New from Indiana

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Heliliamian

In the Brooder
Oct 25, 2017
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Greetings!

I live out in the rural area of my town and have made the decision to move forward with establishing a small little flock in the backyard. I am a humble father and husband to 4 wonderful young children and precious wife. I have been very excited to start our chicken operation next spring 2018.


I LOVE LOVE LOVE doing research on things that interest me so I have done a bit of homework regarding chicken care and food/safety/breeds/coop designs.

I am building our own coop from scratch (pun!!) after scouring the interwebz for a few months. I drew up some haphazard blueprints and will be working to assemble the frames during fall, to have the rest built at the first light of spring.

We would like to have 6 hens and our preference is on Laying hens, but are shooting more towards a pretty dual purpose bird.

Here’s what the kids picked out (after I narrowed down the breed selectiOn to what would be good)

2 - Swedish Flowers (my ancestry is Swedish).
1 - black Australorp
2 - Barred Rock
1 - Silver or Golden laced Wyandotte

Now for my special focus... my coop. Pretty straightforward 4’x6’ coop and attached to that is a 12’ run

I’ve included a few drawings of my plan. Let me know what you think!!

7298C890-F57E-48C0-B3A2-75359129B921.jpeg C4D70641-EACD-4666-B637-371202063B68.jpeg 2254B372-56D6-47CB-9BD0-CA78C79EEED1.jpeg 1ADA5982-34EE-4379-B5EA-4B3290146E3F.jpeg D8C90FF7-C501-445B-83AD-7F45F6A5D40E.jpeg
 
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You've put a lot of thought into this and your coop is laid out well. Two points I would like to add; Swedish Flower Hens are beautiful docile hens but those of us who have had them usually find out that they aren't great layers. Not like they are advertised to be. Their eggs never get very big and they may only lay a few eggs a month. The other hens you are considering would be excellent layers.
Another point is the size of your coop. I think it may be a bit small for 6 hens by the time you add nesting boxes, feeders and water jugs. Even in Indiana you will have weather that causes them to be confined for days at a time (I'm a former Hoosier). I have a 5'x7' coop and at times I wish it was bigger. You may plan on only 6 hens but chicken math hits all of us when we see those cute little chicks in the feed stores next spring..

Welcome to Backyard Chickens and I hope you enjoy exploring all the forums. Always feel free to ask questions or just let us know how your doing with your chicken adventure!
:frow :welcome
 
:welcome

Hi, it's nice to have you here! Sounds like you'll do fine with your plans, they're well thought out. If the kids are inclined, be sure to involve them...chickens and kids are a good fit for each other.

Make yourself at home here and if you have questions about anything, just post. BYC is full of helpful, knowledgeable members always willing to help out.

Best of luck to you!
 
Hi and welcome to BYC :frow We're thrilled you've decided to join us:ya

You may also want to consider more ventilation as well. Since you like research, a friend recently compiled a bunch of different standards for various certifying agencies. These are commercial standards and as a backyard grower they won't be important for you, but I find it nice to refer to them as I get ready to build something new. You'll need to scale them as appropriate. Again welcome and thanks for joining us.

Poultry Standards for Housing, Feeding, Watering Etc 2017 0107

AWA – Animal Welfare Approved
SPN – Sustainable Poultry Network
NOP – National Organic Program
CH – Certified Humane

Flock Size
No larger than 500 birds (AWA)

Pasture Raised Space
Outdoor space is 2.5 acres/1000 hens (109 sq.ft./hen) (CH)
Maximum distance from mobile house to fence is 400 yards (CH)
4 sq.ft./hen (AWA) (SPN)

Free Range Space
Uncovered outdoor space is 2 sq.ft./hen (CH)
Maximum distance from mobile house to fence is 400 yards (CH)

Indoor/Outdoor space
Laying hens and breeders: 2.0 sq ft/bird indoors, 2.0–5.0 sq ft/bird outdoors (NOS)
Broilers: 1–5 lbs/sq ft indoors, 2–5 lbs/sq ft outdoors

