How tall should the coop be?

[KenCoesta]

I'm still drawing up my coop plans and a this question came up in a another thread.
My flock will ideally be maxed out at 10 chicks.
Going by the rule (4sf/bird) I'm looking at an 8'x5' coop.

So, how tall should it be?
Is there a rule for that?

I see that roosts need to be higher than the nesting boxes.
And those need to be higher than the floor (think I'll try to have the boxes opposite the roosts).

How high up should the roosts be?
How high can chickens jump/fly?

How low from the ceiling?

I'm totally getting aspy on this coop business! ;
Special interest! ^___^

 

[faykokoWV]

I like mine tall enough to walk into so i can clean it easliy. You don't want the roost too high as they can injure their feet when they jump down from them.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

I really favor five square feet per bird unless they'll only be sleeping in there and will have a larger run outside to be in during the day.

As for height I long ago stopped fooling with anything I have to stand on my head to get into. If it's not tall enough for me to walk in to get to whatever I need to get to then it's not for me. Whatever your height is plus about six inches would be great.

.....Alan.

 

[Marie1234]

Yeah, with a 5x8 dimension it is too deep to reach into so you are going to really need to walk in without bumping your head.

 

[Ridgerunner]

FaykokoWV makes an excellent point. Are you going to want to walk in it? An 8 x 5 would be tight with you, nest boxes, roosts, and maybe feeders and waterers in it. I'd suggest making the roosts removable if you are planning on working inside. If not, make sure you have plenty of access doors and hatches to clean it.

Aside from the walk in question, the bottom of the nest boxes need to be about 12" above the top of the litter (not the floor) so the chickens can get under them. This way the nest boxes do not count against your floor space. If you cut this too close, the chickens will scratch the litter in the middle of the floor under the nests and not go under the nests and clean it back out. You wind up with a lot of your litter piled under your nest boxes. That litter stays pretty clean but the middle of your floor gets pretty bare unless you keep adding litter.

Your roosts then need to be noticably higher than your nest boxes or anything else you don't want them to roost on. If the top of the nest boxes and the roosts are close together, 6" is probably enough. If they are on the opposite sides of your coop, maybe 12" would be better.

For good ventilation without getting your roosting birds in a draft, you need enough height above the roosting birds to put your vents so the cross draft does not hit them. With a walk-in coop that kind of takes care of itself. With the smalller ones, it is something you should consider.

FaykokoWV also makes a good point about them possibly hurting them selves jumping down. The heavier the breed, the more likely that is to happen, so you want the roosts to be as low as possible. Another reason to have the roosts as low as possible is that the chickens flap their wings and fly down when they come off the roosts in the morning. They are pretty clumsy flyers and can hit feeders, waterers, nest boxes or walls on the way down and injure themselves. The higher the roost, the more horizontal clear room they need to come down. My roosts are just under 4 feet high and most of mine use the top of the nest box to get on the roost, but they all fly straight to the ground. So I suggest making the roosts as low as you can.

I don't know what your final layout will be. With 10 chickens yuo need about 8" minimum for roost length, so one roost across the 5 foot width will not be enough but one the 8 foot length will be. My set-up is different from yours, but I put my nest boxes on a wall perpendicular to the roosts. I'll throw that out as a suggestion for you to consider. As you can see from this photo, I did not follow all of my advice when building mine, such as the height of the nests off the litter and keeping the height of the roosts as low as I could. Should we say that experience is a good teacher.

 

[racuda]

Not only should the coop be tall enough to walk into, but the covered run should be as well. I made the mistake of building a 4' tall run for my first coop. It's no fun walking crab-like in there.

 

[Backyard_Chicken_rancher]

Coop height is your height plus 6-12 inches higher so you have room to sweep or rake whatever you need to do and have spare room to. worried about heat in the winter hang a painters tarp lower the the roof this will keep the heat in better and you can on do it if you need to clean or anything.

Roost height a roost should be at least 18 inches off the ground but no higher then 2 feet if making a flat roost as for a staggered roost bottom rung should be no lower then 6 inchs no higher then a foot under the roof height.

With poop board you should make it no lower then 24" inches

I hope this hopes Good luck

 

[KenCoesta]

Awright... Awesome advice, everyone!
I think I've got a fully functional coop/run in my head, now to draw it out!
More like, GET IT OUT!!! ;

Totally do want walk in everything.
Just wasn't sure where all the furniture should go - now I know! ^____^

 

[teach1rusl]

Elevate your nest boxes so that you don't lose any floor space. And as was mentioned, you want your roosts higher than your nest box perch. How well chickens fly really depends on the breed. My EE can fly (an almost vertical shot) 6 ft high. My big butt buff orp. can do maybe 3 ft. My nest box perch is 24 inches high, and my roosts start about 30 inches...my main roost is 3 ft high. here's my basic layout for my five girls so you can see my height relation between nest boxe perches and roosts.