How many coops are too many?

[Maggie13]

I have 1 small tractor.
If I need to separate a hen from the flock I have a dog kennel.

Now my neighbor up the road has at last count 7 coops and about 18 hens. He says his birds do not get along

 

[Debby R]

How many coops do we poultry folk generally have?? I am having a third coop, our second 4x6, built and now may have a sweet deal on a fourth coop at least 4x6 in size. How many coops do you all have?? Lol, is this a recipe for chicken math disaster?? Also, can a 4x6 coop be good for say 4 turkeys by themselves?? Lol, aware of needing a larger door but is that the only needed change?

Technically it is big enough though many sources say you need 10sf per adult turkey. 4x6 sounds way too small to me. Instead of 3 chicken coops, wouldn't it be easier to clean one large coop each day?

 

[Mariahlyn]

How many coops do we poultry folk generally have?? I am having a third coop, our second 4x6, built and now may have a sweet deal on a fourth coop at least 4x6 in size. How many coops do you all have?? Lol, is this a recipe for chicken math disaster?? Also, can a 4x6 coop be good for say 4 turkeys by themselves?? Lol, aware of needing a larger door but is that the only needed change?

I have 4 coops and 36 chickens.
1 coop for roosting in at night.
1 coop for their egg laying.
1 coop for their food and water.
1 coop for the broody hens and their chicks. Which has a separate feed, water and fenced in area still visible to all other hens. So transition of mama hen and later on teenager pullets is non problematic.

 

[Three Little Bunnies]

I have a 4 x 6 coop with an 16 x 12 run for my 13 standard hens, a 3 x 2 coop with a 3 x 6 run for my bantam chicks, and a 4 x 8 mansion for my rabbits, plus two puppy exercise pens for all the animals in case I need to separate a chicken or exercise the bunnies. This is in my 0.35 acre backyard.

 

[wolfinator]

I had 6 coops and 4 pens (1 was a split coop/pen for 5 roosters. That was up through Nov. 2019. I started with 1 8x10 two room coop and pen in 2015, added another coop/pen for my 23 2017 chicks. By that summer I was given 6 ducks, add another coop and divide second pen. Wow, same person gave me 4 pullets and 4 cockerels so build another pen and coop. Well we come to 2018 and I get 25 pullet chicks so add another coop to pen #3. Then I had to divide my 8x10 coop and add a pen divider so I could have a rooster pen since I now had 11 roosters. Plus I had a pair of older bantam hens go broody and stole a bunch of duck and standard chicken eggs so I added a small coop as a nursery and moved both hens with eggs into it. Both happily accepted their new home. The duck eggs all hatched 4 of 5 survived but lost all the chicken eggs so I bought 6 chicks for them to raise with ducklings. I sold ducklings at 4 weeks old. Now I come up to Nov. 2018, weather was horrible and my coops were constantly flooding so my younger son and boyfriend got the idea to build one large coop further away from the normally dry creek bed. Over time I've lost, gave away and sold some of my mixed flock. Most of my 49 hens, 7 roosters and 5 ducks share the new coop but I relocated my second largest coop to house the then 27 chicks (yeah, got more in spring 2019 and 6 more in the fall) and most of them decided to stay in it permanently. Even 3 of my roosters moved into it. So now I have the 12X10 main coop, a 5X8 mid-size coop and a small coop I use as needed with a 54X40 fenced pen for all to roam.

New main coop (old unused 8x10 in background will be relocated and turned onto a shed). A 6x10 storage/nursery area is on side where window is. Next to the pen are my 2 brother dogs with a split dog house and kennel. They are food aggressive so we divided their 4x6 house adding a second door and the 15x30 kennel run was divided with a gated fence. I only close gate in between when feeding.

The relocated 5x8 coop needed refurbished and has only roosting bars, no nests. Food and water are at main coop unless severe weather is forecasted. I'll add a nesting box or 2 but they still will make their way to main coop to lay their eggs.

I looking to add a few more female ducks to the flock this year.

