Keeping everyone where they're supposed to be

[joneus]

My (EE) broody blessed me with a whopping 13 bantam chicks yesterday. They're going to live on my front porch until the beginning of March, which gives me roughly 6wks to build them their own digs. I'm planning on converting a 4'x8' green-house (built out of PT 2x4's) into their own private coop & locating near the big coop & run set up.

I'm playing with the idea of giving the bantams their own little "chute" with their own little bantam sized chicken door into the main run. Is there a door dimension that a bantam can fit though, but a normal sized chicken cant?

 

[teach1rusl]

I don't think I'd worry about the big chickens getting into the banties' coop. I'd worry that if you try to make a chute too tight, that the bantams wouldn't use it either. A tiny pop door is one thing, a tiny tunnel is another (if that's what you were considering). But if it's just the pop door, then a 6 x 8" would probably be fine for most bantams. Chickens are birds of habit, so your big girls are most likely going to head back to their own coop to roost at night, while your bantams will go to theirs.
My bantams and LF have separate coops and mostly freerange together. The big girls often visit the bantams coop/run area, and my bantam girls often hang out in the big girl run. But at the end of the day, they all head back to their own coop/run...it's kind of funny. The ONLY exception I've had was when the bantam pop door closed (auto door) before one of my silkies made it inside, and she ended up going in with the big girls that evening. We do a head count each evening - found her and moved her...and adjusted the timer...lol.