Complete newbie to chickens and have coop and run questions

rjc2rjc

Chirping
5 Years
Feb 23, 2016
24
11
84
Okay so my plan is to have 10 laying chickens and 10 meat chickens. I have read that meat breads will need different food then laying hens. I don't have a problem with that except it means I will have to keep the two separated. So my plans are to have an 8x8x6 coop and split it in 2. so 4x4x6. The run will be 20ft long by 10ft wide divided long ways in half. does this sound like a setup that will work? I know I will have a lot of questions as I go but I figured I would start with this one. Thanks.
 
I think you really meant that the divided coop will be 4x8x6. If that is the case it's tight but doable for 10 birds, the unwritten rule of thumb is 4sqft of coop space for each bird. So 4x8 would fit 8 birds but could probably squeeze 10 in there.

Layers and meat birds have different nutritional needs, mostly layers need calcium for egg laying where meat birds don't. Plus if you just have feed available 24/7 the meat birds will just camp next to the feeder and eat themselves almost to death.

my layers have food available 24/7 but if I get meat birds they will only get food part of the day then left to forage for themselves the rest of the time. But I don't have meat birds yet, just layers. So I'm only speaking to my plans from what I've been reading and not my experiences with meat birds.


I'm not sure if your run would be suitable, if I read correctly you'll have two runs 20'x5'. If that is the case I'd be worried about bully birds and the fact that the long narrow run would not give the picked on birds ways to escape the bully. in a 20x10 run or 10x10 run the low pecking order birds can run in almost any direction to get away from the bully but in a long narrow run the bully can corral them at one end and they'd have to run past her to get more room to escape.
Don't know for certain if this would be an issue, just going by what I've seen in my flock with pecking order.
 
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