Amish built chicken coop

[pacenme]

I was wondering if anyone has one of those Amish Built chicken coops. We have just purchased one that will be delivered next week. It is 4' x 6' w/ 6 nesting boxes for my 12 chickens. We are trying to figure out how to attach a run into it. If you have one w/ a run could you please post a picture? Thanx!

 

[CarolJ]

We had an Amish family in a town near us build us a 10 x 20 building. I designed the interior as a chicken coop with three pens and "person" area for storing feed, bedding, etc. - and they built the interior to my specifications. My husband and I then built the run. The run extends about 15 feet behind the building and goes all the way across the back.



With a 4 x 6 coop, the run could go from the side where the chicken door is and extend out however far you want it to be.

 

[Cargo]

You are gonna need a bigger coop come winter.

 

[Aeropennchick]

You are gonna need a bigger coop come winter.

x2...it is generally recommend to have 4 sq. ft per large bird in the coop, and 2-3 sq. ft each for bantams, with 10 sq. ft each in the run per bird. You will probably only need three to four nesting boxes for 12 hens, also.

So you are working with 24 sq. feet in the coop, with 12 birds...gonna be tight! I'd say make an extra large run, and plan to keep the water and food outside the coop. Maybe make two rows of roosts to make more space in there. And cover a good part of the run, so they won't be stuck inside when the weather is bad.

 

[CarolJ]

I will go against some conventional thinking here and say that IF you have a very large run (with at least part of it covered) and IF you let them out into the run very early each morning, and IF you have plenty of roosting pole length, then your coop will be fine for 12 birds. It'll be snug, but in my experience, the chickens are never ALL in the coop except for when they roost at night. Then they're on the roosts and not moving around the coop. You can also make more room inside your coop by putting in a platform. That gives the chickens space on top and underneath it. Having a large run is important because that's where they'll be except for when they're roosting or laying.

When you build your run, you can put hardware cloth all around the bottom of the coop so that chickens can go underneath the coop - which automatically gives them more room in the run, too. You can't see it in the photo I posted above, but the area under our coop is open to the chickens. We have hardware cloth attached to boards, and then the hardware cloth extends out from the coop also to prevent predators from digging under. We covered the hardware cloth with dirt and then landscaped around it so it isn't noticeable.

And yea - that's more nesting boxes than you'll need, but there's probably not much you can do about that. Once you get it, though, you might be able to remove or convert half the nest boxes to give more space for your chickens inside the coop.

Good luck!

 

[pacenme]

We do plan on building a nice size run. We currently have 4 adult hens and the other 8 are almost 6 weeks now. We let the 4 free range during the day if it isn't raining out. We plan to do the same w/ the other 8 as well. So they will only be in the run/coop overnight and in bad weather. I didn't even think to put a roost in the run too. Thanx everyone for the advice!

 

[carolinasculpture]

Hi! Not sure about your plans for the run, but you could always put the coop inside the run. That way they can go underneath in bad weather and you wouldn't have to worry about the hardware cloth. We have 12 chickens in a 50'x50' run which is plenty big for them. I even had to mow the grass today. Good luck!

 

[RobinZ]

Look on My Page, I had a 4x6 coop w run. I have a 8x10 mini barn coming if that tell you anything, lol.