Coop Size

[meowteri2]

My coop will have 43"x29" floor space. It will be 48" high. The nest box will be out side.
the roof will be 48x96 and the coop will be under this and screened.Is my inside big enough
for 2 isa browns to live the winter in.

 

[BarredBuff]

I would enlarge it a little bit so that you can have a nest in the inside of the house.

 

[TipsyDog]

and

!!

I think it's plenty big for 2 hens. That being said, the only thing I wish I would have done differently is build a BIGGER coop so I could have more chickens!

Good luck and enjoy your girls!

 

[meowteri2]

The nest box will be connected to the coop. They will walk into it while they are in the coop.

 

[chickerdoodle]

If your winter is very cold then them being closer together is a good idea. The recommended space per hen is 4 sq. feet and you have that since the nest box doesn't take up floor space. The fact that they can get out in a covered area if its raining or snowing is good too.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The way I understand this, you will have a coop 43'X29" (just over 8 square feet). It will be inside a fenced area 48"x96" (32 square feet) This 32 square feet area will be covered but the sides will be wire of some sort. If I am wrong, please correct me.

Where do you live? What I'm after is your climate. Will they be able to spend most days outside in the fenced in run area? There are three potential reasons they may not be able to go out when they want to. Most chickens don't like snow, especially deep snow. Mine do not like wind. If the wind is blowing, they are usually inside or in a protected corner. And the third is intense cold. I'm talking about temperatures often below zero degrees Fahrenheit. As long as they are not in snow, mine enjoy being out in the teens. Here is a photo of them at 8 degrees Fahrenheit. They were out in 4 degrees but it warmed up by the time I got my camera down there.

If I am correct and you can protect them against wind and snow blowing in, using plastic, tarps, maybe plywood, and you are not in a bitterly cold area, I think you will be fine with two ISA Browns in that space. I'll copy something I wrote about space requirements for chickens below. Some of it will not apply to your situation but it may help you understand how our management practices enter into this determination. It may raise more questions that it answers. You can always post more questions. That's what this forum is for.

When you say it is screened I worry a bit. Screen like you would use on a window or screen porch will not even slow most predators down. Even chicken wire will not slow them much. It is made to keep chickens in, not predators out. I'd suggest using hardware cloth or welded wire for the fencing.


As long as you have enough height for the roosts to be noticeably higher than the nest boxes, height does not matter to chickens. They are basically ground dwelling birds, so the ground area is all that really matters space wise. I said it does not matter to the chickens. It does matter to me if I have to work in there. It matters quite a bit.

If the nest boxes are high enough off the ground that the chickens can easily get under them, then nest boxes do not take away from the space available. The tops of the nesting boxes does not add to the living space either although they may occasionally be up there. Ground level is what counts.

Some of the things that make up the space requirement are, in my opinion:

1. Personal space for the birds. They have different personalities and different individual requirements. Some are very possessive of personal space and some can share.

2. Access to feeder and waterer. More than one at a time needs to get to the feeder especially, but access to the waterer is also important. Part of this is that they seem to like to all eat at once but part of it is that a dominant bird may keep others from eating or drinking, especially with limited access.

3. Being able to put the feeder and waterer where they will not poop in it when they roost.

4. Poop load. The larger area they have the less often you have to actively manage the poop. They poop a lot while on the roost so you may have to give that area special consideration, but mucking out the entire coop can be backbreaking work plus you have to have some place to put all that bedding and poop. In my opinion, totally cleaning out the coop is something that needs to happen as seldom as possible.

5. How often are they able to get out of the coop. The more they are confined to the coop, the larger the personal space needs to be. The normal recommendation on this forum is 4 square feet per full sized chicken with a minimum of 10 square feet of run per bird. This additional requirement outside is sometimes not mentioned. How often they are allowed out of the coop may depend on a lot more than just weather. Your work schedule, when you are able to turn them loose, what time of day you open the pop door to let them out or lock them up at night, all this and more enters into the equation. The 4 square feet recommendation assumes they will spend extended time in the coop and not be able to get in the run. What that extended time can safely be depends on a lot of different factor so there is no one correct length of time for everyone.

6. Do you feed and water in the coop or outside. The more they are outside, the less pressure on the size of the coop.

7. The size of the chicken. Bantams require less room than full sized chickens. This has to be tempered by breed and the individual personalities. Some bantams can be more protective of personal space than others, but this is also true of full sized breeds.

8. The breed of the chicken. Some handle confinement better than others.

9. The number of chickens. The greater the number of chickens, the more personal space they can have if the square foot per chicken stays constant. Let me explain. Assume each chicken occupies 1 square foot of space. If you have two chickens and 4 square feet per chicken, the two chickens occupy 2 square feet, which leaves 6 square feet for them to explore. If you have ten chickens with 4 square feet per chicken, each chicken has 30 unoccupied square feet to explore. A greater number also can give more space to position the feeders and waterers properly in relation to the roosts and provide access. I’m not encouraging you to crowd your birds if you have a large number of them. I’m trying to say you are more likely to get in trouble with 4 square feet per chicken if you have very few chickens.

10. What is your flock make-up. A flock with more than one rooster may be more peaceful if it has more space. I don't want to start the argument about number or roosters here as I know more than one rooster can often peacefully coexist with a flock, but I firmly believe more space helps.

11. What is the maximum number of chickens you will have. Consider hatching chicks or bringing in replacements. Look down the road a bit.

I'm sure I am missing several components, but the point I'm trying to make is that we all have different conditions. There is no magic number that suits us all. The 4 square feet in a coop with 10 square feet in the run is a good rule of thumb for a minimum that, most of the time, will keep us out of trouble, but not always. I do believe that more is better both in the coop and in they run.

 

[patandchickens]

It should be fine as long as your winters are not intensely bad (although the more you can shelter the outdoor run in wintertime, the more they will want to spend time out there).

I would encourage you to consider getting THREE chickens rather than just two, however. They are well and truly flock animals, but also do not necessarily accept new introductions all that smoothly. If ou get two and something sad happens to one, you are stuck with HAVING to get another chicken (who may or may not get along with the survivor); whereas if you start with three, you have a bit of an insurance policy against a loss, you know?

Good luck, have fun,

Pat