Compact Coop for 18 Hens - Design Ideas?

[Cknldy]

Aoxa- how tall/deep is the concrete footing(?) for your barn? I want to keep the dirt floors for deep litter and love how you did your barn but was wondering if the concrete perimeter is 1' or more, etc.

 

[tdbrueggen]

What are your plans with them? Eggs? Meat?

Unless you plan to breed (which I doubt as you are trying to hide the coop from the HOA), what other reason would there be to keep 18 hens?

I'd just cut the number of hens if I were you. Does not sound like you have enough room to work with.

The plans are open to whatever, both eggs and meat. I know plenty of people that want/need the eggs, so even if it's a "losing" effort, I don't mind. My philosophy is that I don't give money away, but will gladly feed the hungry.

Honestly I just want to get back in the habit of having chickens. Much like how I play with honeybees, I want to experience every aspect of it with chickens. So I'll have the eggs, I'll slaughter some as needed, hatch out some chicks (although that will have to wait until I can keep a rooster), etc. I'm willing to lose a little money up front on buying feed if needed.

I do have the space, just not much space for the coop itself. The chickens will have free range of over 300 SF, including my compost piles once I get it all fenced in proper. For now I'm focused on getting the fenced run portions done just so I can keep the stinkers contained when needed. Haha, I got home on Saturday from running errands and three of them were out! They had tunneled under the fence. Luckily the dogs had not gotten to them. They put up quite the sport to catch them back. I'm thinking I may already need to trim some flight feathers!