Chicken Coop

[SpotsandStripes]

Hi everybody

I currently have a chicken coop which is said to house four chickens but I personally think it could be to small for them! I found this chicken coop which i thought would be better but I was wondering if the perches were alright, they have a covered run but I think they would appreciate a bigger coop. I have four chickens by the way which I have raised from chicks and I am proud to say I found my first egg today sorry i just had to mention it although it wasn't laid in the nest box but i'm sure they will learn

http://www.simplychickencoops.co.uk...oducts/chickenshack-rs-707-small-chicken-coop


It says it is suitable for up to ten chickens but please tell me what you think and tell me if the link isn't working !

 

[KDK1]

Hi everybody

I currently have a chicken coop which is said to house four chickens but I personally think it could be to small for them! I found this chicken coop which i thought would be better but I was wondering if the perches were alright, they have a covered run but I think they would appreciate a bigger coop. I have four chickens by the way which I have raised from chicks and I am proud to say I found my first egg today sorry i just had to mention it although it wasn't laid in the nest box but i'm sure they will learn

http://www.simplychickencoops.co.uk...oducts/chickenshack-rs-707-small-chicken-coop


It says it is suitable for up to ten chickens but please tell me what you think and tell me if the link isn't working !

If you have a good sized run that they can access year round, it should house four birds but would not go any higher than that.

 

[chicksbunsdog]

I agree with KDK1. Having a hard time converting metric to feet but it looks like that coop is only ~15 square feet, give or take, so I wouldn't put more than 4 birds in it. I have no idea how they think 10 chickens could live in there! It is very cute and would probably be ok for you as you have 4 chickens now. May have to add ventilation, though, not sure about that.
Good luck.

 

[KDK1]

I agree with KDK1. Having a hard time converting metric to feet but it looks like that coop is only ~15 square feet, give or take, so I wouldn't put more than 4 birds in it. I have no idea how they think 10 chickens could live in there! It is very cute and would probably be ok for you as you have 4 chickens now. May have to add ventilation, though, not sure about that.
Good luck.

It's just a tad over 10SF

 

[chicksbunsdog]

Yikes, that's small. Probably better for no more than 3 chickens, though, if they spend a lot of time free ranging &/or have a large run, then it may be ok for 4.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

My current take on square footage per bird is Coop: 4 square feet per bird and Run: 10 square feet per bird

 

[Wissa38]

Our flock of two chickens increased to five chickens, and we found our coop (hen house) was just too crowded. The coop at the time was about 17 square feet. We just finished adding on to it and now we have about 37 square feet and it finally feels like enough. We live in Vermont and thought the girls have a big run and access to the yard when we're home, they also spend a good deal of time in the hen house when the weather is poor.

And this can cause issues. We had two adult Wyandottes and then got three Buff Orpingtons. The two groups are definitely two groups, and will fight and bicker if they don't have room. We make sure they each have access to food and water and plenty of room to roam both inside and out. It's kept the fighting to a minimum.

My opinion is go as big as you can within reason.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I really don't like those coops you can buy online. They are usually more pretty than practical, they invariably claim to be able to handle more chickens than they realistically can, and they are expensive. I understand that “pretty” is important for a lot of people, especially in an urban/suburban setting, so you can't just cobble something together the way I do out in the country. If you are not comfortable building it yourself, you are likely to get a more satisfactory product by selecting a design and get a handyman to build it for you than buying something prebuilt. There are several designs in the coop section at the top of this page.

There are no magic numbers with chickens, for space required or anything else. What you get a lot are guidelines, suggestions that work for a lot of people in a lot of different circumstances. They are overkill for many of us, but they do keep a lot of people out of trouble. If you have no experience, you have to have a starting place and those guidelines are a pretty good place to start.

I am an advocate of providing as much space as you reasonably can. I find the more space I give them the less hard I have to work and the more options I have to deal with issues. When you are dealing with living animals, there will be issues, whether you are dealing with chickens, dogs, cats, or anything else.

In spite of everything I've said, that coop should work for you, but there are some qualifications. You have to have a run that is predator-proof so they have access to it whenever they want. It really does not matter if the space you provide them is in the coop or the run or even free range, but they need a certain amount of space or special handling. Commercial operations have proven you can get by with less than 2 square feet of space per chicken with no run, but they have to take steps to prevent cannibalism. That's part of why I say there are no magic numbers. Many different things can work, but a lot depends on how you manage them.

Another qualification for that coop to work is that you need to provide more ventilation than that one now offers. Since that is a UK coop, I assume you are in the UK. Unless you are pretty far up north, your winters are not all that rough for chickens. But you will occasionally get some freezing spells. The danger to chickens in cold is frostbite, not them freezing to death with their nice permanent down jacket. Excess moisture in the coop leads to frostbite. You also need to extract the ammonia that develops in their poop since that can lead to respiratory problems. Ammonia is quite a bit lighter than air, so you need ventilation over their heads when they are sleeping. Their breathing and their poop will put a lot of moisture in the air. Warm air holds more moisture than cooler air and warm air also rises. Again, the need for ventilation above their heads. You don’t want a cold breeze hitting them directly when they are sleeping, but openings higher than their heads allows an exchange of air without a breeze hitting them directly.

One nest is probably all you need with four hens, but I prefer to provide a second one. They will probably all lay in the one nest, but a second nest gives you an option if you have a broody hen or a nest hog. You really can get by with just one nest but I just like the extra flexibility. Call it personal preference, not a requirement.

I don’t know if any of this helps you or not. Good luck!

 

[SpotsandStripes]

Thanks a lots for all your help you made me consider things i hadnt even looked at before! I think i will get an upgrade one that says it is for at least ten chickens! I think they have a good life though and although there coop is what I consider small they happily go in there each night and I even found my second egg actually in a nest box this time thanks again

 

[chicken gal]

I got mine at better bulit buildings and it fits 6 very well so you might consider.