Feed
Multiple feeders (SPN)
Access to free choice calcium (CH)
2 inches linear of double-side feed space (CH)
3 inches feeder space per bird (SPN)
4 inches of single-side feed space linear (CH)
1.5 inches perimeter feed space for circular feeders (CH)
Within 8 yards within a house (feed and water) (CH)

Water
2 or more waters for 100 or fewer hens (CH)
Bell Waterer – 1 per 100 hens (CH)
Nipple Waterer – 1 per 12 hens (CH)
1 inch waterer space per bird (SPN)
Not just nipple waterers as only water source in brooder or pasture (SPN)
2 five-gallon waterers per 100 birds (SPN)
Within 8 yards within a house (feed and water) (CH)

Light
Minimum of 8 hours of continuous daylight or artificial light (CH)
Minimum of 6 hours of continuous natural darkness or artificial darkness (CH)
Minimum of 8 hours of darkness each day (SPN) (NOP)

Brooder Floor Space
0.5 sq.ft./chick minimum after 1 week (5’x5’) (SPN)
2 sq.ft./bird with pasture access to 12 week-old breeder bird (SPN)

Housing Floor Space
1.5 sq ft/bird indoors (NOP - recommended)
1.5 sq.ft./hen minimum floor space in house with all-litter (CH)
1 sq.ft./hen minimum floor space in house for pastured raised systems (CH) [7’x21’=147]
2 sq.ft./bird with pasture access to 12 week-old breeder bird (SPN)
4 sq.ft./bird with pasture access adult breeder bird (SPN)

Pen Size
18 ft by 10 ft (5.4m by 3m) minimum pen size (AWA) (FYI 16x12 is more square feet)
4 ft (1.2m) high for a fully enclosed pen (AWA)

Nest Boxes
1 per 5 hens (CH) (AWA)
Community: 9 sq.ft./100 hens (2.7 sq.ft/30 hens,10.8 sq.ft./120 hens) (CH)
Community: 20 sq.inches/hen (13.9 sq.ft/100 hens, 4.2 sq.ft./30 hens,16.7 sq.ft./120 hens) (AWA)

Roosts/Perches
24/7 access to roosts (CH)
Access to roosts before 4 weeks of age (CH)
6 inches per hen (CH)
7 inches per hen (AWA)
8 -12 inches per bird (NOP - recommended)
9 inches (0.75 ft.) per bird by 8 weeks of age (SPN)

Must be 8 inches from wall or ceiling (CH)
Minimum 12 inches between roosts (CH)
Must be at least 12” off the floor (AWA)
Must be 18” apart vertically in ladder perches (AWA)
Must be 12” apart vertically in A frame or diagonal perches (AWA)
Must be 12” apart horizontally and at least 8” from a wall (AWA)
Must be a minimum of 16” above the floor but less than 39.5” above floor (CH)
Must be at least 1” wide at top and a diameter of not less than 1” and not greater than 3” (CH)
Must been 2 feet from ceiling (SPN)

Exits
Recommended 18” high and 21” wide (CH)
Minimum width 18” (AWA)
Height must be 1 inch higher than tallest bird (AWA)
At least 2 exits when flock over 75 birds (AWA)
Must have exits whose combined width adds up to at least a quarter of an inch per bird - for example a 200 bird flock must have at least two doorways that add up to at least 50 inches in width. (AWA)
 
G’Day from down under Heliliamian :frow Welcome!

As you have already received some great tips and advice, not much more for me to add except that I hope you enjoy being a BYC member. There are lots of friendly and very helpful folks here so not only is it overflowing with useful information it is also a great place to make friends and have some fun.

Personally, I have found the Topic of the Week articles a great resource and a one stop shop for questions which may have already been discussed within the BYC membership group.

If you would like to share pictures and stories of your flock when they arrive or building of the coop etc, you have come to the right place. BYC’ers never tire of these and do not back away slowly or commence eye rolling when the photo album or home videos come out ;)
 

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