My coop design/bird capacity

[Silver-Fire]

very cute coop!! and yes, i plan on putting plenty of overhang. and good point, i can easily put a door on the area under the coop that opens from the outside if its too much of a pain.

goldens are a medium sized hen(i believe), but i should prob stick with three so they arent crowded at all??

 

[Silver-Fire]

how far up should the outside roost be?

 

[salt and pepper]

very cute coop!! and yes, i plan on putting plenty of overhang. and good point, i can easily put a door on the area under the coop that opens from the outside if its too much of a pain.

goldens are a medium sized hen(i believe), but i should prob stick with three so they arent crowded at all??

I think you could fit 4 on there, they aren't large birds, and that still gives them 3 sq ft per bird, in the coop, would you be able to free range at all?? That would help. also, if you do 8/4 instead of 8/3, you could defiantly fit them all comfortably.

 

[salt and pepper]

how far up should the outside roost be?

Mine is four feet up, and my birds love it, I plan on making another one at three-four feet tall.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Lots of good advice so far. I wanted to add that most people are afraid their chickens will be cold in winter and don't add enough ventilation. The result is a closed up building with bad air and excess humidity. The result of that is respiratory problems and frostbite.
Ventilate, ventilate, ventilate.
A friend here in Missouri has a coop like you're plan with a roost in the run like salt and pepper suggested. This past winter the hens chose to sleep on the roost in the run ALL WINTER, not once sleeping inside only going in to lay. They are quite healthy. I'm not a subscriber to the 'no drafts' philosophy unless they're wet.

 

[Chicken man76]

I think you will be fine if you put the nesting box to the side. I have them on the sides of my coop they have a way that when they walk in theirs a lege that goes to both sides a have 2the roosts in the middle. My coop just the coop is 8' long 5' wide & 3 1/2' tall in the center i have 8 chickens and two guineas seems to be working fine so far. With a 12' run

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Letting them under the coop is great for summer when that's usually the coolest place.

 

[Time-Out]

It's a great design. I'm thinking of doing a similar one for my growers.

Here are a few points to think about:

If you have the nestboxes inside the house (rather than hanging off the side), they will take up a lot of floor space. You won't have 12sqft, you'll have 10, or in reality, 9, as they won't use the last corner.

You could put the perch front to back, under the highest point of the roof, closer to the back wall (so they have plenty of space to jump down). That would perhaps allow you to raise the nestboxes back up a little, although I'd be concerned they might prefer the dark space underneath them for laying.

You'll want the bedding to stay in, so depending on whether you plan on using the deep litter method or just having a couple of inches of bedding, you'll probably want to raise the door 4" off the bottom.

I find that ramps take up way too much space in runs, so I replaced it with a perch jutting out from under the coop, at the same height. The chickens fly up onto that then just walk in.

 

[salt and pepper]

Lots of good advice so far. I wanted to add that most people are afraid their chickens will be cold in winter and don't add enough ventilation. The result is a closed up building with bad air and excess humidity. The result of that is respiratory problems and frostbite.
Ventilate, ventilate, ventilate.
A friend here in Missouri has a coop like you're plan with a roost in the run like salt and pepper suggested. This past winter the hens chose to sleep on the roost in the run ALL WINTER, not once sleeping inside only going in to lay. They are quite healthy. I'm not a subscriber to the 'no drafts' philosophy unless they're wet.

Now, mine do go in the coop, but I did have one rooster who preferred to to sleep on the roof, he was a buff though, so he kept himself warm. lol. And ventilation is important, I have one coop, that since it's in a old dog kennel with a roof, I mad the coop so that is was 6 inches away from the top, and didn't put a roof on. PLENTY of ventilation, and it keeps it light enough for them to see inside as well (this coop doesn't have a window)

 

[Chicken man76]

I have my run designed that the birds can have the availability to go under the coop thats keeps them dry if they come out on a rainy day or hight heat. Not like the rain we had 2a days ago in IL &i STL but a lite rain i have also recently put a vent in the top of the coop with a flap that can be closed and opened