Help me decide on small coop build, please!

[Folly's place]

Gemma, those very cute coop plans may not be the best, depending on your available space. It's much more pleasant to walk into the coop and have head room! More space is good too, and picture yourself crawling under that thing to get eggs, a sick bird, or whatever.
Cute coops come in larger more practical shapes and sizes too! Ground level, shed type, or Woods coop, with a handsome paint job and cute door. Mary

 

[blackdog043]

Check Amazon and walmart.com for 1/2 x 1/2 hardware cloth. They usually have the best online prices.

 

[GemmaA]

What ever you build, plan on a minimum of 4 s.f. in coop and 10 s.f. in run per bird, allowing extra space if: you ever plan to have a roo, if you ever intend to integrate more birds, if you ever intend to hatch eggs or allow a broody hen to do her thing, also good to allow extra space to divide coop or provide a broody pen, sick pen, or what ever. Make run tall enough to allow for multi height "fun" : Best if it's a "walk in". Hay bale pyramids/tunnels, extra perch. Coop should be tall enough that perches are 2' above ground, and 2' above perch minimum. Walk in is best. Deep litter in both coop and run are extra helpful. Make pop door and nest boxes appropriate height to allow for DL. My run has 2 x 6 boards around bottom perimeter to help hold the DL.

Awesome info, thank you!!

Gemma, those very cute coop plans may not be the best, depending on your available space. It's much more pleasant to walk into the coop and have head room! More space is good too, and picture yourself crawling under that thing to get eggs, a sick bird, or whatever.
Cute coops come in larger more practical shapes and sizes too! Ground level, shed type, or Woods coop, with a handsome paint job and cute door. Mary

I'm pretty much set on having a walk in run so I can hang with the ladies, and I definitely need to consider ease of access to the coop for cleaning and collecting eggs. My favourite plan so far is the 'chicken palace' by HGTV since it seems to have both those things but I need to check the measurements!