Coop size question? Height?

burntmuch

In the Brooder
9 Years
Apr 6, 2010
99
2
39
Montrose MI
What I have is 9 laying hens year round. Their chicks right now & 10 cornish rocks for the freezer. Im planning on doing 10 or so meat birds twice a year. So for 4 mths out of the year I will have 19 or 20 chickens. Right now My plan is for a coop that is 4ft X 24ft. is that big enough. The design is going to allow me to seperate the birds if I should????
So when I have a new batch of cornish rocks I can seperate them from the laying hens. Also I origanlly planned on it being 4 ft high. Is that high enough. Im building this on the inside of my 24X24 out building. with a door to a 15X24 ft pen or run. Hows this sound. does it sound right or is there anything I should rethink.. Im off work for the next four days. Was gonna start building.
 
I would think you'd want them separate. I've never done meat birds, but I thought they were given a different type of feed??? The size of your coop seems fine...slightly more than 4 sq. feet per bird.
 
Definitely keep them separate. Your adult laying hens will peck your young meat chicks. Although what you have is fine, you don't necessarily need that much space. Your nine hens will need 36 sq. ft., and your 10 broilers will need 32 sq. ft. (those numbers are even roomy. I raised 46 meet birds in 64 sq. ft. and they were fine). So, if you want to keep you coop at a 4 ft. width, you could reduce your coop to 17 ft. long.
 
I have never had a coop that was 4 foot high, but i can tell you i am really really thankful that i can physically walk into my coop to clean - and whatever i need to do in there. I can't imagine having to stoop down to go in there and deal with my chickens' feeders, water, bedding, etc....although it seems a lot of people do do it that way.
 
Thanks for the replys. I shouldnt have to crawl in there. The roof is gonna be hinged, so I ll be able to lift up the roof & sweep or clean from there.
 

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