My Guinea Coop

I hope I don't sound too critical...it's great to think big! However, the realities of cost and time might make you wish you'd started smaller, or made more deliberate decisions to squeeze every square inch (or w guineas, cubic inch) of space into practical use.

1. What's the scale on your sketch? Assuming your stalls are ~ horsestall sized, that looks to me like a 30 x 30' building (or more). Given guineas fly quite a bit, you could shorten the barn's perimeter and build a little taller, taking advantage of high roosts and make better use of space in 3 dimensions.

2. Why is your corridor so wide? To what purpose? Would you rather have 8' long stalls and a 8' wide corridor, or 10' stalls and 4' wide corridor? This makes sense if you're repurposing a horse barn, but if you're building from scratch (and don't anticipate switching to horses) all that hallway space is essentially wasted.

3. Why is the utility room (brooders, incubators, feed storage) so big? Space is definitely nice to have, and larger buildings are more cost effective (greater volume to perimeter ratio) but I don't like to overbuild unless there's a concrete reason behind it. Which brings me to my next point.

4. I'd multiply your designated feed area by an order of magnitude if you're really planning on hundreds of birds.

What I've done is keep all my outbuildings under 120ft2. Anything bigger could be cited by Mr Taxman as a 'permanent structure' and would affect my property taxes. Smaller buildings are cheaper and faster to build. They can be moved, and repurposing is pretty simple. As you build them you'll settle on a standardized approach and the construction gets simpler, more efficient, and you'll continually learn ways to improve your design.

Whatever you decide, good luck!
 
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that is a nice design, i started with 6 chicks and now have about 15 hens and roos, with new hatch out 8 and two more hens on 25 eggs. and i boght 6 pullets before everyone went broody. my coop is 8 x8 half of that isbrooder coops and nesting box and half is roosts...now i know i need more roosting space because not all like each other, am working on a spiral type design that will be made from scrap lumber and tree limbs.(they seem to like the bigger limbs with the bark on it the best, even though i know you are supposed to strip the bark off) something to consider.
alot of what i made has been from scrap or discarded lumber or rough cut from the lumber yard. doors can be made from 1x1 lumber with rat wire and cheep hings, if you can use power tools safely you can do alot for very little money..
good luck with your plans, most of the time allmine free range, but they dont like snow and just look out on those days
 
Love the concept. I am inthe planning stages of a new building myself. I have around 100 head of guineas now plus chickens, ducks, and geese.
 

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