Coop Check?

[Kimi BK]

Three weeks ago we salvaged a neighbor's coop, which jump started our chicken-raising by at least six months -- we were planning to start next year (since we are still living in a camper...)

Thursday our 24 chicks arrived from Ideal Hatchery! (7 each Welsummer, Australorp, Silver-Laced Wyandotte straight run, and 3 Easter Egger pullets) They are currently living in a stock tank in our greenhouse. We'll probably split them between two bins before they are ready to go out to the coop. (We've had backyard chickens in the past, when we lived in Wisconsin, but only 5 at a time, and all hens.)

So now I'd like to sanity check our coop situation for these 24 kiddos.

I'm aware of the "4 square feet each in the coop, 10 square feet each in the run" guidance. Browsing around, I've also seen that this is more geared toward small flocks and depends on various factors. So I wanted to run our situation by y'all and see if you think we have an OK plan for these kiddos...

The inherited coop/run is

• 7'x7' enclosed with 20 nest boxes, 15' of roost (5x3')
• well ventilated coop (3'x3' hardware cloth window with plastic sheeting over it for winter, full ventilation under gabled roof -- open all around with hardware cloth protection)
• walk-in coop with wooden floor
• chicken door from coop is always open to the run
• 7'x16' run fully enclosed with hardware cloth on sides & chicken wire on top under 2 flat panels of metal roof, a couple feet with wire only on top (no roof)
• run has another human door -- low ceiling, but walkable for me
• dirt floor in the run

Our coop thoughts / plans...

• we will use a buried hardware-cloth skirt around the perimiter
• 20 nest boxes seems overkill for such a small coop... we plan to remove 10 of them
• with 1/2 the nest boxes gone we can lengthen the roosts to 25 ft total (5x5')
• we plan to start out using electric poultry fencing to allow us to flexibly create sort-of protected roaming areas during the day
• if the protection isn't sufficient (birds of prey are likely our main concern during the day, or possibly area ranch dogs) we can fence it and cover the fenced area with bird netting
• We'd likely let them out of the run mid-morning most days and back in at dusk
• if gone for a day we'd likely keep them confined to the run
• we'll probably do deep litter in the run, and either deep litter or pull-out roost trays in the coop
• we do plan to harvest roos (we think 3 of the welsummers are roos but that's all we know at this point) and we eventually want to raise birds, but that's all a subject for another post -- and I'm sure we'll need at least a bachelor coop and breeding pens or whatnot at that point -- but we're hoping this setup will work for 24 birds until spring, and then likely dwindling down to more like 10-18 layers

Here is our environment in NW New Mexico:

• high desert -- very dry, lots of piñon & juniper, scrubby grasses and shrubs, sandy in between -- NOT lush forage!
• intense sun
• Zone 6 for growing -- frosts from October until May, but the daily temperature swings are great. Daytime highs are usually 30-50-degrees higher than nighttime lows. Right now in mid-October we're seeing days in the 70s and nights in the high 30s, and out in the sun during the day is hot. Hottest-of-the-hot summer is only 100 degrees; coldest-of-the-cold can be 10-20 below zero once every few years, but it's unusual to have a straight week with highs below freezing
• snow doesn't usually stick around; maybe a couple/3 days straight on occasion
• 7200' elevation

In Wisconsin our birds really were confined to their coop & enclosed run during the winter -- we'd happily let them out, but they had no interest in walking in the snow. But here I think the birds will have good access to the outdoors year-round. In Wisconsin we also wanted a small roost box so that they would keep each other warm in frigid weather. This coop / roost seems big to me, but probably good for this area. I wonder if y'all will think it is too small for 24 birds...?

I look forward to any feedback!

 

[Cinnamon11]

From what I read that sounds good! Could I see pics tho?

 

[DobieLover]

Three weeks ago we salvaged a neighbor's coop, which jump started our chicken-raising by at least six months -- we were planning to start next year (since we are still living in a camper...)

Thursday our 24 chicks arrived from Ideal Hatchery! (7 each Welsummer, Australorp, Silver-Laced Wyandotte straight run, and 3 Easter Egger pullets) They are currently living in a stock tank in our greenhouse. We'll probably split them between two bins before they are ready to go out to the coop. (We've had backyard chickens in the past, when we lived in Wisconsin, but only 5 at a time, and all hens.)

So now I'd like to sanity check our coop situation for these 24 kiddos.

I'm aware of the "4 square feet each in the coop, 10 square feet each in the run" guidance. Browsing around, I've also seen that this is more geared toward small flocks and depends on various factors. So I wanted to run our situation by y'all and see if you think we have an OK plan for these kiddos...

The inherited coop/run is

• 7'x7' enclosed with 20 nest boxes, 15' of roost (5x3')
• well ventilated coop (3'x3' hardware cloth window with plastic sheeting over it for winter, full ventilation under gabled roof -- open all around with hardware cloth protection)
• walk-in coop with wooden floor
• chicken door from coop is always open to the run
• 7'x16' run fully enclosed with hardware cloth on sides & chicken wire on top under 2 flat panels of metal roof, a couple feet with wire only on top (no roof)
• run has another human door -- low ceiling, but walkable for me
• dirt floor in the run

Our coop thoughts / plans...

