how much space....?????

[Nicola]

i have currently 4 bantam sized chickes and am going to be hatching more in the springbut will only be able to keep 2-4 of them cause i have a small backyard https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1629 and i want to build on like this how big would i need to make it nothing Huge though and space affective

 

[Omran]

I think 4x4' coop will be just right for them.

 

[Nicola]

is that in the house or the run or both?

 

[Nicola]

anyone else

 

[Judy]

Usual guideline here is 4 sq ft per chicken in the coop and 10 sq ft per chicken in the run. So a 4X6 coop would hold your 6 chickens, by this standard.

But you will often read here that bigger is better, and I would not keep chickens in this small a space. Crowding leads to pecking and feather pulling, and there are a lot of posts on here about people with these problems. I have 4 hens in a 4x6 coop who free range all day over several acres, and one of them gets her feathers picked, anyway.

Give them as much space as you can.

 

[Nicola]

also what kind of door should i use?

 

[Judy]

I have no idea what your resources are. Here, a ready made people door could be bought fairly inexpensively at a lumber yard or home improvement center like Home Depot. You could also build it with something like 1x4's and hardware cloth. If you mean the chicken (pop) door, they are usually built out of framed wood, or a piece of something like plywood with a frame for it to slide in, depending how it will open and close.