Hi everybody, I'm entirely new to chickens so I apologize in advance for the long-winded question! We have some 3 week olds hanging out in our basement and we need to make them a permanent home. We live in a downtown area and our backyard acreage is very limited so we decided to go for a 2-story design. The footprint will be 3x3 feet, and the roof will slope from a height of 5' in the back down to 4' in the front. The upper floor will be completely enclosed with windows and ventilation, for roosting and nesting, with a ladder down to the ground-level floor, where the food and water will be located via pipe feeders. The ground floor will have 2 solid walls and 2 walls lined with hardware cloth. The floor will also be lined with hardware cloth. This will be their secure place to sleep at night. We also plan to make a 3' by 6' tractor run with mini-roosts, food and water, and optional shade that we can use to drag the chickens around the yard during the day. If possible, we plan to let them out of the run to free-range in our gardens whenever we can. At night this run will be connected to the more secure structure.
My question is: is this enough space for 4 standard hens? I know the rule is 4 sq ft/chicken indoors, and 10 sq ft/chicken outdoors, but do both floors count as the "indoor" part since the ground floor is still relatively sheltered? Also, does the 10 sq ft rule change when you are moving a tractor around and free-ranging? We live in central Virginia so our nights and winters are pretty mild. We don't anticipate getting any more chickens seeing as we just don't have the space.
Also, is it ok that I don't plan to put a nest box in to the tractor? When do chickens normally lay eggs? A nest box will be available to them in the evenings and at night when they go "home".
Thanks again! I've been obsessing through this forum since last October and I really want to do things right.
My question is: is this enough space for 4 standard hens? I know the rule is 4 sq ft/chicken indoors, and 10 sq ft/chicken outdoors, but do both floors count as the "indoor" part since the ground floor is still relatively sheltered? Also, does the 10 sq ft rule change when you are moving a tractor around and free-ranging? We live in central Virginia so our nights and winters are pretty mild. We don't anticipate getting any more chickens seeing as we just don't have the space.
Also, is it ok that I don't plan to put a nest box in to the tractor? When do chickens normally lay eggs? A nest box will be available to them in the evenings and at night when they go "home".
Thanks again! I've been obsessing through this forum since last October and I really want to do things right.