• we will use a buried hardware-cloth skirt around the perimiter
• 20 nest boxes seems overkill for such a small coop... we plan to remove 10 of them
• with 1/2 the nest boxes gone we can lengthen the roosts to 25 ft total (5x5')
• we plan to start out using electric poultry fencing to allow us to flexibly create sort-of protected roaming areas during the day
• if the protection isn't sufficient (birds of prey are likely our main concern during the day, or possibly area ranch dogs) we can fence it and cover the fenced area with bird netting
• We'd likely let them out of the run mid-morning most days and back in at dusk
• if gone for a day we'd likely keep them confined to the run
• we'll probably do deep litter in the run, and either deep litter or pull-out roost trays in the coop
• we do plan to harvest roos (we think 3 of the welsummers are roos but that's all we know at this point) and we eventually want to raise birds, but that's all a subject for another post -- and I'm sure we'll need at least a bachelor coop and breeding pens or whatnot at that point -- but we're hoping this setup will work for 24 birds until spring, and then likely dwindling down to more like 10-18 layers

Here is our environment in NW New Mexico:

• high desert -- very dry, lots of piñon & juniper, scrubby grasses and shrubs, sandy in between -- NOT lush forage!
• intense sun
• Zone 6 for growing -- frosts from October until May, but the daily temperature swings are great. Daytime highs are usually 30-50-degrees higher than nighttime lows. Right now in mid-October we're seeing days in the 70s and nights in the high 30s, and out in the sun during the day is hot. Hottest-of-the-hot summer is only 100 degrees; coldest-of-the-cold can be 10-20 below zero once every few years, but it's unusual to have a straight week with highs below freezing
• snow doesn't usually stick around; maybe a couple/3 days straight on occasion
• 7200' elevation

In Wisconsin our birds really were confined to their coop & enclosed run during the winter -- we'd happily let them out, but they had no interest in walking in the snow. But here I think the birds will have good access to the outdoors year-round. In Wisconsin we also wanted a small roost box so that they would keep each other warm in frigid weather. This coop / roost seems big to me, but probably good for this area. I wonder if y'all will think it is too small for 24 birds...?

I look forward to any feedback!

The chicks are straight run. You are going to have more than 3 cockerels in the flock.
It's going to be too small even if all were pullets as you're at half the recommended MINIMUM. All those boys are going to terrorize those girls long before spring.

 

[Kimi BK]

From what I read that sounds good! Could I see pics tho?

I wish I could! I will keep trying... our internet is terribly inconsistent except that it's consistently terrible...

 

[Kimi BK]

The chicks are straight run. You are going to have more than 3 cockerels in the flock.
It's going to be too small even if all were pullets as you're at half the recommended MINIMUM. All those boys are going to terrorize those girls long before spring.

Yeah, I just meant that the 3 Welsummer roos are the only ones we can identify as roos at this young age.

We will be eating the roos.

When do the roos start terrorizing the pullets? I was hoping that by then they would be big enough to harvest... but we have never had birds for meat (only pets before) so we are completely new at raising roos... I appreciate your thoughts!

I was thinking (just from googling) that we could harvest roos possibly as early as 3 months, and any time up to 8 months. When does it become problematic to have cockerels and pullets together?

I'm interested in seeing if it's a general consensus that 112 sq ft run + 49 sq ft roost box is way too small for 24 3-month old birds, or for 10-18 laying hens from 6 pm until 9 am, so thanks for your input on that!

 

[Kimi BK]

I downsized and now think it is working...?

 

[21hens-incharge]

The coop can hold 12 while the run can hold 11.

Even with the intention of letting them range there will come a time when that is not possible. That is when things get crazier in the coop and run.

For nests......18 females will share 5-6 nests comfortably.

 

[aart]

When do the roos start terrorizing the pullets? I was hoping that by then they would be big enough to harvest... but we have never had birds for meat (only pets before) so we are completely new at raising roos... I appreciate your thoughts!

I slaughter cockerels at about 14-16 weeks, which is when the 'terrorizing' get intense, IME.

 

[Kimi BK]

The coop can hold 12 while the run can hold 11.

Even with the intention of letting them range there will come a time when that is not possible. That is when things get crazier in the coop and run.

For nests......18 females will share 5-6 nests comfortably.

Thanks for this, 21hens, very clear-cut!
Follow-up question, now that our chicks are 4 weeks old and we're starting to prepare for their transition...

A dozen hens is what we're aiming for, and it will be easy to expand their pen to make that work, and more (we will likely double the pen size). But at the moment we have 24 6-week olds, and hope to keep them until they are ~12 weeks old before harvesting roos (or having a second coop built). We also don't yet know their genders.

Do they need the same size coop and run as adults when they are 6-12 weeks old?

Right now they are in a 4'x12' run in our greenhouse, with a brooder plate and hiding box and roosting branch. I guess we could keep 3-4 roos in there beyond six weeks if we add a roost box to their area? Then we'd have 20-21 teenagers in the big girl coop from the ages of 6-12 weeks.

Will this work, or do we really need to build/improvise another coop solution in the next 2 weeks? We want another coop eventually, so it wouldn't be a waste, but we're in the middle of house build and would rather put that work off until spring...

I know, I know, we made an impulsive purchase when we weren't really ready for it, after having this great coop fall into our lap! We went a little nuts. And the kiddos are so great, of course. When we had backyard chickens we raised 25 from chick and shared them with other backyard chicken enthusiasts by the time they were big enough to move out.

Actually, that might be the best option -- to re-home chickens that won't fit in our coop. We are in a rural area and lots of folks have small family farms nearby.

Anyway, the main question is... is a 12-adult coop & run big enough for 20-24 12-week-olds?

 

[aart]

we have 24 6-week olds, and hope to keep them until they are ~12 weeks old before harvesting roos (or having a second coop built). We also don't yet know their genders.

6 weeks is prime time to gender check for most breeds.
Combs/wattles will be larger and redder.
Post pics here if you want help figuring it out.

(7 each Welsummer, Australorp, Silver-Laced Wyandotte straight run, and 3 Easter Egger pullets)

Wellies you can tell at hatch and for sure by now by breast feather color.
Aussies should be obvious at 6wks.
EE's and Wy's might be harder.
Did you get them all straight run?