Wanting to hear people's experience with coop size

[the poppster]

Weasel are just about everywhere in the US...we've got long tail and short tail....along with mink...a small weasel can easily fit thru the holes in 1 inch poultry wire...I found that out this spring..after a MOM weasel murdered 8, 3 week old chicks inside the chicken tractor...I immediately removed the poultry wire, and replaced it with 1/2 inch hardware cloth...I'm planning on covering the roofed run with hardware cloth as soon as possible...basically making it as close to weasel, mink, raccoon, coyote bobcat lynx and wolf proof as possible...of course if a bear decided to get in there isn't much I can do....but that's not likely.

 

[Folly's place]

When bears arrive, the electric fencing will also go around the coop. Mary

 

[the poppster]

I've got dogs and the neighbor has dogs...they are out and about most of the time...I think it deters the bears for the most part..they don't particularly like dogs...and we don't leave garbage out...so they don't visit much. I agree an electric fence is a must have with bears...a "weed burner" as we used to call it. It ran off of house current...very effective.

 

[mabell23]

My coop is 6x6 36 square feet and in have 9 girls and there's room for 3 more with plenty of room

 

[the poppster]

I've got 7x10 coop with lots of perches...haven't counted my birds...but I do have a few to many boys...I'm considering adding a bachelor coop and a separate run for the extras till I figure out what to do with them...it's that or find room in the freezer...they aren't fighting...they aren't aggressive....they are just to "active" and my girls don't need that stress...

 

[Alspal]

I have two coops. each is four by four by four tall sloping down to three feet. Each has two perches four foot long. i have had twenty birds in each coop with no problems. When they perch all huddle together so there appears to be a continous bird on the perch. Tey only sleep there or lay eggs. the most of the time they are free ranging in my garden of one half acre.

 

[Magfree]

I have a 12x16 ft coop. It is divided into four parts. A four by six brood room, a six by eight hen section, a six by six meat bird rm, and a four by six feed/utillity rm. These rooms form an L as seen from above. This leaves a ten by six aviary to form the afore mentioned twelve by sixteen coop.

I have nineteen hens and three roosters. The brood rm is closed as I have no broody hens at this time. The hen rm would be to crowded with this many chooks, and especially with three roos. So, I leave the meat bird rm open.

The birds naturally spill over to the meat rm, to avoid crowding. To make a long story short, six to seven birds roost in the meat bird room, and the rest in the hen rm, for a ratio of three square ft/bird. Their choice not mine.

Because my aviary is to small, I free range my mixed flock on five acres.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I just saw that I'd been asked a question. I've been travelling some too.

This is my built-in 3’ x ‘ brooder. The top serves as a droppings board. It also serves as my main broody buster, I have a grow-out coop that can also bust a broody. Both have hardware cloth floors, can’t remember if they are ¼” or ½” hardware cloth, probably ¼”. If they are empty, and one always is, they can also serve to isolate a chicken or group of chickens if I need to.

I build in as much flexibility as I can. It makes my life so much easier.

 

[TamiHurd]

I have a smaller coop 4X5 for my ten birds. They spend virtually no time in the coop except for sleeping. The BIGGEST difficulty I have with this small size is that it is nearly impossible to have good spacing vertically and horizontally for the roosting poles. There just simply is not enough length to ladder the roosts nicely and give the birds space to hop up and down. Next time I would never build less than 5 W x 7 D for the interior dimensions.

 

[Sunsetlake]

My coop is built into a corner of the barn. The coop is about 12 & 1/2 ft X 8 & 1/2 ft with 9 -10 ft ceiling. They have another notched out area in their coop that is 4ft X 5ft. They have about 9 roosts all throughout the coop, 2 roosts that are about 10 ft long. I have 22 hens, 1 roo and 4 guineas in there. Then they have an attached covered/protected run area that is about 10 ft X 10 ft. I really consider this part of their coop because it is enclosed with metal fencing with a door. I open the door each morning to their large fenced area outside that is 50 ft X 70 ft.

So, I think they must have plenty of room. I haven't ever had any major behavioral problems besides the usual pecking order stuff.

Since things are so good, I'm hoping to add another 20 chickens next spring!