Coop Help Please

[frjeff]

I have been a lurker here for a couple years and have learned a great deal. However, I have procrastinated long enough and am going to get some backyard chickens.

I have a 10'X24" enclosed lean-to attached to one of my detached garages. I am wanting to build my 4'x8' coop inside one of the lean-to corners. Hopefully, this would home 6 hens. My thinking has to do with our Winters when the hens may not be prone to spend much time in a snow covered run. Thus, they would have a tad more than 5 sq. ft. per bird. Sufficient?

The floor to ceiling height of the coop would be about 6.5' if I keep the coop floor 18" off the lean-to floor. Is this enough height?

I will adequately (?) ventilate the coop near the roof line but will also likely have to add some lean-to ventilation as all there is now is a sliding barn type door which opens to 4' wide.

My run will be somewhere about 5'x15'-20'. Is that enough?

Many thanks for any help offered.

Jeff

 

[jatj]

I have heard you need at least 4 sqft indoor and about 10 sqft outdoor per bird, but I have also seen many other figures on here, to me these numbers made the most sense. And also at least 1 ft of roost space per bird.

 

[nayeli]

4 sq ft, unless you get bantams. I personally want to get some silkies, they are friendly, lay fair, and go broody! Also sq ft per bird is objective. It depends on how much your birds are in the coop..