I’m a bit worried... Will this be to small?

[Lemon-Drop]

Something to keep in mind when cutting it close with coop size (other than the ventilation that has been brought up already, and the roosts, which you mentioned you would be adding in your first postl) is what your situation is going to be like in inclement weather conditions. If you've got a huge storm brewing, are your chickens going to be crammed together for 3 days without adequate room to move? It's great to have a good sized run and to be able to let your flock roam, but coop size is important for more reasons than just sleeping space, so it's always something to keep in mind when determining how much wiggle room you have with square footage. To some it's not important, but to me it's a biggie, especially during the half of the year we may get a massive snow dump that locks everything down. A lot will depend on the personalities of the individual birds. Keep in mind, that pretty coop is going to be not so pretty without some decent time cleaning after more than doubling your flock.
Have you considered how you're going to integrate the two flocks?

We originally started with 6 chickens, then added a few more last year. We have a chicken tractor, originally for our sick chicken Jasmine (she’s alive and well now) it’s not very big, but big enough for holding the smaller chickens for another few weeks. Depending on the weather, we will hope to move them out at 6 weeks, so I’m another 3 weeks. For a few days, we keep them in the tractor, just so the big chickens realize there are new chickens. Then, we let them free range together, watching very closely, to see how they react. Then, the next day, we see how they do together in the run, watching very closely. And if all goes well, they go together in the coop. This is what we did last year, and there were no problems. Sadly, our chicken Ponyo passed a few days ago. (it will still be 13 chickens) all of the chickens are very sweet, both to one another, and to me. Hopefully they will be sweet to the new chicks. We get lots of drizzle weather, (Washington) but where I am, it rarely snows at all. (I love snow, so it makes me sad, but makes the chickens happy) anyway, thank you for your help! I really hope this works out. My secondary plan, is to either give some chickens away, which would make me pretty sad, but would probably be better than fighting, or build a second, slightly smaller, coop.

 

[Noreaster Egger]

As others have said, more roost space and more ventilation...even with the fact you’re in western WA. Space wise, I’ve got an 8x8 coop with 19! birds, but they are only in there to sleep and they have all gotten along well for years. I have 24ft of roost space so they have enough room to find a desirable spot to sleep at night. I’m out there every day at sunrise to let them out into the 24x32 run so the lack of coop size/bird hasn’t hurt me yet. If we get a day with below 0F highs and wind I have kept them inside until the sun hits the run, but in those situtations they just huddle up together on the roost to stay warm anyway.

 

[Lemon-Drop]

As others have said, more roost space and more ventilation...even with the fact you’re in western WA. Space wise, I’ve got an 8x8 coop with 19! birds, but they are only in there to sleep and they have all gotten along well for years. I have 24ft of roost space so they have enough room to find a desirable spot to sleep at night. I’m out there every day at sunrise to let them out into the 24x32 run so the lack of coop size/bird hasn’t hurt me yet. If we get a day with below 0F highs and wind I have kept them inside until the sun hits the run, but in those situtations they just huddle up together on the roost to stay warm anyway.

Today is actually the day I’m going to add the new roost. And I’m going to add more ventilation. Thank you so much! I really hope this works out!

 

[Sally PB]

You mentioned building another coop. That might help, but maybe not, if all the birds decide to use one coop. Can you add on to your existing coop instead?

Chicken math is getting to me too. I've talked hubby into adding on to our coop. And run.

 

[Lemon-Drop]

You mentioned building another coop. That might help, but maybe not, if all the birds decide to use one coop. Can you add on to your existing coop instead?

Chicken math is getting to me too. I've talked hubby into adding on to our coop. And run.

I guess if there seems to be problems I could try and add on. Thank you!

 

[Malkaris]

Yes, my chickens have about 4 square feet per bird which I thought would be enough and they've only spent about 4-5 scattered days *total* over the winter in the coop during the day due to storms (which is frankly amazing that the winter was that good) and the hens got irritable and picked on a couple of them and it created some bad habits. One of the reasons I didn't build big was because our winters are so extreme and very, very cold. So naturally this winter was bizarre...

But fun roosts that they can wander around on are good too maybe, aside from the "night roost".

 

[aart]

One of the reasons I didn't build big was because our winters are so extreme and very, very cold.

Trying to 'hold heat' in a smaller coop?
Probably also with not enough ventilation?
Can be a tough balance in really cold climates.

Where in this world are you located @Malkaris ?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, and then it's always there!

 

[Malkaris]

Trying to 'hold heat' in a smaller coop?
Probably also with not enough ventilation?

I don't believe so... Humidity levels have been consistently lower than the outside, sometimes by more than 10%.

As I write this the coop is reading 8% lower than the outside.

I was thinking about editing my profile - the convenience of it VS my obsession with privacy (which doesn't always work when looking for advice online!). But I should have *something* more than... Earth.