New in TN

xianshouston · Feb 8, 2014

We are getting 15 1 day old chicks (Black sex links) in March through my son's 4-H club. We have talked about getting chickens for probably 7 or 8 years just never have and this seems like a good opportunity to do it. I am still not sure of what set up we are going to use for a coop.

1. We have a playhouse and a truck cab that we could convert and put in the middle of the run (raised of course). Our run for now is going to be our 10X10 dog kennel. We could make these movable so we could move them around the yard.

2. OR we could convert one end of our 24x12 shed. The end would give us a coop about 8x12. Feed, etc could be kept in the shed. We would attach the kennel to the shed possibly being able to make a bigger run because the side of the shed could be one side of the run. The biggest problem is it wouldn't be movable.

Decisions, decisions Love all the info on this site. Been reading for a couple of weeks and just now joining.

ChicknsRock · Feb 8, 2014

Kelsie2290 · Feb 8, 2014

Hello and Welcome To BYC! If you go with the 10x10 that is tight for what is usually recommended for 15 chickens, you'd also need to move it pretty often or the hens would tear up the grass in a couple of days... would you be able to free range at all or other fencing? The BYC Learning Center has a couple of articles on coops vs tractors https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/housing-and-feeding-your-chickens

xianshouston · Feb 8, 2014

We can't free range where we live. In the fall we will be going down to only 12 chickens and maybe fewer as we will have to sell any roosters. This would just be a starting point for us using things we already have. We can extend the run at a later date once we are for sure we are going to keep raising chickens.

roostersandhens · Feb 8, 2014

drumstick diva · Feb 8, 2014

Highcotton · Feb 9, 2014

xianshouston said: ↑

We are getting 15 1 day old chicks (Black sex links) in March through my son's 4-H club. We have talked about getting chickens for probably 7 or 8 years just never have and this seems like a good opportunity to do it. I am still not sure of what set up we are going to use for a coop.

1. We have a playhouse and a truck cab that we could convert and put in the middle of the run (raised of course). Our run for now is going to be our 10X10 dog kennel. We could make these movable so we could move them around the yard.

2. OR we could convert one end of our 24x12 shed. The end would give us a coop about 8x12. Feed, etc could be kept in the shed. We would attach the kennel to the shed possibly being able to make a bigger run because the side of the shed could be one side of the run. The biggest problem is it wouldn't be movable.

Decisions, decisions Love all the info on this site. Been reading for a couple of weeks and just now joining.
Click to expand...

Welcome to BYC. I have a 4X8 coop with an 8X16 run for 15 birds that is enough for that many chickens.

TwoCrows · Feb 9, 2014

I would go as big as you can. I started with a small coop and the birds were getting frost bite in the combs, it seemed to small and I was sorry we didn't go bigger. So I vote for the converted shed. You can store things in there, you can walk in easy, just easy over all. If this play house is plastic, it is going to sweat. And the birds will not be comfortable in hot or cold weather...too hot in the summer, frost bite in the winter.

You might want to take a look at our coop section here on BYC so you can see in advance what you might be dealing with if you went with the shed or playhouse....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/2/Coops

Good luck in all your poultry adventures!