What would you do differently if you started over?

[yfchoice]

I would have built mine sooner. Other than that, my coop suits me and my 4 chickens in our urban setting.

Hey Marty (PacsMan), I was looking at your pics and commented to my wife that " this guy's chickens look just like ours." I then checked who posted and realized it was you. For everyone.....we got our chickens on the same day from the same lady, probably within an hour of each other.

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
What would I have done differently? Read more - real backyard stuff. There are many ways to do chickens, as is evidenced here @ BYC. But there are some hard and fast rules that aren't always apparent to the newcomer and some outright falsehoods that get around.

There will be many answers to how many you can have in that space. But it always boils down to how much effort you want to put in. The fewer the birds, the less involvement.
Confinement = effort, with chickens... Most of it spent maintaining cleanilness and eliminating damp.

Depending on who you listen to, your run will accomodate from between 3 and 48 chickens. A 66 sq ft coop? Between 16.5 and 44.

I would recommend no more than 12 birds to start, such recommendation having nothing to do with the available space - that is sufficient in your case.
Rather a dozen birds will provide about all the eggs a family can consume and makes a good start for the newcomer.

Now go get you some good books and get to reading. You can listen to us, later.

 

[SportTees]

build it huge. If you want 6 chicks build it for 30 because you'll get more