Size of coop and run, what do you think?

[TJK68]

Hi,

This is my first post and I am new to chickens. My wife and I live on a farm with our horses and dogs and decided to get some chickens. I may have went a little over board to start out, LOL. I have ended up with about 40 chickens in the last week,all ages and sizes. I have 4 Rhode Island Red Hens that are laying every couple of days and are 11 months old, 7 RI pullets, 3 Domieque these are 3 months old and then a bunch of chicks that are a couple weeks old. These are Golden Comets, New Hampshires, Black Comm, Red Production, Tetra Tints and White Leggers, they are in the mud room right now.
I have taken a 12'x12' stall in my barn, cut a slide door on a pulley, fenced in a 12'x40' lot beside the barn with 6ft chain link fence and also have a 8'x10' coop that is up off the ground with 4 24"x24" nest boxes and the rest of it is open area for them to walk around in, the coop is inside the fenced in area. I will have sawdust and pine chips in the stall. I also built 6 nesting boxes in the stall and some roosting poles. I guess my question is do you guys think this is enough room for the girls and does it sound like a pretty good setup to start out. I am sure I will make improvements along the way, just trying to start out right. Thanks for any help.

 

[macadam8157]

I've read in books that for standard size birds you should go off of 4 square ft per bird in the coop and 10 square feet per bird in the run. Although I'm not sure how important to follow this would be. I do know that more is always better when it comes to space.

 

[TJK68]

That is what I read also, I figure I have about 704 sq. ft of space, divided by 40 and that gives me about 17.5 sq. ft. per bird. I think they should be comfortable. Like I said I can always make changes, I might evan end up with a few more before it is over, LOL.

 

[macadam8157]

Thats true I have enough room for 20 or so but only 14 birds, never know when your gonna want to add some new faces. But yes 17 sq ft per bird, thats like an amusement park. lol They should be plenty happy with that.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum!!

Glad you joined us!!

It is an interesting set-up and sounds nice, but how good it is depends some on where you are and some on how you manage them.

The 4 squared feet in the coop and 10 square feet in the run is a rough rule of thumb for minimum space that will usually keep you out of trouble. In some cases that is plenty adequate but in some circumstances you can still get in trouble. The main danger of them being crowded is that they get bored and turn cannibalistic, but I also find that the more room they have, the less work you have to do to manage them. Other things factor in, but poop maangement can become a pretty big issue if they are kept in a pretty small space.

If they have access to the run most of the time, you will normally be OK with 4 square feet per bird in the coop. Other than weather reasons, especially in winter, the main reason I find they may be stuck in the coop is I want to sleep in on a Saturday occasionally. Or maybe I want to take a trip and you can't get someone to come over at the crack of dawn to let them out. If they have more room than the minimum, you have more flexibility in managing them.

I have not tried it, but I don't think I'd be comfortable with sawdust on the coop floor. One critical thing is to keep the coop dry. You can run into smell, mold, or disease problems if the coop is wet. I'm not convinced that sawdust would dry out if it ever got wet, even with real good ventilation. Occasionally, they do get wet. I firmly believe that cleaning out a decent sized coop any more than you have to is something that should be avoided. I think wood shavings or even the wood chips would dry out faster.

Having that second coop in there could come in real handy. I'd suggest thinking about either fencing the run to where you could divide it into two different sections, one for each coop, or extend the run so you have even more room and runs with each coop. Most of the time you could leave the gate or door between the two open so they have access to the whole thing, but still have the flexibility to separate two flocks. I'm thinking a grow out pen for younger chicks but there could be other times you could use it. That 8' x 10' coop might make a great brooder if you have power to it.

It sounds like you have put effort and expense into it. If you live where the weather is relatively reasonable, I think you will be real pleased with what you have once you figure out how to use it for your specific circumstances. With 40 chickens, I do think you are getting pretty close to your limit unless you can free range the chickens practically every day.

Good luck and once again,

.

 

[TJK68]

I live in WV so we do have some bad winter weather. The sawdust is a must have as a base in the stall sa this is what is on the floor as this is a pole barn. I will [lace wood chips several inches deep and keep adding to it. The coop in the outdoor run is about 4 ft off of the ground, I can open a door and allow them access to the hole run and stall area, or close it and use this for older pullets or sick , hurt hens, I thought this would be useful in this manner.