New coop question :)

[scoopy82]

I have just bought a new chicken coop off ebay, its only going to be used until we can build a bigger chook house. It is 163cm x 75cm so roughly 5ft x 2ft not including the nesting box. It will only need to house 3 hens that free range all day so they will only use it to lay their eggs and sleep in, will this provide sufficient space until we can build the bigger coop? When the bigger coop comes along this will probably become the 'maternity suite'

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Absolutely.

Some use 4 SQFT per bird in coop but those that have birds only in at night or to lay use 2.5 SQFT. At that you could have a 4th no problem. My birds, all seven, crammed themselves into a 3ftx3.5ft each night until I built the 4x4 coop. And with that there has only been one day of 30 mile an hour winds where they did'nt want to come out of the coop most of the day. I ended up wrapping a tarp around 3 sides of the run and pileing snow on the bottom of it so it did'nt fly away.

 

[Judy]

I agree, they should be fine, though you always need to watch to be sure they don't start attacking each other when kept in a small space. It's not ideal, but you have lots of company in getting away with a small space for them. I would not, however, lock them in there all day, as for bad weather; let them choose.