Silkie Coop... Need Advice

[BlakesFarm]

Hi byc'ers I am working on my second coop of the year. This coop will be for 4 or 5 silkies (4 hens and one roo, or 3 hens and 1 roo). I got an old fort and I really want to make it into a silkie coop it is 3ft 6 ½ in wide (42 ½ in) and 3ft 9 ½in long (45 ½ in) which makes out to be around 12 square ft.

My questions are about how many square ft to silkies need? I normally give chickens 4 sf each, but silkies are bantams which means they need less space? And the way I have it planned now the coop will be sitting two feet above ground level, do you think silkies would climb up a ramp to get to the coop (it wont be a steep ramp)?






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What I would like to do with the coop:

What I would like to do is make it to where it is 3ft 6 ½in wide (no change there

) and 6ft long. That would give me 21 SF. The coop its self would be 3 ½ ft tall, 2 feet above ground, which meads the coops overall height would be 5ft 6in.

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What do you think I should do, leave the fort/future chicken coop at its current dimentions, or make it like option #2 (what I would like to do)?












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[lovesgliders]

I'm not so sure on the square footage requirements, but I can tell you that my Silkies always sleep huddled in a pile and disregard the rest of their coop.

I'm starting to think I could've saved myself a lot of trouble and just built them a doghouse. LOL

Also mine won't use any ramp other than the short (six inches) one to get into the coop. They TOTALLY ignore their roosts and nestboxes, even after I made ramps to each. Another waste of time.

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

I have my 5 silkies in a 3x3 coop that I built for them. This is their house:

This is their house and run that I built. The ramp is kind of steep but they have gotten used to going up and down it to get to their food and water inside the coop. Here are a few pics of the inside:

Ventilation"

When they were almost 2 months old, they moved in!

My silkies all sleep in a pile on the floor. They are usually in their run all day long and only go in their house at night and to eat and drink. If you can make it bigger, I would go bigger. I built this house by myself with no skills because no one would help me. I plan on building another coop this summer and separating the kids to give them a little more room but so far no problems. Mine arent laying yet so I dont know if they will use the nest box but I am hoping they do. I hope this helps.

 

[ThinkingChickens]

I've heard it's 2sq ft per silkie and 4sq feet for standard. Gosh this makes me want a Silkie coop. They are so puffy and cute. MUST..... step..... away.... from BYC.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

I give silkies 4 sq ft because they only use the floor, or a roosting BOARD a foot off the ground. Don't put the coop too high off the ground, if you do make sure you make a LONG gradual incline ramp. (like a previous poster's pictures)

I give silkies as much room as a standard because they will stay in the coop alot - brooding, with chicks, and in general as they stay on the ground, your going to want more room so their poo doesn't build up and it allows it to be cleaner for them. If you do nest boxes - don't put them more like 8-12" off the ground - they will have issues otherwise getting up into them and will just choose to nest on the floor (like mine)