Playhouse coop

[jackson41]

Is the playhouse coop large enough for 4 chickens australorp, delaware, wellsummer, ee? The size is perfect for our backyard. They will be out of coop in the evenings and on our day off . Thanks for any advice Katie

 

[PandoraTaylor]

As long as they have a fenced in predator proof run, that should be fine. If you expect them to stay inside all the time, no.

 

[Mahonri]

They would have to have a predator proof run to go with it.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

I have one, it will fight 4 birds but no more. Their food and water have to be outside of the coop part. No room for it inside. I suggest making feeder & waterer out of PVC to take up less space. I'm getting ready to do mine that way.

 

[chickerdoodle]

For happy hens you should have 4 sq. feet per hen inside the henhouse and 10 sq. feet in the run. Personally, I think its too tight for 4 large standard hens as yours will be. You could just extend the hen house to 4x4 instead of 4x2 and the run 4x10 instead of 4x8. Basically the same otherwise just a tad bigger. Since you are going to let them free range every day for a few hours then the run size might be OK but still increase the hen house part.

 

[SewingDiva]

Quote:
We have a Playhouse Coop that we built originally for three chickens (AU, Orp, and EE) and the coop was big enough (they only slept in there) but the run was much too small for heavy breeds and there was fighting and picking. Our solution at the time was to let them free range as much as possible, which solved the problem until we lost one to a hawk. Then last summer we got more chickens anyway (9 total now) and had to expand. So now it looks like this:

The outlines of the original coop are easy to see, basically my husband doubled the coop size and we added a much larger run onto the back. It also opens at both ends for easier cleaning. The expanded coop is fine for nine chickens because again they just sleep in there, even in cold weather. The Playhouse Coop is a good design and attractive, although there are a few things I would change:

1) Put the people door on the gable end so I don't get soaked!
2) The orginal plans show the inside wall hinged so is opens like a door (so you can clean), and I reccomend moving that to the outside wall so you can clean out the coop without having to go into the run.
3) Make the nest box external for more interior space so I could...
4) Figure out how to add a small and removable PVC pipe feeder/waterer to the inside for the few days the weather is so bad they don't come out. The inside dimension of the original Playhouse Coop is pretty small and there is really no room for a feeder/waterer.
5) The 4x8 run footprint is much too small, another 4 feet in length is better, especially for 4 heavy breed birds like yours.

On my BYC page there are photos of the orignal version too.

So that's my 2 cents!
Phyllis

 

[mikecnorthwest]

I have 5 in mine. Check my BYC page for pics.