My 2 kenneled dogs do alert me if anything or anyone is around, if a flock member escapes or if a fight breaks out but sadly I can't allow them to interact together. My one dog has killed a hen before (flew over 3 fences landing in his side, I extended fences to 7ft) and at 4 months carried a drake away but didn't hurt him.

 

[Trevorusn]

Technically it is big enough though many sources say you need 10sf per adult turkey. 4x6 sounds way too small to me. Instead of 3 chicken coops, wouldn't it be easier to clean one large coop each day?

Aye, it would be. However, as we plan on moving in the next few years a big coop isn't exactly mobile. Plus I want a seperate bachelor pad and grow out coop, so multiple coops work better for now.

 

[Trevorusn]

I had 6 coops and 4 pens (1 was a split coop/pen for 5 roosters. That was up through Nov. 2019. I started with 1 8x10 two room coop and pen in 2015, added another coop/pen for my 23 2017 chicks. By that summer I was given 6 ducks, add another coop and divide second pen. Wow, same person gave me 4 pullets and 4 cockerels so build another pen and coop. Well we come to 2018 and I get 25 pullet chicks so add another coop to pen #3. Then I had to divide my 8x10 coop and add a pen divider so I could have a rooster pen since I now had 11 roosters. Plus I had a pair of older bantam hens go broody and stole a bunch of duck and standard chicken eggs so I added a small coop as a nursery and moved both hens with eggs into it. Both happily accepted their new home. The duck eggs all hatched 4 of 5 survived but lost all the chicken eggs so I bought 6 chicks for them to raise with ducklings. I sold ducklings at 4 weeks old. Now I come up to Nov. 2018, weather was horrible and my coops were constantly flooding so my younger son and boyfriend got the idea to build one large coop further away from the normally dry creek bed. Over time I've lost, gave away and sold some of my mixed flock. Most of my 49 hens, 7 roosters and 5 ducks share the new coop but I relocated my second largest coop to house the then 27 chicks (yeah, got more in spring 2019 and 6 more in the fall) and most of them decided to stay in it permanently. Even 3 of my roosters moved into it. So now I have the 12X10 main coop, a 5X8 mid-size coop and a small coop I use as needed with a 54X40 fenced pen for all to roam.

New main coop (old unused 8x10 in background will be relocated and turned onto a shed). A 6x10 storage/nursery area is on side where window is.
View attachment 2120980

The relocated 5x8 coop needed refurbished and has only roosting bars, no nests. Food and water are at main coop unless severe weather is forecasted. I'll add a nesting box or 2 but they still will make their way to main coop to lay their eggs.
View attachment 2121002

I looking to add a few more female ducks to the flock this year.

I love this color scheme! So the combined flocks in one big area seem to do ok then? That is my plan once coop #3 with a more efficient layout comes in.

 

[Trevorusn]

I have a 4 x 6 coop with an 16 x 12 run for my 13 standard hens, a 3 x 2 coop with a 3 x 6 run for my bantam chicks, and a 4 x 8 mansion for my rabbits, plus two puppy exercise pens for all the animals in case I need to separate a chicken or exercise the bunnies. This is in my 0.35 acre backyard.

Lol thats a lot for the space, must be a pretty efficient layout!

 

[Trevorusn]

This big.

View attachment 2115355
View attachment 2115358
View attachment 2115360

Now that is a beautiful mansion...I mean coop lol. What inspired the design?

 

[Trevorusn]

My one coop grew over the years, and now is about 13' x 24', which has five separate areas that can be opened or closed off, so chicks go out there at 2.5 to 3 weeks of age, with their heat source, and breeding groups can be separated as needed. It's both 'coop' and 'roofed run' and works very well.
If I have either Freedom Rangers or Cornishx meat birds, they live in a cattle panel hoop coop in the side lawn, near the house.
The brooder for new chicks is in the garage.
I've managed to restrain myself, and so far have no plans to build another coop...
Mary

I like this idea, perhaps once we move we may build something similar, like an apartment coop complex. Could this work for turkeys and geese also, sharing a divided but included unit?