'The Honey Hole' Coop & Run Build

[earth_toes]

Alright guys! We picked up our 8 chicks, roughly a week old on Saturday (3/30/2019), and they're snoozing quietly in their spare bedroom brooder. On to making the coop and run!

I want to share my experience with the build and accept any information or help along the way. Also, ignore the mess in my garage, it's a work in progress as well lol.

*Disclaimer: My dogs are NEVER left alone with the baby chicks as the 'peep' sound will trigger a prey drive we are avoiding. They are involved when changing bedding, cleaning those pasty butts (only once so far!) and general daily checks. My goal is to involve them in the growth process for them to get used to having them around in 'their space'. So far so good!

 

[Banditschickens]

Chicken math+= triple the size of
your build/fenced in area for the bird's.
Speaking from experience. That base is
way to small for 8 full grown birds.

 

[earth_toes]

Chicken math+= triple the size of
your build/fenced in area for the bird's.
Speaking from experience. That base is
way to small for 8 full grown birds.

Thank you for the input, I'm going off of roughly 2sqft per hen in the coop, they will free range our fenced in back yard during the day, and only be in their run during inclement weather. If I get to the point i feel like they are crowded or having issues, ill add on, easy peasy! Ah Also! The nesting boxes will be an 'add on' area to the base of the coop, wont be taking any space away from sleeping quarters

 

[DobieLover]

Thank you for the input, I'm going off of roughly 2sqft per hen in the coop, they will free range our fenced in back yard during the day, and only be in their run during inclement weather. If I get to the point i feel like they are crowded or having issues, ill add on, easy peasy! Ah Also! The nesting boxes will be an 'add on' area to the base of the coop, wont be taking any space away from sleeping quarters

Sorry, but 2 sq ft/hen in the coop is about 1/2 what you should be targeting. You will end up with behavioral issues if you don't go bigger. Same applies to the run.
I know you plan to free range, but they really don't in the winter. They will stay in the run provided you put up wind blocking. It is just too small. Sorry.

 

[wamtazlady]

I agree, it is a bit small for 8 large birds. Rule of thumb is to allow 4 square feet of coop space per bird and 10 square feet of run per bird. More room is better if you can do it. You will have to carefully watch the chickens especially in the winter to make sure they are not experiencing stress due to being a bit crowded. Stress can lead to fights and feather plucking. Make sure you have plenty of ventilation up high to get the moist warm air out of the coop in winter. Humidity in the coop leads to frostbite. It is difficult from your drawing to tell how much open ventilation you plan. Using myself as an example, I have a 6' by 8' coop with 7 birds and 10 square feet of ventilation that is never closed, even in the winter when it gets down below 0. My run is 14' by 8'.

Good luck. Keeping chickens is a lot of fun.

 

[chickpeasoup]

If the chickens only use the coop for sleeping, then it can be smaller. Where I live is hot, never snows, and we're always in a drought so the ladies exclusively use it for sleeping and eggs and nothing else. So I can afford it to be smaller, if this is not the same case for you then I agree with everyone else it needs to be bigger. Rule of thumb is 4sqft per bird in coop, 8-10sqft in the run (but I'd give them more space if I could).

 

[earth_toes]

Thank you, should be easy enough to add another base of 4x4' (16sqft) for all 8 birds to be comfortable at a total of a 32sqft coop. Back to Lowes it is!

Edit: The plans I'm using said it is for 6-8 hens, didn't specify if it was full size or bantam breeds. Total newbie but, I should have come here first. Experience vs book smarts win every time!

 

[Banditschickens]

It's ok

you caught it before it would been more difficult to redo.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

So it’s not just the prefab coops that exaggerate their capacity - on these coop plans, as well!

Someone in our area is selling her low-ceiling, 4’ x 4’ coop and she told me it held 8 chickens. She blocked off all the ventilation (which WAS directly in line with the roosts) and added a heat lamp and a heat plate (is that what they are called?). I thought it must have been stifling in there.

I suppose everyone should read BYC or some similar reference. Seems there must be lots of crowded chickens out there.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Thank you for the input, I'm going off of roughly 2sqft per hen in the coop, they will free range our fenced in back yard during the day, and only be in their run during inclement weather. If I get to the point i feel like they are crowded or having issues, ill add on, easy peasy! Ah Also! The nesting boxes will be an 'add on' area to the base of the coop, wont be taking any space away from sleeping quarters

A word of caution when dealing with birds and dogs.....letting them all roam the yard is great (until they have turned it into a dust bowl).
I have dogs with a high prey drive. I can never allow the dogs to accidentally be let into the yard while chickens are out.

I built my dogs a giant kennel that is accessed directly from the house. I made it so there is a dog side and a human/chicken side.