post your chicken coop pictures here!

[MeepBeep]

I just don't see the need to have a large roost area when they spend so little time there.

Even with my supplemented 16 hours of light my birds spend over 8 hours or 1/3 of their day at roost, I personally don't consider that a little amount of time...

 

[mybrighteye]

The easiest way would be the same way you are doing the HC on the windows. Attach it to the underside of the rafters and put 2 strips of the siding to form the slot. Or, since you are the daughter of a carpenter and doing everything nicely, I suppose you really should cut a solid piece of siding that perfectly covers the underside of the rafters, then cut a slot in it. That way it won't look messy at the gable ends   

BUT soffit vents don't do anything without a ridge vent. Typically the pair are used to keep house attics from overheating and from retaining humidity. I'm not quite sure how much, if any, of the air in the coop below the soffits will clear out unless there are vents lower down. You might be better off with a ridge vent (OR gable vents) paired with low vents positioned such that the airflow won't be right through the birds on the roost at night. 

I checked out your coop page, nice work. I see you already have a chick in there!   I think it is a mutt because I don't recognize that coloring or body type as an APA breed but she sure is cute.


Nice paint job   

I'm guessing by the external nest box (which I ASSUME is 1' deep) that the actual coop (nest boxes excluded) is 2' x 3'??
NO WAY that is big enough for 6-9 large fowl. It is barely big enough for 3 and that is with your plan that they will have access to the run or free range all day every day AND assuming no space it taken up with feed and water. If there is no provision, you might want to cover part of the run, at least the part that came with the coop so when it rains they don't have to confine themselves to the coop and the space underneath.

Sadly people who sell coops VERY frequently substantially overstate how many chickens they will hold. They don't even say "x bantams or y large fowl". For large fowl a roost should be 1' from a parallel wall and parallel roosts should be 18" apart. There is no way you are going to get more than 3' of roost in there either. AND you need a MINIMUM of 1' of roost per bird so again, absolute max in that coop is 3.

Actuallys the roof that came attached to the coop is covered and so is the extension we made :0) there's no way I'd let them just sit there and get wet lol

It's actually a pretty good sized coop and right now they have more than enough room. Their food and water are installed in the run extension. Thanks for your concern though

*edit to add

I know of someone that has two of the exact same coop as me. She connected them together through a run and all 8 of her chickens prefer to sleep in one coop. :0)

 

[mybrighteye]

How Cute! 

Thank you!

 

[junebuggena]

I'm sure all your points are valid. Maybe I'm just lucky. Like I said, I gave them more run area, about 20 sq ft per bird for my 5. I just don't see the need to have a large roost area when they spend so little time there.

They need enough room to all maneuver onto the roosts, and down off those roosts. That means turning space, flapping space, and landing space. What your 5 birds can easily do currently will be more difficult if you add a few more.

 

[bigmrg74]

We bought this coop and it said 6-8 chickens, I am thinking 4 max. My husband and I are going to build a run for it as well. Not sure if we should built it off the side of the coop or just enclose the run around the whole coop. Suggestions?

If you don't mind stepping in chicken poop, you can wrap the run all around the coop. If you don't want to step in chicken poop on a regular basis, then I would suggest building the run off to the side so that you can still access the nest boxes on the coop and not have to worry about going into the run just to do a quick egg check.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Actuallys the roof that came attached to the coop is covered and so is the extension we made :0) there's no way I'd let them just sit there and get wet lol

It's actually a pretty good sized coop and right now they have more than enough room. Their food and water are installed in the run extension. Thanks for your concern though

*edit to add

I know of someone that has two of the exact same coop as me. She connected them together through a run and all 8 of her chickens prefer to sleep in one coop. :0)

How many birds do you have now?

And if I found the right one,

The dimensions are this?


Assembled Exterior: 91.3 in. L x 39.9 in. W x 49 in. H (Pen Interior: 20.3 sq. ft. / Coop Interior: 6.74 sq. ft. / Nest Box Interior: 3.06 sq. ft.)


This one?

http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/summerhawk-ranch-victorian-teak-xl

I don't have the exact same coop but I do have another coop kit from TSC that we got on sale this past Black Friday and it's a similar size and I can tell you it is not big enough. And even if it was, it's not very sturdy.

I don't mean to be a downer or anything and it certainly looks adorable but I just don't want anybody to be disappointed. We made the same mistake. Ours were in the house until 3 weeks old then moved to the garage until 7 weeks then outside permanently.

Ours had a tiny little run like that too but we did not trust the coop at all and put it inside a 6x12 dog kennel we had laying around which is when they moved out.

It was fine when they were little babies and yours look even younger than mine were when they moved out but now they are almost 23 weeks old and barely even fit on the roosts anymore. I don't know how your roosts are set up but mine are only a few inches off the ground and close to each other, maybe 5-6 inches off the walls if that and same for in between both roosts so there is zero floor space. That's the biggest issue to me. Sure they can all fit but what if they want to go inside during the day? So lately I have been taking the roosts out during the day. They don't go inside though.

Now the 6x12 dog kennel is small as it is, should only be enough for 7.2 chickens, let alone having the coop in the middle of it. Plus the fact the coop is so small. There was a lot of wing flaps amd almost fights before they started laying.

Now you say yours will get to free range which definitely helps, mine rarely get to go but have been more lately, but what happens when you go away or are busy and they can't free range?

