detect with our noses yet. When we first covered our big hoop run with clear plastic to help them stay comfortable ,we sealed it up way too tightly and quite literally had water dripping down the sidewalls and down our necks at the slightest bump.

But once again, I digress. I tend to do that. Sorry. What I’m saying is that a solid wood coop would be better for the birds if you’d be interested in starting over. I don’t know that that’s what you want to do, I’m merely offering an option. Since you have a budget you’d like to stick to and don’t consider yourself handy, might I suggest that you consider just having the framing done by a builder and then finish the rest yourself? We found the framing and the rafters to be the most difficult part, at least for us, and sometimes it felt like we wasted almost as much wood and hardware as we utilized. Seemed we were always making runs back up to Billings - almost 100 miles one way - for more materials. But the walls, windows, gable vents and doors went in like clockwork, and we knocked that part out with minimum expenditures and difficulty. Think of what you’ve already spent on insulation and tarping, yet you aren’t happy with the results and are experiencing trouble getting it to stay where you want. The frustration level is always high when we have an idea but it just doesn’t go the way we envisioned. Windows can be purchased used, which is what we did. The same with doors. Look on Craig’s List or in your local classifieds for materials like that. So if you hired out just the framing, at that point you’re just enclosing it.

I’m probably out of line even suggesting a ‘do-over’ but I think in the long run you’d be happier and so would your chickens. And you’d have a second Rubbermaid storage shed handy for storing food, bedding, and even put in a wire enclosure within it to house the occasional sick or injured bird or a broody hen so she could do her job in peace and quiet. I should add that we are in Northwestern Wyoming not too far from Yellowstone Park. A lot of our state still saw significant snow over the weekend. So yeah, we know cold and snow loads, with the additional burden of gale force winds much of the time. But the coop that we built with our own two inexperienced, disabled hands, on a shoestring budget, is still standing after almost 6 years, while our neighbor’s big Rubbermaid shed couldn’t handle one Wyoming winter.

 

[Alaskan]

In one of my threads recently, someone said 8 I believe as well. Will have to track it down.

So what if you don't have an actual run but the coop is inside a fenced area? Is a run recommend for other reasons?

I highly recommend 8 square feet per bird of snow free space.

This might mean that you need a coop with 8 square feet per bird if none of your run is roofed.

Of, if you roof your run, and put up a snow break on a run fence so no snow blows in, then 5 or 6 square feet per bird in the coop is adequate.

I think 4 square feet per bird in the coop ONLY works in warm climates when they are always happy to go outside to the run.

I find if I crowd my birds then they start doing "bad" things.

Egg eating, feather eating, feather picking, outright cannibalism.

The more space per chicken, the less work for you, and it is WAY less likely that and bad behaviors start.

 

[Alaskan]

I'm just having a hard time visualizing how having the front open will not produce drafts. But everyone is telling me that it won't and I do believe them. Just looking to understand. As I don't want the chickens to be cold or anything and don't want any drafts.

If only the front is open, and everything else is closed, there are no drafts.

Air has to move from one point to another. So it enters at point a and exits at point b.

If all openings are only on the front wall, the air doesn't come very far into the coop, because it can only enter and exit on that ONE side.

 

[Willowspirit]

Well the 8 feet is for winter in the coop. I personally thought that was a little much but people will argue with me on that. I say 6 feet is a happy medium. I also think some people see normal squabbling and put that up to "I don't have enough space". From what I've seen on the forums at least. 8 feet sure is great but not doable all of the time. But at the same time the farmer has the control of how many birds he owns too.[/QUOTE

The issue about squabbling is a serious one. If all your chickens are doing is squabbling but it can go from that to serious picking and pecking to cannibalism in short order. There's a reason commercial layers are debeaked. You don't want to head very far down that road.

 

[Ted Brown]

Would the "air cushion" come into effect with this idea of building an extension onto the shed?

No it would not. The plastic shed remains as it but is sheltered by a roof & pole shed to extend life and avoid shoveling snow.