New chicken owner...is my coop ok for winter?

Bcmacias

Chirping
Jul 24, 2020
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Hi! We have 4 chicks...barred rock, black Asian, ISA Brown, and a California white. They’re approaching 2 weeks old. We never have had chickens before. We purchased a prefabricated coop, got it halfway putt together and decided the quality was junk, and too small. We decided to build a coop, which would be much sturdier and this design fits our very small backyard well. I do have a couple of question. 1) Will it be an adequate size for 4 hens? (I hope they’re all hens!) I hope to let them free range in the yard if I can clip their wings so they don’t go over our 4 foot fence. They might need to be in the coop for a week straight if we’re out of town, we’ll have someone check food and water daily. 2) We live in Kansas City, MO and our winters can get very cold. Definitely single digits, and occasionally below zero. The coop’s design has an opening in the floor of the coop where the chickens can freely go from their run up to the coop. The plans don’t show a door on this opening. Would it be too cold in the winter with this open? We don’t plan on using any supplemental heat. We’d like to start building this weekend and wondered if we needed to make any winterization adjustments. The window is screen, and some who have previously built this plan said they put plexiglass over the screen in the winter with five 1/2” vent holes drilled through it. A sketch of the coop is attached. I would be very grateful for any advise!!! Thanks!
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it looks fine except not enough ventilation I would put in another window a little lower on the other side i am in Ohio winter sucks I have inserts that go into the frame of my coop it is 2 1/2 sides of screen and 1 solid wall my chickens love it
 

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Needs more strategically placed ventilation that can be left open even during winter, to allow moist air to escape. Might be difficult to do that with a smaller unit such as this... using louvered vent covers is one idea to help buffer against winter weather.

As far as size, the actual coop is the enclosed house up top. There's no measurements given for just that portion, minus nest boxes. Ideally you'd want around 4 sq ft per bird in coop.

If you anticipate being gone for trips/vacations, I'd strongly urge you to build a predator secure run for use during those times, even if you plan to free range the rest of the time. The coop/run pictured is not big enough to leave birds in for a week straight without a lot of poop build up and possibly behavioral issues stemming from stress due to lack of space.
 
You probably want to think about how they will get into and out of their roosting space. I allow about 18 inches per bird on roost, plus some space at the ends (because no one likes to be up against a cold wall in the winter).
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Also, think about how they will use it on rainy days. They will want to flap and stretch a bit.
 
I learned during the design of our first coop and run that the math for these is pretty much the same as for garden beds and greenhouses - figure out what you think is big enough, then add 50% because it's always too small. It's so much harder and more expensive to make it bigger later than ti is to go big right off the bat.

With ours I knew the 8x8 foot shed would be tight for 20 birds but I could make the run 20x20 feet to start with, and after it gets roofed we can go back later and replace the shed with a purpose-built coop that's bigger since it'll be under the metal roof. When we do I plan on doing a rectangular shape to maximize usable space and provide longer roost bars, and block more of the winter wind coming from the back.
 
Very cute coop, but small.
Increase the run to 5x8. 10 sq feet for each bird. (Wood comes in 8' lengths, so easy to do.)
Increase coop to 5x4. Again, should be pretty easy to do. Put ventilation higher? Floor door?- maybe put it next to the nest box, in the corner, hopefully fewer drafts and hopefully less bedding kicked out of coop. You can put a hinged door on it, but probably not necessary.

Planter box? Maybe a sloped roof would be better for the chickens in winter.
 

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