Coop to small to get more chicks??

[CamsChickens]

Soo, I literally JUST finished building my coop, the chickens moved in yesterday, and I want more chicks! I currently have 6 hens and was thinking about 6 more since I have to buy a minimum of 6. Is my coop too small?? It is about 4ft by 4.5ft and has an attached run. During the day they have free range over 30 acres. The paint job isn't completely finished yet, its too cold to paint!

Thanks for any feedback, its very much appreciated

Cameron

 

[Mahonri]

Time to build a MUCH larger coop and you can use the other one for quarantine, separation or breeding.

 

[LarryPQ]

Think of it as an investment. Build a larger coop, and you can expand your flock: again, and again, and again.

You can use this beautiful little coop for your silkies or banties when you catch that bug...

 

[gsim]

Mahonri and Laree said it. You really only have enough space now for 4 chooks. Build again and pay close attention to having enough permanent ventilation at the top of the coop. I cannot see ventilation in the pic shown. I did 1 sq ft permanent full-time ventilation for each 4 chooks in mine. It is all above the wall tops. My coop is a walk-in. Rule of thumb is 4 sq ft interior space for each chook. I did 5 1/2. For run, guideline is bare minnimum 10 sq ft/chook. I did close to 80 sq ft/chook for my run. The happier and healthier they are, the more eggs they lay. Less stress=more eggs.

 

[Keri78]

If you're letting them free range everyday and then return to the coop at night to sleep then you wouldn't neccesarily need a larger "coop" just a MUCH larger sleeping accomadation...aka: "A Chickie Barn"!!! Congrats!!! you've just joined the ranks of most of us crazy chicken people here!!!(LOL) I had one chicken tractor that led to my second chicken tractor which led to my chickie barn!!!(LOL) This all within one year!..oh my poor Hubby!!!(LOL) Here's a pic of my chickie barn...by the way I LOVE it!!! It's really nice to be able to walk inside and collect the eggs and get out of the weather. On snow days my chickens refuse to go out and they are all confy enough to stay in the barn....of course I know they can't wait to get back out to free range again! Anywho..here's a pic of my barn(got it on craigslist..great deal!) It's about 8 ft tall by 6ft wide by 6ft deep.

I'm planning to add a few more shelves around the inside as they seem to prefer the shelves to the nesting boxes(that you can't see in this pic)

 

[CamsChickens]

Thanks for the advice! Its a little dissappointing to know I need to redo my coop for my current chickens, before even thinking about new ones - building that little coop was a lot of work, money and was actually the first thing Ive ever built in my life. Im glad that you guys let me know how much bigger it needs to be before I ended up with 12 stressed out hens! For right now, I think I will just live with what I've got and consider upgrading and getting more chicks in a few more months. I love craigslist, so hopefully Ill run into a shed or barn soon that I can use

Thanks again!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm going to copy a write-up I did about space requirements for chickens in response to another post. It may read a little funny since I was responding to specific points in the other post, but hopefully you can follow it.

One point I hope you get out of this is that there is no one right answer for everybody. Depending on your specific circumstances and management practices, what you have may be OK for 6 chickens. If all you use it for is a place for them to sleep safely and lay eggs in, it may be big enough for even more; ie, feed and water outside and them having a lot of room to roam outside every day of the year and you let them out to roam as soon as they wake up. I do strongly believe that more is better. My 8 are in an 8' x 12' coop and 12' x 32' run.


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.

 

[gsim]

Quote:
Look for a child's playhouse. Lots of those around. May have to look in other nearby cities tho. Great for a beautiful coop for a small flock.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Don't think of it as a disappointment, think of it as a useful accomplishment, because it IS

It is basically-minimally-adequate for your 6 hens for now, i.e sure beats them living in a cardboard box under an overpass downtown; and you learned a lot from building it; and it will be USEFUL to you in the future, for quarantine/isolation or for growing out chicks. Don't junk it! Just realize that (as has happened to probably nearly all of us

) your aspirations have outgrown it and it's time for the next step

I would suggest building your next coop as large as you can possibly afford, so as to reduce the chance of the same process happening again anytime soon <g> Remember that the more you can use scrounged or recycled materials, the less it costs.

Goood luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[PunkinPeep]

Quote:
If your six girls are happy in that space right now, i wouldn't worry about upgrading that one before expanding. If they're free-ranging all day, they're probably just fine in there at night. I would just start building the BIG coop. And as someone else mentioned, keep this one for quarantining and brooding and whatnot. I have one just a little smaller than yours (not much) that i find to be absolutely priceless for those purposes.

I would say that when you build your new coop, be sure to OVERestimate how many chickens you're going to want in the future. The more you get, the more you realize how much fun it would be to have more. I went from six to 25. Next stop, 100.