I know it sucks because it probably cost a lot of money plus the paint, ours was around $300 I think, but it really is not big enough once they grow up. Plus the fact it is cheaply Chinese made, at least ours is. We have a gap between the nest box roof and coop wall and little teeny gaps elsewhere. No leaks yet except that nest box area but still. You bump into it and the whole coop moves. And I have found ours to be very cheaply made.

So for me it's not even only the fact they have no room but the fact that it's also poorly made and hard to clean.

We are building a 4x8 coop soon.

That 2 coop set up may work for some but just because they can all squeeze in doesn't mean it's comfortable.

Plus more room means less work for you because you have to clean poop less often and there are a lot less behavioral and health problems.

I honestly wish we had never bought ours but my parents wanted something fast and didn't believe me when I said they need more room but now they see.

The general rule is 4 square feet PER BIRD minimum inside the coop and 10 square feet outside in the run. Many say more is better. Commercial standards are 2 square feet inside which imo is wayyyyyyy too small and should never be used.

But going off of the specs for your coop....

Assembled Exterior: 91.3 in. L x 39.9 in. W x 49 in. H (Pen Interior: 20.3 sq. ft. / Coop Interior: 6.74 sq. ft. / Nest Box Interior: 3.06 sq. ft.)

6.74 square feet..... enough for 1.7 birds. By commercial standards? 3.37 birds. Even by the imo kind of cruel 2 sq ft rule it is still barely big enough for 3. That's saying something. Definitely not big enough for 6-9 birds.

Now let's be generous and include the nest boxes in the square footage even though they will only lay in there. 9.8 square feet. Enough for 2.45 birds. 4.9 by commercial standards but I think that's tight. Still no where near 6-9.

Maybe if they are in the bigger run or can free range all day every day but mine rarely free range and lately I have only been letting them out a couple hours before they head back to roost so I don't have to watch them all day. They also used to stay inside in bad weather but now will stay out but watching them from inside they just aimlessly wander about.

We are building a 4x8 coop which is the minimum for 8 birds.

It doesn't even have to be expensive.

We are copying this plan

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/jonny-anvils-chicken-coop

And so far all the wood cost us about $244. We substituted the OSB for 3/4 inch pressure treated plywood for the floor and 3/8 pine sheathing for the walls which was actually cheaper than the OSB. We're covering it with something though, don't know if just sheathing alone would work.

But anyways, my point is that you could build a much bigger, sturdier, and nicer looking coop for far less than that kit cost.

And I really hope I am not coming off rude or mean or anything because I am sure I am but it's just that we made the same mistake and it's hard to believe at first, you don't think they will need that much room and this looks so cute and so easy but they grow so fast and soon they DO outgrow it.

 

[ShrekDawg]

And I am sure @bruceha2000 or @MeepBeep may agree.

Also I will add that it's not that we (or, well, I since I made that big post) do not want to be mean or bash it or tell you you are wrong or anything. It's just that I made the same horrible mistake and want to prevent others from doing the same. We all want the same thing I am sure, healthy happy chickens.

Speaking of which, I forgot to add this to my post above, but if you truly can't make something else or don't want to part with this then you might be able to make it work if you can commit to free ranging them every day or give them things to do like stumps or branches or hang a cabbage or toss a piece of dirt in or something. Space matters but I think the quality of the space does too because even though my set up is tight, they seem much happy when I toss several shovel fulls of dirt in to dig through. If they just pace around all day they will get into more trouble

 

[MrsBro]

KDOGG, it is 4x8; made assembly that much easier by minimizing cuts, walls are 4ft tall, too.

 

[mybrighteye]

You're not trying to come off rude or mean but that's how I'm taking it unfortunately lol. Right now I have 10 chicks, when I first joined the forum and started reading around everyone had chicks dying on them from left to right. My goal was to have 4 chickens so I got scared and bought more. Well here they are 4 weeks later and all are still alive and well.

I had talked to my friend before buying them all and asked her if she would be willing to keep the Roos or any extra that survived just in case they all lived. She lives in the country and has a giant chicken mansion, not kidding. Anyway, right now I have 2 bantams, 1 Orpington, 3 EE's, 2 RIR and 2 "Golden Buffs" --yes I know that is alot and like I said they posts on here scared the poop out of me so I bought more.

With that, I live in town and am allowed 6 so I figured the SummerHawk coop would be okay. I'll be keeping it for now because it was $400 *hides* and because we honestly spend nearly $700 just to get the coop and run completed only for me to tell my husband sorry, not good enough. We had originally wanted to build our own coop but my husband was afraid he wouldn't be able to build one but kind of proved himself wrong when he did good on the run. Maybe during fall I can convince him to build a bigger coop, but for now it stays.

 

[mybrighteye]

And I am sure @bruceha2000 or @MeepBeep may agree.

Also I will add that it's not that we (or, well, I since I made that big post) want to be mean or bash it or tell you you are wrong or anything. It's just that I made the same horrible mistake and want to prevent others from doing the same. We all want the same thing I am sure, healthy happy chickens.

Speaking of which, I forgot to add this to my post above, but if you truly can't make something else or don't want to part with this then you might be able to make it work if you can commit to free ranging them every day or give them things to do like stumps or branches or hang a cabbage or toss a piece of dirt in or something. Space matters but I think the quality of the space does too because even though my set up is tight, they seem much happy when I toss several shovel fulls of dirt in to dig through. If they just pace around all day they will get into more trouble

Im unable to free range in our yard everyday because of hawks that we have around here, which is why we added the extra 8 ft run. Is that not enough for 4 hens?