newchickychick
Chirping
- Apr 2, 2025
- 29
- 76
- 56
Hello all! It's me again.
So, all 19 remaining nuggets of ours are happy and healthy! They're one week old and we hope/expect that since half of them were sexed, we may end up with 13-14 hens. IF one of the roos is the temperament we're looking for, we'll keep a roo from the batch too. But otherwise, we're hoping to buy another batch of 20 chicks in July and integrate them to the new chickens. That being said, we know integration is easiest with two separate spaces. We wanted to build a big coop and run anyhow. Our eventual "max size" flock goal is 50 chickens. So, we want to go ahead and build for the potential of having up to 50 chickens.
That leaves us with... a lot of questions.
- Our plan is 40 feet by 20 feet for the run. Should we go bigger for this? We cannot go larger width wise, as it runs too downhill into the forest, but we can easily go bigger length wise. The other conundrum is - we live closeish to a 55 mph road and even though we have 28 acres of space, our neighbors are close enough to the fringes where they would not appreciate random chickens peeping in, so total free range is not an option. So our goal is a totally enclosed but tall and spacious run for up to 50 chickens.
- Our plan is 20 feet by 15 feet for the coop. Should we go bigger for this as well? Same as above, we can easily go longer but not wider in relation to our plans on the setup through our spacious behind the house area. We don't believe we'll ever have the FULL 50, but in case we cut it close.
- How did you start? Were there any particular videos/guides you found helpful? What materials did you use that you found extremely helpful?
- We do plan to dig down under it to put hardware cloth so no predators can dig up/under it. That being said, do chickens prefer going 'up' into their coop (walking up a ladder into it) or are they typically fine walking in a bit above ground level like a normal building, so long as they have plenty of roosts/perches inside? We were hoping to be able to walk into it normally ourselves for cleaning/maintenance, as I've unfortunately got spine problems so too much stooping is tough on it. But we wanted to know if chickens needed their own little 'chicken door' above ground level or if they just use a normal door that you go through when you let yours out.
- We don't really know what breeds we have/will have. Will this be an issue when planning for space? We're big fans of the "surprise us!" randoms with breeds, as we're just looking to fill our flock with pets/egg-layers that we can hopefully tell most of apart. I know some larger breeds can be in those surprise bags, as it were, but if it's a handful vs. an entire flock, would this make the plans moot on size? I do think we POSSIBLY have one or two, maybe three Jersey Giants. And they're still only a week old, so we could very well be wrong. It's only an assumption based on chick color, yellow feet undersides, and the fact one in particular is most definitely the largest of the chicks so far. But our next batch, we're hoping to get some Polish and/or Spitzhauben in there, and whatever else Cackle throws at us, so we're not planning to go overboard on large breeds. On purpose, at least.
- All in all, how fast did you build your custom coop/run of similar size? We're HOPING to add more chicks in July, but they'd be in our indoor brooder setup anyways until it was time to go outside, so we'd have until at minimum November while hopefully starting next weekend, but planning even closer to December-January depending on how cold it gets here and when the chicks are ready to go out. (The run will be covered to prevent extreme rain/snow buildup - and to help prevent predators from getting in!)
- Do you have rain guards/gutters on your coop? Silly question maybe, but we were hoping this would help prevent buildup of too much rain on the ground in front of the coop or let alone getting too leaky into the coop. Did you use actual gutters or makeshift them?
- How many windows do you have for ventilation for your build around this size? We know ventilation is important higher up in the coop and want to make sure we're properly accommodating for the amount of ventilation so many chickens would need.
So, all 19 remaining nuggets of ours are happy and healthy! They're one week old and we hope/expect that since half of them were sexed, we may end up with 13-14 hens. IF one of the roos is the temperament we're looking for, we'll keep a roo from the batch too. But otherwise, we're hoping to buy another batch of 20 chicks in July and integrate them to the new chickens. That being said, we know integration is easiest with two separate spaces. We wanted to build a big coop and run anyhow. Our eventual "max size" flock goal is 50 chickens. So, we want to go ahead and build for the potential of having up to 50 chickens.
That leaves us with... a lot of questions.
- Our plan is 40 feet by 20 feet for the run. Should we go bigger for this? We cannot go larger width wise, as it runs too downhill into the forest, but we can easily go bigger length wise. The other conundrum is - we live closeish to a 55 mph road and even though we have 28 acres of space, our neighbors are close enough to the fringes where they would not appreciate random chickens peeping in, so total free range is not an option. So our goal is a totally enclosed but tall and spacious run for up to 50 chickens.
- Our plan is 20 feet by 15 feet for the coop. Should we go bigger for this as well? Same as above, we can easily go longer but not wider in relation to our plans on the setup through our spacious behind the house area. We don't believe we'll ever have the FULL 50, but in case we cut it close.
- How did you start? Were there any particular videos/guides you found helpful? What materials did you use that you found extremely helpful?
- We do plan to dig down under it to put hardware cloth so no predators can dig up/under it. That being said, do chickens prefer going 'up' into their coop (walking up a ladder into it) or are they typically fine walking in a bit above ground level like a normal building, so long as they have plenty of roosts/perches inside? We were hoping to be able to walk into it normally ourselves for cleaning/maintenance, as I've unfortunately got spine problems so too much stooping is tough on it. But we wanted to know if chickens needed their own little 'chicken door' above ground level or if they just use a normal door that you go through when you let yours out.
- We don't really know what breeds we have/will have. Will this be an issue when planning for space? We're big fans of the "surprise us!" randoms with breeds, as we're just looking to fill our flock with pets/egg-layers that we can hopefully tell most of apart. I know some larger breeds can be in those surprise bags, as it were, but if it's a handful vs. an entire flock, would this make the plans moot on size? I do think we POSSIBLY have one or two, maybe three Jersey Giants. And they're still only a week old, so we could very well be wrong. It's only an assumption based on chick color, yellow feet undersides, and the fact one in particular is most definitely the largest of the chicks so far. But our next batch, we're hoping to get some Polish and/or Spitzhauben in there, and whatever else Cackle throws at us, so we're not planning to go overboard on large breeds. On purpose, at least.
- All in all, how fast did you build your custom coop/run of similar size? We're HOPING to add more chicks in July, but they'd be in our indoor brooder setup anyways until it was time to go outside, so we'd have until at minimum November while hopefully starting next weekend, but planning even closer to December-January depending on how cold it gets here and when the chicks are ready to go out. (The run will be covered to prevent extreme rain/snow buildup - and to help prevent predators from getting in!)
- Do you have rain guards/gutters on your coop? Silly question maybe, but we were hoping this would help prevent buildup of too much rain on the ground in front of the coop or let alone getting too leaky into the coop. Did you use actual gutters or makeshift them?
- How many windows do you have for ventilation for your build around this size? We know ventilation is important higher up in the coop and want to make sure we're properly accommodating for the amount of ventilation so many chickens would need.
But there's a lot of local folks who love farm fresh eggs, so we'd be certainly able to sell/give extras too, so higher production is a want but not necessarily a must.
