Is a 6x7 coop to big for 6-7 chickens?

[Alaskan]

Are you allowed to scrounge through the construction trash area of your local dump... that can be a goldmine.

 

[Skyla]

wait !! if you can find wooden pallets, and you don't mind doing a little work, You can side the whole coop with short boards. If you put them on vertically, you can cut strips to cover the spaces between the boards and make it a board and batten siding. it will be air tight and strong..
You could also make the floors out of pallet boards..
I am also in N Wisc. Wausau. what town are you close to ?
around here there are barns that have collapsed from non use. lots of boards available there, probably for free..
I would make the coop no less than 8'x8'. and to me, that is tiny.
chickens do not huddle to keep warm.
Like someone already mentioned..
windows on the south side of the coop do add some warmth on a sunny cold day.
If there are no drafts and the floors are dry, the chickens will walk around and be content.
warm water to drink. keeping in mind that warm water will freeze quicker that cold. scientific fact.
I have electricity in my coops. I direct a milk house heater toward the waterer. that is all the heat the chickens need and the water does not freeze.
good ventilation so moisture does not form on the chickens' combs. and you will not have any frozen combs.
.....jiminwaUSAu.......

I wanted to do wooden pallets for the siding, especially since we have a ton of free pallets available near us, however wouldn't you have to buy osb to put down first and then the pallets? So then by paying an extra 30 some dollars for plywood you would skip all the work of pallets. Or do you not have to put osb down first? I assumed you did to help keep the weather out and to have something for the pallets to nail into. I do see a good bit of collapsed barns but the person I'm building the coop with decided they'd rather pay the extra cash than spend all the time to gather and go through the boards. Personally i'd rather save cash than save time but to each there own. We have 2 decent sized windows going into the coop so hopefully that will let in a good bit of sun. I didn't know warm water froze faster than cold, that's a helpful thing to know. Thanks for all the info and response!

 

[Skyla]

Are you allowed to scrounge through the construction trash area of your local dump... that can be a goldmine.

I hadn't thought about that, I'll have to check it out and see if we can. We usually dumpster dive in the dumpsters at the houses being built in our developing neighborhood and find a good bit of stuff. But, just our luck, there hasn't been any new houses built in a while so our dumpster accessibility is limited at the moment.

 

[Alaskan]

I put in posts, then nailed scrap wood(some from pallets) in between the posts.

My bantam coop is made out of only scrap. If you want to see my coop page about that you can hit the link below my avatar... links to all of my articles.

As to warm water freezing faster... mostly just happens in a lab....

Experiment for yourself in the winter.

 

[jvls1942]

I never experimented the cold/hot water freeze.
I agree, in a lab setting you could probably see the difference.
You could put the pallet boards directly onto the floor joists. You said that You have linoleum to cover the floor. before plywood was invented, all houses had plain boards on the floors.
If you wanted to make it more air tight, put two layers of boards in. one perpendicular to the joists and the other diagonal .
but this is a moot point, since your partner is going to go the plywood/osb route.
........

 

[aart]

I never experimented the cold/hot water freeze.

I have, hot water freezes faster.

 

[jvls1942]

thanks, Aart..