Hello to Everyone. I'll be honest I've been lurking and reading and laughing and lurking all the while coveting coops. Now that I have my own littles on the way I realize I am more confused than ever. I need help and all replies are appreciated. I have an area of 12' x 17' for the littles, five are coming. I could probably get an additional 5 x 5 area if I give up a raised garden. How big to build the coop. Length, width, vertical and stilted or not. In Indianapolis if in case it matters. I understand all of the 4/10 stuff but was wondering what everyone who actually has current possession of littles would do with this area. For a little more info one side is my house, two sides have a ten foot privacy fence, the last is open into the garden area and will have to be closed off to keep the littles out of the pool. Thank you all for your help. This is the area I'm working with. Hope the picture posted so you can see it. The yellow flowers are the yard line. I can if need be put the coop outside the line. I have ten coming, plan on keeping five of them the rest I hope to adopt out. Packing peanuts are being included. The peanuts are going to my aunts in the country after they are out of the brooder. Thanks for all suggestions.
Pics would help us visualize.... Find Member, "Gallo del Cielo" go to his BYC web page and you'll love what you see. ETA: here is his BYC page. ENJOY! coop and run in a small space with GRAPE VINES I wish I would have had him help me with my run 3 years ago. he packs a punch in just a tiny space.
Welcome to BYC! I started with chickens over the summer and the people of BYC were great. Feel free to visit my BYC Page for links to my blog that you may find helpful or amusing. Sounds like you need a city-friendly coop. Something that is nice to look at but safe for the chickens. If I understood your dimensions right you have a longish space that is constrained by the house and the fence. You may need to stay a certain distance from the fence so check the building codes. I would suggest a narrow, long coop that is set into the ground on treated wood posts, perhaps set in gravel instead of concrete if that bypasses a "permanent structure" ordinance. Attach a long narrow run, filled with sand and fully enclosed with hardware cloth. Make it dog-proof! So 5 chickens need 20 square feet of coop and 50 square feet of run. Let's fudge the numbers for easy estimation: 24 sf coop and 60 sf run. Maybe a 4x6 coop and a 6x10 run giving a 14x6 footprint. This is the minimum, so no more chickens! I think you could make one of those raised coops with the water and food hanging underneath and a ladder from the run to the coop wall.
thanks for the welcome and the suggestion was one of the coops I have drooled over in the coop design pages, no way can I get a 40'straight run. I will try and get some pictures of my area up tomorrow
Sounds like you have plenty of room for at least a dozen chickens. How many chickens do you want? Have you ever tried using the free 3D modeling program Sketchup? It took me a while to get the hang of it, but it has helped me tons in making decisions about how I to build in my space requirements. For a smaller coop, I'd built it on stilts (treated 4x4's), but either way make it tall enough to walk erect under the roof. I recommend building your pop door at least 6 inches or more off the floor for the deep litter method. To be honest, I'd go see what I could find to start with, like a used dog house or shed, then work from there. You want to keep your cost down as much as practical, but at the same time "If you can't afford to do it right the first time, you surely can't afford do it twice."
