Doghouse coop for bantams

[BL0NDECHICK]

Hi all,
In about a months time I'll be moving to a new property where I will be able to have chickens. I have a medium sized dog house laying around that I think will be useful, I've been doing quite a lot of research in the past few days about converting dog houses into chicken coops and I know it can be done.

What I'm not sure about is the nesting boxes, how big do they need to be for some bantams? At the moment, the plan is to buy 4 bantams, I don't know the exact seller I'll be buying from so I don't know what breed they'll be.
How many and how big do the nesting boxes need to be for 4 bantams?
Do they have to be off the bottom off the coop or can I just place some removable nesting boxes on the floor?

I don't want to free range as I've seen lots of hawks in the area, plus there are at least 5 neighbourhood cats that could be a risk. How big would a run have to be? I plan on moving it around every few days to give the chooks new grass.
Does anyone have any plans for designs similar to what I'm talking about?

Sorry if these are stupid questions, I'm a complete novice and want to try to get it right the first time round.

Thanks

 

[jetdog]

For bantams I would build the boxes 12x12 and I would make them external, it will save on the floor space, the lower the better and put roost higher than the boxes or they will sleep in them. For full size chickens the rule of thumb is 10 square feet per bird
so with bantams you could go smaller but more is
better than less.You can do supervised free range
time, I let mine out for a couple of hours while I'm
outside.You will only need 2 boxes.

 

[Going Quackers]

Usually it's a nest box for every 3-4 birds.. my banties have pretty compact sizes, i'd have to measure but definitely not 12x12.. the birds are pretty tiny, i have Cochin and Silkie.

They like to lay in cozy spots so going to big is not a good idea.. I have quite large areas for my banties pen wise.. the one pair have an 8X8 dog run, another trio has a 8x13 dog run lol the others all vary inbetween those sizes. Moving it will help but make sure their is plenty of room to explore mine all love the outdoors.