What size coop would you suggest? (update)

[ShrekDawg]

Btw, my dad is on board, I just have to raise the money. Established that last night. My older brother is kind of indifferent, more about the money also. Actually, my younger brother is the only one adamantly opposed xD

I still remember his reasoning when I wanted them this past spring so despite him only mentioning my past track record with pets & how he's worried I won't take care of them, I know it's also because he's, as we like to say, "affected" xD I remember him saying that "we're not poor" or "poor people have chickens" or something to that effect and how we're "not a farm." I say he's worried his friends or girlfriend will think he's not cool. LOL

I also don't think he realizes quite how popular it is and that it's not like we have anything near a perfect property/house as is xD

But, considering I have parental approval, sorry bro, it's happening anyways ahahaha

But anyways, the point of this is my dad had a great idea, use the dog kennel we've had sitting in our woods for like 8 years as the run so we don't have to pay to frame one lol

So, we went and pulled them out of the woods today.

They weren't far in or anything, just scattered.

I think it's 6' x 12' and we wanted the coop to be just a 4' x 8' but obviously that might not work now so we've gotta figure something out but it's still a good idea and excited.

Parts of it are a little bit messed up, like maybe some of the ties breaking or being loose so part of the bottom hanging off, or the chain link being warped, being covered in dirt on the bottom, etc. but it's in amazingly good shape and not rusty or anything.

The only real problem is the hardware was in a bag tied to a section and that section was the only one that was covered so, needless to say, the hardware is no longer there and somewhere beneath the dirt/leaf litter but that's not so bad, we can just buy some more hardware for it.

I took pictures of it so I'll upload those and post them in a second.

I'm super excited.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Le fence! As you can see, it's in near perfect condition besides being a little bit dirty and very minorly warped. I'm pretty excited.
It could be a tiny bit small for 6 or 8 but the coop will be the appropriate size and they'll be free ranging anyways so it'll be okay I'm sure and if not, we can always add part. but ya.

 

[Free Feather]

Sounds good. So how many are you actually planning on getting?

 

[ShrekDawg]

Sounds good. So how many are you actually planning on getting?

Thanks Well, I was thinking like 10 or 15 if that was the minimum, but now I'm thinking 6-8 would probably be a good number, leaning more towards either 8 or just buying 6 and doing the free chick option making it 7

 

[Pyxis]

 
Sounds good. So how many are you actually planning on getting?

Thanks Well, I was thinking like 10 or 15 if that was the minimum, but now I'm thinking 6-8 would probably be a good number, leaning more towards either 8 or just buying 6 and doing the free chick option making it 7

Where are you getting them from? I was thinking Meyer since they have the Meyer Meal Maker chick.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Where are you getting them from? I was thinking Meyer since they have the Meyer Meal Maker chick.

That's exactly what I'm thinking of doing

 

[ShrekDawg]

So, as you can see, we have the kennel panels out for the run and we've been working on a plan for the coop and everything.

Initially I wanted 4 x 8 and inside the run then we realized the panel was only 6 feet wide and we couldn't do that so we were going to make the coop 4 x 6 instead or adjust the run or something.

Well today we were thinking more and we're gonna forget the back panel and were gonna make the run a triangle or something, an idea from yesterday, but now we have a better plan. I was afraid of losing square footage in the run if we made it narrower at the end, even if it's only by 2 feet, soooo...

Now we realized we can use the 12 foot panels and then have the 2 6 foot ones triangle at the end. I -think- that might have been the original plan anyways though, since there's no gate in the 12 foot ones, so maybe I had misunderstood, but yeah so now we have it mostly sorted out.

So it will be an 8 x 12 run, with the extra little square footage from the triangle at the end.

I think I have the plan drawn for the coop too. Just gotta figure out where exactly to position the roosts and then the vents but that's easy.

So far I'm thinking of having the roosts on the left hand 4 foot side, the nest boxes on the outside on the right, 4 of them since it's 4 feet anyways, chicken door in the front, obviously, and I'm thinking dead center but I don't know, and then either having the whole 8 foot back lift up or a smaller door, obviously for cleaning purposes. The roof would probably lift up too but maybe on the inside side. I don't know, would all these doors make it too insecure? I would have secure locks and everything obviously but I still worry. My dad's thinking it will probably be like 4 feet tall but I might want it taller so I don't know. I think it will be on stands too though. The kennel pieces are only 6 feet high though so we really can't have it too high.

I have pictures of our plans so far that I'll post in a second, though I just explained everything. Also trying to decide on a roof too but I'm excited.

 

[ShrekDawg]

 

[ShrekDawg]

I guessed on the square footage of the triangle. Oh and also, that line between them means nothing, there wouldn't actually be a wall or anything there, I just did that to make it easier to do the math. but yeah.

 

[Pyxis]

Looking good! With 36 square feet of coop space, you'd want nine chickens max in there. Looks like for nine chickens they'll have plenty of run space.