Potential New Chicken Keeper, Run/Coop Question

[Hyde7788]

Good morning,

I believe I have finally convinced my wife to get a couple of chickens. Our local city (Green Bay, Wisconsin) allows up to four hens and no roosters, which is fine by me.

My plan; Start with two hens and go from there. Our backyard is fairly large, however, I do not want the chickens roaming the entire yard. We have a young child (and more coming) and I don't want to have her running and rolling around in chicken feces. With that being said, I plan to keep my chickens in the coop/run nearly 24/7 (our yard isn't fully fenced either).

Coop Size; 4x4x4
Run Size; 4x8 or 4x10

Couple questions;

1. Is it humane to keep the chickens in the coop and run 24/7? I can't imagine everyone here has their chickens free roaming their yard -- in fact, our city requires they be enclosed in an area 'primarily for hens'.
2. Are the outlined coop and run dimensions sufficient? Do I need to go larger? I have a fairly large yard for the city (0.31 acres) but I don't want to take up more space than I need either.
3. Does anyone have any favorite winter hearty breeds that do well w/ kids? I am leaning towards Cochin but would love some opinions.

Also; Shout out to anyone local, if you are from the area I would love to pick your brain on your setup.

Thank you!!

 

[sourland]

Welcome to BYC. Given a large enough pen, 24/7 confinement is not inhumane and may serve to protect from predation. A somewhat larger pen would be better - or you could allow supervised free ranging. Chickens in general are quite winter hardy. I would stay away from the Mediterranean breeds because of their large combs that are susceptible to frostbite.

I would suggest a minimum of 3 birds. That way if and when one dies two will remain to provide company for one another. Good luck in this journey.

 

[4 ever Orpington]

Good morning,

I believe I have finally convinced my wife to get a couple of chickens. Our local city (Green Bay, Wisconsin) allows up to four hens and no roosters, which is fine by me.

My plan; Start with two hens and go from there. Our backyard is fairly large, however, I do not want the chickens roaming the entire yard. We have a young child (and more coming) and I don't want to have her running and rolling around in chicken feces. With that being said, I plan to keep my chickens in the coop/run nearly 24/7 (our yard isn't fully fenced either).

Coop Size; 4x4x4
Run Size; 4x8 or 4x10

Couple questions;

1. Is it humane to keep the chickens in the coop and run 24/7? I can't imagine everyone here has their chickens free roaming their yard -- in fact, our city requires they be enclosed in an area 'primarily for hens'.
2. Are the outlined coop and run dimensions sufficient? Do I need to go larger? I have a fairly large yard for the city (0.31 acres) but I don't want to take up more space than I need either.
3. Does anyone have any favorite winter hearty breeds that do well w/ kids? I am leaning towards Cochin but would love some opinions.

Also; Shout out to anyone local, if you are from the area I would love to pick your brain on your setup.

Thank you!!

I keep my flock of twelve hen's one cockerel in a coop run combo. They are very happy! Some chicken owners don't have the luxury to free range. My issue is way to many predators. Good luck with your new adventure and welcome to Byc!

 

[sylviethecochin]

As already said, plenty of people keep their birds in a coop/run combo. Have you done any research on ventilation? A lot of pre-made coops are not well-made.

You have space large enough for a maximum of four hens, if they're gentle birds.

With young children and for good egg production, I would go for the Orps. Cochins are very pretty, and very gentle, but they don't really do much for egg production.

Australorps (Australian Orpingtons) are top egg-producers and one of my personal favorite hens. They're not hugely friendly, but they are gentle, very cold-hardy, and they take very well to confinement. They're also less likely to go broody than Cochins are, which I think would be a strong plus in your position.

Buff Orpingtons, which I've never owned, are said to be very friendly. They're less good at production than Australorps, but they're still good in confinement and are a cold-hardy breed. They are prone to broodiness.

 

[PirateGirl]

Welcome It's so good to see someone doing their homework BEFORE bringing their little fluff balls home. You can certainly keep chickens locked up 24/7. Some people lock them up 24/7, some free range 24/7 and many are somewhere in between. Personally, my chickens are locked up 24/7 and my town chicken keeping regulations specifically prohibit free ranging. I think this is a respectable way to keep peace with the neighbors and keep things sanitary when we don't live on particularly large parcels of land. Based on my personal experience, I feel that 4 square feet of bird in the coop is sufficient provided you have nest boxes and at least 1 foot of perch/roost space per bird, however my run was built with 10 square feet of space per bird and I am planning some expansion. It certainly would have been easier to build it slightly larger in the first place. Double check with your city to see if there are any required set backs from the property line or other structures you must adhere to before you situate your coop. I have never owned cochins; I hear they are quite gentle, but may not be the best layers (not sure if that's important to you). I also highly recommend picking up a copy of the book Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens. It's a great resource and formatted in a way that you can just pick and choose and read the parts that are important to you at any given time. It has an excellent breed comparison section that I found very helpful in selecting birds that best fit my criteria. Good luck and have fun!

