Doing it WRONG

What does a coop need?

Protection from the elements -

In North Carolina you don’t have really severe weather as far as chickens go. Once they are fully feathered out (usually around 5 weeks) they can handle most of what your climate can throw at them. In really cold weather or with exotics like Silkies you might want to go with 6 weeks. The coop needs to keep the chickens and itself dry. A wet coop is a dangerous coop from a disease standpoint. A little damp occasionally is not the end of the world, but aim for dry.

In the winter you need to not have direct breezes blowing on them on the roost but you need good ventilation to remove excess moisture and ammonia build-up. How you accomplish that is to have openings over their heads when they are on the roost. Lots of openings. Don’t worry about the coop losing heat. They can handle that. Common ways to provide that is openings under overhangs, roof vents, or gable vents. Be careful with ridge vents. They can be blocked by snow. Light breezes are not big deal but in a storm you don’t want a strong cold wind hitting them.

In the summer you need lots of ventilation high and low. Heat is your biggest enemy, not cold. Heat can kill and warm breezes hitting them are not a problem.

Protection from predators –

Make sure your doors and windows fit securely and can be locked so a 5 year old can’t figure out how to unlock them. Raccoons especially are real good at opening locks.

Put wire over any openings bigger than 1” that are not going to be locked up at night. Some people would even go with ½” openings. A common recommendation is to use hardware cloth. That is a galvanized welded wire mesh with pretty tight openings, ½” or 1”. Snakes, weasels, and rats can get through some pretty small openings.

Roosts –

Chickens like to sleep up high. They will normally sleep on the highest thing they can find so put these higher than anything you don’t want them sleeping in, like nests. A roost should be made out of wood. I use tree branches but a lot of people use 2x4’s. Allow 9” to 12” per adult. There are advantages to providing extra room anyway plus it sounds like you have no self-control. You’ll probably be adding more chickens so plan for that now.

Nests –

Plan on 1 nest for every 4 hens with a small flock. If you get above 20 laying hens, that can drop to 1 for every 5 hens. The larger you flock the more they can share.

Pop door –

That’s what we call the small chicken door so they can get to the run or outside. You can use the people door but you need a way to lock it open so the wind doesn’t blow it shut. One reason we normally use a smaller door, maybe around 12” x 12”, is that a people door might let in rain.

That’s about it for requirements. There are a lot of optional things like feeders, waterers, or maybe a droppings board under the roosts to help with poop management.

The really hard question for someone with no self-control (you do realize I’m teasing some, but also kind of serious) is how big to make it. There is a rule of thumb on here that calls for 4 square feet per chicken in the coop along with 10 square feet per chicken in the run. That is intended to keep about anyone in any climate with different flock make-ups, using different management techniques, and with different goals out of trouble. It’s more than many people absolutely need but getting tight for some people. It’s a good starting point. I find if I provide plenty of space in the coop and run, plus on the roosts, I have fewer behavioral problems to deal with, I don’t have to work as hard, and I have more flexibility to handle problems as they come up.

By behavioral problems I mean that overcrowding can lead to feather picking, fighting, bullying, or even cannibalism. An example of more or less work is poop management. Flexibility may be that if you add new chickens, integration goes a lot smoother if they have extra room.

That’s enough for this morning. Hopefully this will help you in thinking about your options. Good luck.

 

For 8 chickens it does not have to be a huge coop. But the yard should be big and if you think it is big enough double it. Do check out the small coops page here on BYC. I am not sure if you are on the East side of NC or the West side but NC does get snow so an open coop will not work. But any of the small coop designs here should be great for you. Just go to the top of this page and click the coop button then page threw the area you want. 6x4 coop should be good but again the yard will need to be as big as you can possible make it. Chickens are real hard on ground and grass will be dirt in no time. Since chickens poop all day it will pile up fast, so plan for this. Keep the flock small for now till you have more experience with the chickens. You should not be mixing so many breeds sizes together as you will have picking on and fighting. Slow down and get the basics there is always time to grow. In my sig down below if my link to my chickens blog. I documented raising my flock from day 1. It covers alot of you questions but not all as I free range here with one large breed. But I cover food and winter and predators as well as coop ect. You will want to check out the coop forum up above below here in the forum section. Read this forum it has alot of information. Use the search and advance search features to find answers to your questions for they have been ask lots of times. Do not panic you will get threw this just take it one day at a time. Chickens are fun and destress us to watch them.

 

Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan

A visit to the Learning Center may be very helpful to you as well. Sumi gave you good size guidelines.

 

Welcome to BYC! You've received some good advice here, good luck to you.

 

I'm feeling much smarter after reading the responses you are getting. Glad you joined the flock

 

Welcome to BYC!

 

Welcome. Thank you for sharing your story it made me smile