The Poultry Keeper

mudshark · Joined: 18 Mar 2008 Posts: 9 Location: Surrey

A week ago I got the urge to get some chickens so have been finding out as much info as possible and have been collecting timber for a coop/run. I have done quite well as have collected some of the remains of an 8'x6' shed as well as some doors that should make a good coop floor or part of a wall and a load of timber from pub tables/benches that were waiting to be burnt.

I intend to get 4 to 6 ex-battery hens to start with but want to build something that could accomodate a lot more than that - I have heard 1 sq foot/hen in the coop and 4sq foot/hen in the run; does that sound about right? I like the idea of having a fixed coop/run with an additional moveable run.

I have found a coop to copy (see bottom for pic) but probably without the extended roof over the run and using 1/2 x 1/2 weld mesh for the sides and roof of the run - I think the roofing and weld mesh will be my main costs.

So a few questions please:

Will the chickens be comfortable walking on a floor of mesh if I put that down above the bottom of the coop so that their droppings will fall through for easier cleaning?

I hope to have the nesting boxes attached to the outside of the coop, what should the dimensions should they be? Is there a rough rule to how many hens per box?

I am hoping to build the coop 5' to 6' wide and 3' to 4' deep but how high should the coop be inside? As the nesting boxes will be external to the main space I suppose all I need inside are the chicken roosts - how many inches does each chicken need? If I put 2 roost in, one in front of the other, how much space between them?

I intend to put the coop above the ground so that the chickens can get underneath - how high should this space be to give them enough head height? This could be a good place to put water and food containers.

Hopefully I'll start building something in the next week or 2 and will put pix up here.

Thanks for reading!

chicken_house_man · Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 109 Location: Brynmawr

Lovely looking chicken house Very Happy

You'll find lots of useful dimension on DEFRA's site in the "Layers Guide" - you'll also find loads of completly irrelevent stuff.
1/2 x 1/2 is dearer than 1 x1/2 with no real benifit. A 10 m roll from B&Q will cost about £30. YOu can buy cheaper stuff at about £35/30m or good quality at about £55/30m.

Chickens shouldn't walk on a mesh floor as it will injure their feet. Slatted floors are ok. The house you'll looking at has enough room to get the wheelbarrow under the house so it's really easy to scrap the muck straight into it. This would also answer your question on how high from the ground it needs to be. Once you've been on your hands and knees in a pile of chicken pooh you'll see the benifit in raising the house.

Generally you'd have 4 or 5 birds to a 12" squ nest. YOu can build a larger communal box or use dividers. They don't seem too worried.

The house needs to be 1-1.5 squ foot /bird. Perch needs to be 6-9" for most birds.

mudshark · Joined: 18 Mar 2008 Posts: 9 Location: Surrey

Thanks for the info. I thought I'd read somewhere that some people have mesh floors but I was doubtful. I have had a good look for mesh and a seller on Ebay has 30m lengths of 19 gauge, 3ft high of 1/2 x 1/2 for £56 posted and 1/2 x 1 for £43 posted - is 19 gauge OK? I suppose I though 1/2 x 1/2 would be better for stopping rodents coming in but maybe nothing would get passed 1/2 x 1 anyway. I think I'm being over concerned! Met a chap yesterday who just uses normal wire link fencing so big gaps there.

So that's your design! It is nice...however I don't think my end result will look much like that seeing as I'm using whatever I find lying about! Plus I'm now thinking of having a larger pen - up to 12ft x 9ft whereas the coop will be 5 to 6 ft wide x 3 to 4 ft deep so basically a house in a pen! I suppose I'm now looking at a max of 12 to 15 birds.

EGirl · Joined: 01 Nov 2007 Posts: 1117 Location: Dublin, Ireland

The bigger the better, you'll have 30 by this time next year! Very Happy

Woodburner · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:52 am Post subject:

Someone somewhere suggested using laths for the floor but I'm not sure of the details, without finding the post again. Confused