How big of a coop do buff brahmas need?

[Valrek777]

So the wife and I got ahold of 14 unsexed buff brahmas, and they're about 2.5 weeks old. We don't know how many are male or female, but any excess roosters will likely end up as dinner.

How big of a coop will be needed? I've tried looking around for suggestions but most of what I find are roosting bar sizes instead of actual coop sizes.

Secondary question, since we are new with chickens- how and when do we determine their sex?

 

[Lor]

I guess that depends on how many you will be keeping.
What is usually discussed as a minimum is 4 square feet of space per chicken in the coop.

 

[Valrek777]

I guess that depends on how many you will be keeping.
What is usually discussed as a minimum is 4 square feet of space per chicken in the coop.

Yeah the final number will be a continuous mystery and slapping together a coop after they're sexed seems kinda last minute to me. I'll keep that 4 sq ft in mind though!

 

[Tonyroo]

Brahmas are definitely bigger birds so the 4 square foot per bird makes sense.

 

[SilverBirds]

There are a lot of great articles about it on this site. 4sq ft is the general rule of thumb for the coop and 10sq ft for the run. Bigger is always better though as you may fall victim of chicken math.

You can normally start to tell the sex at 4-8 weeks of age. Look for bigger and redder combs and wattles for the roos. At 10-12 weeks you can look at the saddle and hackle feathers. Roosters will have long wispy feathers whilst hens will have short round ones.

Good luck!

 

[GermanKennhuhn]

Congratulations on your chicks!

The average guidelines for space per chicken is 4 sq ft sq ft of space inside, and 8 sq ft of space in the run, but the more space the better. It’s hard to say how many females you’ll end up with, but assuming you keep half, you’ll need a 7x7 coop, and a 7x10 run. Again, the bigger the better, especially if you plan on buying more in the future.

As for sexing them, you can usually tell by their comb size and redness around 8 weeks of age.

 

[Valrek777]

There are a lot of great articles about it on this site. 4sq ft is the general rule of thumb for the coop and 10sq ft for the run. Bigger is always better though as you may fall victim of chicken math.

You can normally start to tell the sex at 4-8 weeks of age. Look for bigger and redder combs and wattles for the roos. At 10-12 weeks you can look at the saddle and hackle feathers. Roosters will have long wispy feathers whilst hens will have short round ones.

Good luck!

Thanks! The second part is really helpful because I couldn't find anything on buff brahmas so far

 

[GermanKennhuhn]

Sorry about the repeated information. I’m having trouble with my internet connection, and I didn’t see the other posts until I’d already posted mine.

 

[Valrek777]

Congratulations on your chicks!

The average guidelines for space per chicken is 4 sq ft sq ft of space inside, and 8 sq ft of space in the run, but the more space the better. It’s hard to say how many females you’ll end up with, but assuming you keep half, you’ll need a 7x7 coop, and a 7x10 run. Again, the bigger the better, especially if you plan on buying more in the future.

As for sexing them, you can usually tell by their comb size and redness around 8 weeks of age.

Awesome, I'll likely get more once we get used to having chickens so bigger is definitely the better choice

 

[Valrek777]

Sorry about the repeated information. I’m having trouble with my internet connection, and I didn’t see the other posts until I’d already posted mine.

My internet goes from slower than a potato to somewhat usable on a regular basis so I 100% understand