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gardendog

gardendog

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9 Years
Sep 3, 2010
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My daughter and future sun in law needed a shed so I stepped in and built them one. Now the kid wants a chicken coop ! I build bridges for a living and lived in the city all my life. Except for photo's have never seen a chicken coop in my life so I am starting from scratch. at first she said she wanted it to be mobile but the fact that there are predators just behind her house I counted 10 raccoons one morning and a family of hawks nest in the trees every winter I feel something a bit more permanent is needed. I am here trying to learn as much as I can so I can get this right the first time. I am thinking maybe building off the side of the shed. Just how much room does 15 chickens need? and from what I have seen so far different types of chickens need different things and the kids are still at the ooh I want that one, no now I want that one stage. Just as long as I don't have to feed them or clean up after them but I do want the poop I am a gardener after all that's the deal , so at the risk of being crude I am working for chicken poop sounded like a good idea at the time with black hen 20 pound bag going for $11.00 bucks a bag that is a big jump in price the last time I bought it was $6.00 bucks a bag.
 
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https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=56638 At the moment this one is my favorite! You could even make it so the hardware cloth is on the bottom, too. Very secure!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/coopdesigns.html Here are all the coops if you haven't looked yet. Each section (tractors, small, medium, and large) has a TON of each type of coop.
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Good luck!
 
Coops are a lot like sheds; heck, some of the most common 'easy route' coops are just pre-made sheds that are modified for the purpose. Also, there's a coop section on this site -http://www.backyardchickens.com/coopdesigns.html

There should be some good ideas in there. There's different considerations based on what your area gets in terms of weather. High heat v freezing cold, etc. The big thing I keep hearing about is ventalation without creating drafts.

Course, I took the easy way out. I bought a Cube.
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Welcome from an imp in Washington

If you need to keepo them cooped up for protection, you'll need about 4sf per chicken in the coop and 10sf in the run. This is a minimum, more space is always better. If you/they get small chickens like bantams you can get by with less.

Good luck and we'll need pixs

Imp
 

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