How big and what all should be done?

[a123andpoof]

We are building our first chicken coop. We would like it to fit around 20 some chickens. About how big should that be? I noticed a 4 sq feet per chicken? Also we live in MN so it gets nice and cold what all is recommended for the coop for this type of climate?

Thank you for any help!

 

[Spudd dud]

This is what i built for my birds. At one time I had 41 birds (way too many for the 8' x 8' coop), just during the summer though. Right now I have about 19 birds and they seem to be doing fine. Just make sure you insulate it good and have adjustable venting.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=81983-my-first-coop

 

[patandchickens]

If you are in Minnesota I very, very strongly recommend giving them a whole lot more than 4 sq ft per chicken indoors (even if you have a roofed run).

IMHO 10 sq ft per chicken is minimal; 15 is a lot better. For 20 chickens I would not recommend anything smaller than 10x20' and really a larger building or fewer chickens would be better.

Ignore people who tell you to pack 'em in like sardines 'so their body heat keeps the coop warm'. It doesn't; you just end up with grumpy chickens with a high likelihood of antisocial behavior and it makes it extremely difficult to ensure adequate ventilation to keep the coop air non-humid (humidity -> frostbite).

Even with a roofed and windblocked run, there is a pretty fair chance that your chickens will want to be spending A LOT of time indoors for a few months of the worst of winter, and crowding -> cannibalism.

Other thoughts: make the coop as large as you can stand to build, insulate the bejeebers out of it, include passive-solar and heat-storage type features if at all possible, and make sure you design some of your ventilation specifically for optimal wintertime use.

Another consideration is that it'd really be worth your while making sure you can run a proper electric line (buried, wired into house circuits properly and safely, etc) out to the coop. Not only might you want to run a light to improve midwinter egg laying, but it is AWFULLY nice to be able to run a heated waterer base so that you do not have to be dragging new liquid water out there a coupla times a day when it's -30.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat