I've frequented this site for about 10 years, I could never have chickens but loved the idea and especially coop designs. Well now I live with my MIL who has it in her head to build a cottage in the backyard, and once it's done she says I'm free to put a chicken coop in! It's a small space and I don't want to make it an unusable yard, so I'm experimenting with different layouts. My highly ambitious requirements include a coop&run for 3-4 permanent hens, a coop&run for growing out meat birds, and integrated meat rabbit cages. Meat birds will be kept to 12-16 weeks old, I'm fine with a smaller dinner. The space lends itself to either a long and narrow design, or an L shape design. I had a bunch of coops drawn before it occurred to me I wouldn't be able to or at least REALLY REALLY shouldn't throw the new broilers in with the permanent hens continuously and instead make it two separate areas. This is my first design after this realization and I would love some feedback on it! I took five minutes to sketch this together, it is very rough. The far end would be for the growers and I'm thinking the close end would be more than enough for the 4 hens. This is the longest that I can make it (24') and most of the run is 3' deep, and is 4' under the coops. This is more of a concept, (as far as a very rough draft), I'd love feedback on the sizes too. I'm not sure how many birds would fit in the grow coop, like I said they'd be in there til they're 12-16 weeks old. Thanks for looking!
