Cubic feet per bird?

[bad_coffee]

I'm designing my coop for 3 full sized and 2 bantams. Right now the floor plan is 4x4. I know it's a little small for the 4' per bird rule, but two of our birds are bantams.

We want to use the top of the coop as garden space, so the roof will be sloped, rather than gabled. My design as I have it now has the front at 32" tall and the back at 24" There are windows on all four sides, and the eaves will be vented as well. The whole coop will be up on 16" legs so the birds can get underneath. This will make the top of the coop 4' tall, which should be just about right to set my pepper plants on top.

But will it be enough volume for the birds? Do they need 'flapping' room as well as elbow room?

Thanks
B

 

[patandchickens]

What will they have in the way of run space... it will be more than just the area underneath the 4x4 coop, yes? If the run is at least 3' tall, they will cope with a lowish coop ok. You do want to make sure they have SOMEwhere they can stretch up on tippytoes and hop and flap, though.

If you are going to do some sort of gardening atop the coop roof, you need to take extra super-thorough precautions to make sure that ALL water will drain OFF (not into the run, either) rather than leaking thru and soaking the coop ceiling, as chickens + moisture area bad combination.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[teach1rusl]

I guess my first thought regarding height was about the roost. Ideally, to get full use of your space, they would have room to walk under the roost, but they also need room ON the roost to stand up... and in a 4 x 4 coop with the number of birds you're getting combined with the limited height, that may become an issue...something to think about.