Large Coop Design - Feedback?

[BaaKaaawk]

We just want to save you from the big rebuild. We will be building our 4th in a couple months. In fact, we’re building the third right now because the two we have aren’t big enough to accommodate our 12 chickens without some of them pooping in nesting boxes. Oh and we have about 40 sf right now, not counting the 8 best boxes. . Without what the chickens perceive as adequate space there will be messy nest boxes. They have to be able to get away from each other.

Our next coop, after this wick one this week, will be 8x10. We will still have 12 chickens. We know that’s our magic number.

Maybe I'll just double it and go 12x12 ha! It will look like a rocket in the middle of field. That's ok, everyone already thinks I'm nuts!

Sounds like I'll just have to decrease my chicken count. I'm not going to do anything unhealthy for the birds, I've kept chickens a really long time and I'll know pretty quickly if something isn't working. Not going to cram a bunch in there and just hope- I'm one of the good guys, promise.

 

[BaaKaaawk]

Looks like a chicken church to me. Laying boxes are pointless in my opinion as chickes do whatever the heck they want. For us it is better to provide plants and bushes for them to lay under.

That's interesting to hear about your layers. I have 7 boxes in my current coop (it was pictured earlier) and they lay in there always. Wonder what they don't like about your boxes?

 

[AllenK RGV]

Maybe I'll just double it and go 12x12 ha! It will look like a rocket in the middle of field. That's ok, everyone already thinks I'm nuts!

Sounds like I'll just have to decrease my chicken count. I'm not going to do anything unhealthy for the birds, I've kept chickens a really long time and I'll know pretty quickly if something isn't working. Not going to cram a bunch in there and just hope- I'm one of the good guys, promise.

Just don't Eleon Musk to work on your rocket that won't work out well for the chicken. Better to just focus on building a coop. That guy keeps starting fires or blowing them up down here. Plus the highway to my isolated beach is shut down so often I cant get there to let the dogs run wild the girls need to be free.

 

[ValerieJ]

Maybe I'll just double it and go 12x12 ha! It will look like a rocket in the middle of field. That's ok, everyone already thinks I'm nuts!

Sounds like I'll just have to decrease my chicken count. I'm not going to do anything unhealthy for the birds, I've kept chickens a really long time and I'll know pretty quickly if something isn't working. Not going to cram a bunch in there and just hope- I'm one of the good guys, promise.

I believe you. That’s why you came here.

 

[AllenK RGV]

Just lol. That's interesting to hear about your layers. I have 7 boxes in my current coop (it was pictured earlier) and they lay in there always. Wonder what they don't like about your boxes?

I get a new pretty looking bush my wife wants tomorrow according to my neighbor to put into the coop. Something durable but flowering so am happy. All I have to do for it is to split an order of Sumatra with his brother in the Spring.

I'm sure they just don't like the fact that the rest of the flock is free ranging and getting all the good bugs while they lay.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

We built our first coop with a few extra sq ft (above the 4 Per bird minimum). As soon as I put them in it (not full grown) I could see it was going to be too small. We were able to add to it when we added
external nesting boxes.

It‘s still too small. They pullets get off the roost at sunrise, mill around while eating and drinking, and crowd around the pop door.

I have more weather issues than you do (in Vermont). But if you get occasional cold temps, you might get occasional snow. Until they get used to it, chickens don’t want to go out, and don’t want to walk in it. That would be a bad day in the coop!

We had our first pecking injury the day after the first snow.

If you have the means, give them space. And some shade, and some cover. If a hawk gets a tasty meal, it could keep coming back for more!

 

[aart]

Laying boxes are pointless in my opinion as chickes do whatever the heck they want.

Well, you do most things different than most of us here.

Maybe I'll just double it and go 12x12 ha! It will look like a rocket in the middle of field. That's ok, everyone already thinks I'm nuts!

There ya go!!
Even as designed, go for it if you want, you know the limitations is might present.