Coop Size

[Chick_a_dee]

I know this gets asked a lot but my net is slow so bare with me!

We're downsizing the hens (and then upsizing? hehe) and will be adding 6 more chickens to the flock in the summer, which will bring us to 11 chickens. We're finally going to build a purpose built hen house at the bottom of the garden and turn the current hen house over to the goats.

Currently our 'henhouse' is 17x12 which a total area of 13x12 turned over to actual chicken space. I'm looking to go quite a bit smaller then that though. Our hens are mainly free range but we'd be building a deck to extend living space on days where its too nasty out to free range but they need to go out. The deck will have a sun tuff roof and be fenced in.

I was thinking about 8x10ft as our coop space, which equals out to about 7 sq. ft. per bird, plus another 5x8ft area as the deck.

Do you guys think that'd be big enough?

 

[Cindiloohoo]

That's plenty big enough. 3 sq.ft. per bird is a general space requirement for grown birds.

 

[patandchickens]

Cindyloohoo, note Chick-a-dee's location, with winter weather that most chickens enjoy alot less than Tennessee's...

It doesn't sound too bad to me. Obviously if you can swing the materials etc to build a bit bigger, it would be a good idea (if nothing else it'd give you more future flexibility in winter flock size) but you would probably get thru the winter fine at 7 sq ft per chicken plus small run.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[gsim]

Good size. You will have yours inside all day in wintertime much more than I will here in Tennessee. Make their covered run as big as is practical for same reasons of more severe winter weather. Chooks need sunlight and vitamin D just like we do. I have 5 sq ft/chook in coop, and 80 sq ft/chook for run.

On ventilation, I did 1 sq ft permanent, above the walls, year-round ventilation for every 4 chooks. So for my 24 pullets, I have 6 sq ft of full-time above the walls ventilation, PLUS another 40 sq ft in four windows, PLUS pop doors and entrance door, only to be used in a pinch or to speed drying of floor after yearly litter change and washdown.

 

[teach1rusl]

I think that sounds good! It's nice that they'll have a bit of covered outdoor space too. I would always choose more space for my birds rather than less space, especially in areas that get lots of snow.

 

[Chick_a_dee]

Awesome, in the winter they tend to go out most days and muck about in the snow and eat all of the plants still sticking out of the ground lol. It's on days like *today* which is windy as heck and cold that they don't go out but I like to hang cabbage and the like in the coop for some fun times.

I can extend the deck later in the season easily, so I may start out smaller with the deck and get bigger by the end of the summer. I'm going to build the coop "extension friendly" so we can extend in the future.