 

[Acre4Me]

Good Luck.

First, I would get 3 or 4 chickens to start. They are social and do not do well alone, so if one dies you have 2 or 3 left. Chick death is not uncommon. You could also pay a bit more and buy started pullets that are close to egg laying age, and avoid the early chick phase. Chicks are cute, but they feather up pretty fast so you only have cute fluff balls for a week or so when they start getting obvious feathers. You can get started pullets from hatcheries or breeders, or even craig's list or auctions, however, the latter two have a higher likelihood of getting sickly or older-than-you-were-told hens.

Next, place your coop far from your home structure - if you get a mouse or insect problem, you don't want them to check out your home as an alternate.

Third, increase the space you plan to give them as what you indicated is on the small side and might lead to increased fighting. Keeping them in a run/coop enclosure 24/7 is completely humane - don't feel guilt and that is actually a type of free ranging as they are not cooped up several to a cage on a continual basis. But, you should strive to provide enough space for a total of 4 chickens from the start. I would make sure your run provides about 40sq ft and the floor space of your coop should be approx 16 sq ft, if possible. If you are constructing a coop yourself, this is easy to do, but if buying, then buy a larger coop (one created for maybe 8-10 hens and this might be the right size as manufactured coops are notoriously small for the stated number of hens).

If you have any drainage issues or site issues where you will be putting the coop/run, fix them now. We get pretty soggy here, so we built an elevated coop. The run does not get standing water, but we are so happy we built an elevated coop - it stays very dry and provides lots of shade for the chickens since it is 2.5' off the ground.

Breeds: I'm not that well versed in that, but I have children, and would be interested in getting a nice breed too, if I had small children. I can tell you that I personally (when considering young children) would NOT recommend a Silver Laced Wyandotte - ours is a grouchy and spirited hen and has bitten us a couple times when grouchy. Also, I would NOT recommend Barred Rocks - ours are also on the grouchy side and one of them has bitten us a couple of times when grouchy. Our Dark Brown Leghorns are skittish, and ...well...boring to watch - nothing wrong with them and they are nice and on the smaller side, so they could be an option for children.

Our Nice Breeds: Our Black Jersey Giants (one male, one female) are very chill and docile although the male is sexually maturing at 27 weeks and is getting a bit more opinionated with regards to the pecking order, while the female (not yet laying at 27 weeks) is still chill with everyone is allows herself to be picked up and does not pick fights with any of the other 11 hens. This breed is known to be generally docile, and they are the largest breed of chicken. Our Easter Eggers are both nice and have varied coloration, making them interesting to look at - ours lay two different shades of green eggs. Our Black Australorps are nice and interesting, but they do like to sit in that nest box for quite awhile every day - they tend to go broody, apparently, so I guess this isn't too surprising that they sit in the nest box (and ours are NOT broody yet) for stretches at a time.

Again, good luck! You'll likely get lots of opinions and responses.

 

[townchicks]

Welcome to the flock. I think larger is always better. Especially in an area where it snows, consider that the chickens will spend a lot more time in the coop. A covered run will be very helpful in the winter (so I hear, I don't get it here). Check out the coop pages for some great ideas. I do think you should start with three, Sourland is correct, they do much better with a "flock". Build with your maximum amount of chickens in mind, and you can't go wrong.

 

[Hyde7788]

Thank you, everyone, for all the feedback - I think my plan is to NOT get chicks but young chickens that are old enough to be outside but not too old. My father raised quail chicks when I was a teenager and the smell was god awful indoors. I do not want to replicate this odor in my house, nor would my wife want that, haha!

Thanks again for all the feedback, I will keep soaking it all in and adapt as best as possible!

 

[PirateGirl]

I second the idea of started pullets. You will know you have females. This is particularly good since you have children so you don't risk the drama of raising chicks, kids growing very attached to them, and then having to get rid of a cockerel that is now a beloved family member.

 

[Acre4Me]

Find your state forum here - and post there for your request on local coop ideas.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/where-am-i-where-are-you.26/