Show me your coops!

[connieconnie]

We bought an EZcoop! We love it! Fits 15-20 chickens but I wouldn’t go that high. I want them to have room. We have hay on the bottom. Makes for easy clean up. The run is 10x20 I think. And the “snack shack” inside is our starter coop for new chicks or where we keep extra food and drink for them. We let them roam the yard most of the day. The run now is mostly sand. The pic was when we first finished. The grass is gone and our “soil” is sand. So they have plenty of room to bathe! We still put hay out in the run to help with cleanup.
go bigger! We were only going to get 4 chicks too! Now we are up to a dozen

I'm sure I'll end up doing the same! getting way more than the original planned 5 So definitely going to build it as big as I can.

Is EZcoop an american brand? Sadly in the UK we don't have those avalible to us It looks great though maybe i'll be able to find something similar over here.

 

[Yav]

It’s all relative. I have no experience of cold climates, but I do freeze my butt off here all year round to protect my fock from the foxes. Bigger is always better

This is how I have started. Moderate climate (UK). 3 hens but I reckon I could go with 6 hens at this size

 

[connieconnie]

I agree - it all scales up with the size of the flock. But with 5 Chucks its a simple matter.. My point was the actual nighttime space is irrelevant to a degree - if they have a lot of access to free range.

I saw an article on this too, where they made what looked like a very large nest box instead of a hen house As a newbie to chicken keeping I have no idea about what is best! Do you think they would prefer this? Or would this only work for very small flocks of 2 or 3 hens?

 

[Yav]

For someone like me with a small garden this is perfect but ofc I would love a proper big shed, and those of you with space - go HUge! The more space the better!

 

[Yav]

I saw an article on this too, where they made what looked like a very large nest box instead of a hen house As a newbie to chicken keeping I have no idea about what is best! Do you think they would prefer this? Or would this only work for very small flocks of 2 or 3 hens?

I think they could just have a box. I watch my flock from a summmerhouse year round (all mod cons) - my birds don’t bother to come out of the bedroom until I do. They get used to my routine. However getting back to point about space. I totally agree with your cold climate = more space needed - but the opposite is also true (if you can negate the predation angle)
The free roam is far more important to the coop space (obviously cold areas might need to give more space for when the chucks dont fancy going out)

 

[Yav]

I think they could just have a box. I watch my flock from a summmerhouse year round (all mod cons) - my birds don’t bother to come out of the bedroom until I do. They get used to my routine. However getting back to point about space. I totally agree with your cold climate = more space needed - but the opposite is also true (if you can negate the predation angle)
The free roam is far more important to the coop space (obviously cold areas might need to give more space for when the chucks dont fancy going out)

Incidentally one of my chucks tries to roost in the summerhouse every night, they are not fussy

 

[MJ22]

I'm sure I'll end up doing the same! getting way more than the original planned 5 So definitely going to build it as big as I can.

Is EZcoop an american brand? Sadly in the UK we don't have those avalible to us It looks great though maybe i'll be able to find something similar over here.

Oh duh! Didn’t think of that! yes it is. But if you don’t want to build it yourself try and find something simple. It was 4 pieces that slid together! Super EZ

 

[Yav]

Go cheap this year then upgrade (you will)

 

[connieconnie]

It’s all relative. I have no experience of cold climates, but I do freeze my butt off here all year round to protect my fock from the foxes. Bigger is always better

This is how I have started. Moderate climate (UK). 3 hens but I reckon I could go with 6 hens at this size

Cute chickens Thank you for all the help! I'm the same, of course I would love to have a chicken palace if I had the room and them money! Planning on DIYing for this first coop (so super cheap), and then maybe when I work out what works best I can make or buy something more expensive It can get cold in the UK, but it's mild cold. Very rarely goes into the minus (degrees Celsius) . But ...climate change is unpredictable .
Cute that they want to sleepy in the summerhouse!

I don't have anything fancy in terms of space, just a standard sized garden. But was hoping to make a comfortable, convenient and efficient coop for the chickens, and look after them properly

 

[tribalacres]

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The building is 8x16 but the coop portion is 8x12. Their run is 28x12 with a 4x8 jog in the back for the dust bathing area. They have year round access to a 1/3 acre pen that is enclosed with poultry netting powered with a 10,000 volt charger as I have roving dogs, black bears, fisher cats, raccoons, coyotes, weasels, fox and a colony of feral cats nearby.

WAY overkill for 10 chickens as my setup can hold 27 comfortably. But it gives you an idea of what you can do with all or part of an old shed.
You can go to the Articles tab and click on Chicken Coops to look at all the coop articles that have been written. Some have a lot of details. Some not so much. But there are ideas galore there.

My opinion on sand: I got rid of it as part of the mix I put in my poop boards in my quest to reduce dust in my coop. I also changed out my bedding from pine shavings to hemp bedding.

Woah! This is amazing!!!