Hello! I am brand new at all of this, I do not have any chickens yet. I am in the research phase right now. I'm looking into getting a coop, and have found several cute plans but they don't seem to give the chickens very much space. They have the enclosed area and then a ramp to an area a few feet long covered with mesh. Do the chickens live here full time or do you let them out? It seems a bit small to me? I'm only planning on starting with 2 or 3 chickens.Where I live I can't have them free roaming, there are way too many dangers and no fence around my yard. But I don't think I have the money for a huge run in addition to the coop. I'm kinda stumped on this one! Do I just let them out when I can, and if I do will the roam far? I don't want them going into the wooded area/road, etc. so how do you manage their exercising time when they aren't in the actual box part of their coop? Any advice is appreciated.
Welcome to BYC. By all means keep reading up on keeping chickens. For small flocks like most BYCers have the space they need is 4 sq. feet per bird in the coop and 10 sq feet per bird in the run. If the coop in you picture is 8' x 4' then it looks like it is adequate for three chickens. If you have a lot of dangers then leave them out only when you can supervise them. They can wander quite far if you leave them follow their beaks. Generally they stay within 300 feet of the coop.
Hi, and welcome! The coop pictured looks juuuust big enough for three hens. If you're worried about them straying, then let them out in the evenings when it's an hour or so before dusk and you can watch them. The hens won't have time to get that far before they will go back in for the night.
