New coop and run adivice needed

[tudlytops]

Hiya! all,

As some of you may know, we rescued a few chickens during the worst of the weather and they have been in a temp coop, best we could make at the time.

But as you can see its not the best and quiet messy, but behind the current pen there is quiet a bit of land and that is where we are going to build the new pen as soon as the weather allows for the field to be cleaned up , it has not been used in over 14 years..

Now what we need advice on is, on how big for 10 chickens (may get a few more as time goes, but no more then 20 at any one time), what should the floor be, what should the pen have, not have, etc,

We don't have a lot of money so nothing fancy just a nice, health, safe and entertaining place for them, they will not be able to free range during the day as we have other animals.

Should we build a smaller pen for separating them if needed, illness etc, should this pen be in the bigger pen, beside it, etc

Anything you can think of.

Thanks all

 

[kidd42]

If you do a search on BYC there is a thread with a formula as to what square footage per bird you should have. But I will say, that no matter how big the hen house they still seem to huddle together at night in the same spots. Good luck, someone will chime in soon with better advice.

 

[yelim]

I have 22 now and a 10 x 12 coop with a 40 x 26 run including the coop. I built the coop off the ground so they can get under it in hot weather.

 

[tudlytops]

@yelim

That looks fantastic...no fear of hot weather here, we only have winter and spring, the rest of the seasons we dream on lol.

what about the inside, and should we have a separate one in case they get sick, etc, should the separate one be near the main one, do they need a separate one if they have chicks?

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

I had a 9 x 9 coop with 20 birds and it wasn't big enough so I ended up selling 7 LF and replacing them with a couple of bantams (One way to fit more birds is to go with bantams).

I'd go with 12 x 12...each side using 2.5 sheets of siding. No waste. I like the way that yelim is set up. I think that would work great. I'd make it so it's easy to access so
cleaning up is quick and easy and so that you can walk in and enjoy them.

You can go to the VERY top of this page and click on "Coop Designs". It gives you the opportunity to look inside many coops, all sizes, to get ideas. When I planned mine out I went
through all of these, picked what I thought would work best in my weather and conditions, was able to PM certain members to ask how it's been working for them, and had a drawn
out plan before I started. During construction I changed several things (which I initially left out to save money). There are many, many ways to build a coop. Just need to find what
works for you. You can get as elaborate as you want. I like that you're thinking ahead. I did that as well, included a service area where I can keep an injured chicken (a sick chicken
I'd move to the garage so that there is no shared air space). I made two pop doors going into the run so that I can separate out a broody and her chicks.

Glad the chickies have you looking after them!!

 

[tudlytops]

@Knock Kneed Hen Thank you so much for the advice.

I was looking at some of the designs but i didn't think of contact the members.

We moved in a few months back and well the was was empty for 14 years and it pretty much looks like the pen, we have every bit of space taken with boxes, etc so we will have to build a separate pen for any sick ones as we don't have any space left in outdoor buildings