Hi. I'm very new to chicken ownership. 1 week now. We had a hen and rooster come with the property we just bought. The two have had the run of the property (8 acres) along with the sheep and have claimed the barn (which is in pretty run down shape) as their home. I'd like to give them a home of their own while still giving them the run of the property so I've been looking at designs. I wouldn't mind having more than the 2 chickens (and in fact, she's sitting on eggs right now). I would like to have a couple of hens for egg laying (for us) and some broody hens for raising chicks that I could use as a source of meat for my dogs. Questions: 1. Since I plan on letting the chickens still have free range of the property, do I need to include a penned in run area or just nesting boxes? 2. If I want 2 hens laying eggs for our use and maybe another 4 broody hens, should I plan a coop that has 6 boxes? Should they all be in one place/one design? 3. Are there any designs that you'd recommend? Obviously I want something that is easy to clean. Maybe I do need the penned in area for the chicks once they are born??? Thanks! By my calculations, we could have chicks arriving in the next week so I need to work quickly.
I would look through all of the plans on the coop pages..... But also, I would be tempted to use the barn, since you already have it..... I would work at fixing up and repairing the barn. If repairing it is truly monumental, I would build a coop inside it, so you have something functional right off, while you work at barn restoration. Being able to lock up the chickens in a combined nest boxes and perches coop with run, all predator proof; is best since you can lock them up if they start hiding all of the eggs from you. You can never have too much space, and if you wanted a bunch of broodies, you could set up a row of small coops, each with it's own run. Because everything wants to eat baby chicks, good secure housing is really essential for chicks.