I have 7 little week old chicks in my garage and I was going to start coop construction today so it would be ready in a few weeks. As I was looking over city ordinances I started to wonder if I could just modify the old shed on my property as a coop instead. Is it possible for a coop to be too big? Will they have a harder time staying warm in the winter if the coop is large?
I can't say there is such a thing as too much space! As long as the shed is not drafty, it will be great. Where do you live? If you do feel the need to provide heat, they will move to the heated area. For the most part, fully feathered birds do not require additional heat once they adjust to outdoor temps. As long as their water is not freezing, they'll be fine.
I am in Northern Utah. It can get very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer. The more I think about the idea of converting the shed the more I like it. Tomorrow morning I will go tromp around in the snow, take some measurements and see what needs to be done. I know the first step will be to clean it out. We bought the property in June and it is still full of junk the previous owners left behind. The piles are almost knee deep and covered with at least 2 inches of dust.
The idea in cold weather is to keep your birds warm, not keep the area they are in warm. Two totally different concepts and a whole lot less expensive. Chickens keep themselves warm by trapping air in their feathers. That air is what provides insulation to the chickens and to the wild birds out at your feeder in cold weather. As long as a breeze is not hitting them strong enough to ruffle the feathers and let that trapped air out, they can keep themselves warm. Something to think about. Turkens (naked necks) are considered cold hardy birds. I’ve seen chickens sleeping in trees in zero Fahrenheit weather and below. They were in a protected place and they had the freedom to move around to get out of the wind but they did fine. No frostbite and they certainly did not freeze to death. Heat is going to be your enemy there not cold. A whole lot more chickens die from heat than die from cold. A whole lot more.
