I have three, one's a 12X12 made of single sheet plywood and a dirt floor. I have wire dug about a foot down and concrete blocks on that to keep critters out. I live in South Ga so I opted to do the top 1/4 of the walls from the roof down out of wire. It's small guage and so it's been good at keeping things out ( game cam caught a racoon trying to get in...he failed) I have plywood flaps that i can lift up and latch that cover all but the top 3-4" of the wire ... for ventaliation if it ever gets really cold. I bed with a base of dirt, followed with a layer of hay and then topped off with wood shavings. I plan on deep litter bedding but wanted a layer to keep them off the ground. There is no door, it just opens to the run , its basically a run in for chickens. I will be putting the 4th side on soon. the roof on the big coop is metal. the roof on the small coops will be galvanized plastic. My other two coops are similar except the whole front is wire for right now. They are aprox. 5' wide by 12 foot long. They will be for my d'uccles and my small group of Orpingtons. They will be winterized by the time it gets really cold, but it's still in the 70's and 50's here. they are sealed inside and painted outside ( a lovely dill pickle green with a high gloss white trim lol) . Aside from making the change to 4 walled structures what do you think I need to do. And how many birds would you put in the 12x 12 and the 5 x 12 coops. One of the small coops is bantams and the other is full size birds ( the orps)
Sounds good. About adding stock: add less (much less) than you think the space can handle if you want to keep your cleaning chores light. The denser the bird population, the more work you need to do to keep your birds healthy, without even thinking about the birds' stress level. I have five small bantams in an 8' by 8' winter pen, and I rotate them into a 8' diameter tractor on nice weather days. That works ok, but it's not really roomy enough. You will never say to yourself "darn, I wish my birds had less room."
