Help! I wanna build a large coop 20-30 chickens!

[mossyroo]

I know what the space recomendations are and I'm sure they are correct but I swear my 9 (about 2 1/2 mo) are always in about a 9 sq ft area. That 9 sq ft moves from place to place in the run but it is seldom any bigger.

 

[Ridgerunner]

How fast the grass disappears will depend on your weather, time of year, occupational density, age of the chickens, the type of grass, type of soil, and how well the turf is established. You’ll just have to see what number of chickens is right for your unique situation. Where I am that varies by season.

You have a bit of a challenge to meet your budget. Don’t forget foundation costs. Craigslist and Habitat Reuse stores are great resources. If you buy building materials, most come in 4’ or 8’ lengths so you can usually reduce cutting and waste by using those dimensions but that depends on what material you are using.

In your climate I’d build an open ended coop. Make one wall out of wire. Create a cul de sac to put the roosts in so they are out of direct wind, put a roof over it to keep out rain, and make as much open as you can. Heat is your enemy down there, not cold. They could sleep in trees down there and do fine as far as the weather. I’ve seen chickens sleep in trees in zero degree Fahrenheit overnight lows and they did fine. In your climate, cold is not an issue.

You could even make the whole thing open except for wind breaks around the roosts. I’m thinking more of your hurricane winds or afternoon thunderstorms than the cold.

One problem with an open air coop is that rain blows in. A wet coop or run is a dangerous coop or run, a breeding ground for disease. A wet coop or run also stinks. As long as that floor is higher than other areas so water has a place to drain to and you have good ventilation that should not be a problem. If the floor is sand so it drains well, that is even better, but the water needs a place to drain to. Good ventilation and good drainage should dry it out pretty quickly. With that many chickens poop will build up, especially under the roosts. I’d give a lot of consideration to a droppings board to reduce the amount of poop building up in your floor. It’s quite likely you could get by with no bedding material, just the ground, especially if it is sand.

That’s another reason to build big. The more you can spread out the poop the less hard you have to work to manage it. If it is concentrated in one place, like under the roosts but also in small coops or runs, it can be a problem.

You might follow the link in my signature below to get my thoughts on room. I don’t give you any cut and dry space recommendations, more of things to consider when you are planning your size.

Good luck. What you are talking about should work but you need to be flexible enough to adjust to your unique conditions.

 

[K-Kritter]

Very interested in hearing more about this subject. I am not get quite that many, only 15 but want to make sure I have plenty of room for them. Also, I am trying to do this as inexpensively as possible, so the coops made from recycled materials has been very inspiring to me. I've seen a few made from pallets and love the cheap cost. Since I am am dangerous with a paint brush (anything that stands still for more than 5 minutes can get a coat of colorful paint from me!) I really like the painted ones. Where my dilemma comes from is whether to go with a floored coop or dirt. I really like the dirt option, just want to make sure I do it correctly. *sigh* There is so much to think about....I don't even have my chickens yet and am already stressed.

 

[Mrs. K]

personally, one of the paddocks I would use as a garden during the summer months, let them clean it up during the winter months.

 

[longbranch321]

personally, one of the paddocks I would use as a garden during the summer months, let them clean it up during the winter months.

Oh yeah, we already planned for that. We let our current 1yr old girls clean up our garden at the old house and this new house and the new girls will be no exception We will not only have a fenced in garden with raised beds, but I also plan to plant a separate large corn patch also fenced in and as soon as it gets tall and hardy enough to withstand their scratching I will allow them in to run pest control and weed patrol and forage all they want lol.

 

[longbranch321]

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. They were all helpful. The coop is almost finished and then we will start on the run. I am posting pictures in order of progression to date and I'll post more as when it's finished. My father-in-law is a master carpenter and he found a coop on BYC that we scaled down a bit from 12' x 20' to 8' x 12' and made some other changes such as making the higher of the two long walls open. I did go over my $1000 budget, but it's been well worth it. So far, I've got roughly $1500 in it for the coop only, without the run. Someone suggested looking into the 100 yr old book Open Air Poultry Houses by Dr. Prince T. Woods, so I bought it on amazon. This house is modeled after the style of open-air poultry house known as a "Tolman House" from the book. It has two large windows on the 6 foot high wall, and the 8 foot high wall is completely open, from about 32inches down from the top and because it will have a metal roof, it will also have about four inches of ventilation all the way around at the top of all four walls. The windows were given to me, so they are not a part of that $1500. One thing that cost me a little extra was the fact that I did not use pressure treated wood, but instead treated the non-PT lumber myself with a non-toxic VOC-free lumber sealer. I did this because I have a well and I did not want the toxic chemicals VOC's and harsh fungicides, which leach out of PT wood, to end up in my ground water/drinking water and didn't want them anywhere near my chickens or my vegetable garden either. I like to do everything "organically", sustainably, and as environmentally responsibly as possible. I paid $189 for a five gallon bucket of this lumber sealer, which was the "Kennel-Seal" version of their product which is supposed to be more scratch-resistant for kennels and coops and other animal enclosures. I elevated the house on concrete blocks, 2 blocks high, so it's roughly 16-18" off the ground. Once level, I filled the blocks with concrete and we built the deck. Then we framed the walls and put them up. Then we framed the roof and hung the cement fiber "Hardie board" on all the walls. We still need one more sheet to finish and then we will install the metal roofing. I will insulate the roof with 2" thick 4'x8' foam insulation sheets to keep from cooking my chickens alive in our intensely hot summers. The coop is positioned perfectly under a huge maple tree so that it's half in the shade to help keep cool, but will still get plenty of sunshine. I'll keep posting pics as it wraps up. Thanks again to everyone.