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The frame to our new chicken coop is up ...

Julie_in_PA

In the Brooder
11 Years
May 15, 2008
64
0
39
Southern PA
Well, it's gonna be pretty big. To big I think.
Now I kinda wish we'd be using for something else instead of chickens ! It's such a nice pen !

Our chicken coop is 10x12 (120 square feet) and will have a fenced in area of 10x12 as well. According to advice I have been given - we need 2 square feet per chicken. With 120 sq. feet- we will have enough room for 60 chickens if we decide to have that many.
Thing is, I really don't think we'll want to keep that many. I can't imagine collecting approx 60 eggs per day !!!!
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The dimensions allow for us to have 50 nesting boxes. Although we won't need that many - if we only actually need 1 nesting box per 4 hens.

I would like to have that pen for an extra pen for my goats, or/and for my fawn bottle babies (cause currently they're cooped up inside the barn). sigh.
But it's already "going up" for the chickens .... and we can't afford to get more materials to build a different building for a coop elsewhere. Soooo I guess we'll just have to use it for our coop. The chickens should have it nice I'm thinking !

Anyway, I did get some pictures, but all that's done so far is the frame and roof. We didn't get any walls, etc. done yet. So I think I'll wait until I have all my pictures from the whole process up to when it's done and then post them.
 
You can never go too big! You will end up wanting more chickens, different breeds. Better to go too big than too small!
 
My coop is 10x10 and i can not imagine squeezing 50 chickens in there. It would be a pig's sty. I have 2 chickens now and I would only get maybe 2 more. I would like them to be comfortable and not packed like sardines. Also I don't want it to be fithy.
 
I can't imagine 2 sq. ft. per bird in a run. Everything I've read and heard suggests that you allow 3-4 feet in the coop (more if they will be in it for long periods during winter) and at least 10 in a run, for happy hens anyway. The commercial growers might consider 2 sq.ft. appropriate, but I'll bet the hens don't. Cornish cross meat birds might like it, they hardly move anyway...but laying hens?

*shrugs*
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I have always been told at the very least three sq. feet per chicken perferrably four if not more.

If you go by the four that gives you room for 30 chickens. But seriously when you go for the max, you need to allow more room. I have a 12x12 for my six four week old chicks. Plus they will have a run and another HUGE topped exercise area.

You also have to allow for nest boxes roasts feeders water, etc. Just going by deminsions is not the best way to calculate number of birds per area.

Good Luck with your chickens.

Dilly
 
I think she was referring to the coop..but you DO need about 10sq/ft per bird, preferably 4 for coop space...(I have 2 for my birds with no probs, bu they have 10sq/ft of run space)

Good luck with your coop.
 
As I said - we wouldn't be keeping near 60.
And let's say 4sq feet per chicken ... that would allow for 30 chickens in that coop. Which we was actually planning on keeping 25 or so anyway. Like I said - we never planned on keeping 60 ... we'll selling alot of the peeps we're getting.

Also, I'm planning on free ranging them through the day hopefully ... if all works out.


Did you say you are going to keep a goat and some fawns in there too ?

NO ! LOL !
I said ...
I would like to have that pen for an extra pen for my goats, or/and for my fawn bottle babies (cause currently they're cooped up inside the barn). sigh.
But it's already "going up" for the chickens .... and we can't afford to get more materials to build a different building for a coop elsewhere. Soooo I guess we'll just have to use it for our coop. The chickens should have it nice I'm thinking !

Meaning that I WISH I could use this pen for an extra pen for my goats, or for my fawns ... and have a different coop elsewhere for my chickens ... but I don't have the $$ to build yet another pen for a coop - so this one will just have to be what it was initially intended for - a coop. There will only be chickens in it in other words.​
 

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