Novice Chicken Keeper

[Willow]

Hi... do yourself a huge favour and make the coop and run as big as you can possibly fit in to your garden and can afford... You will absolutely definately wish you'd 'gone' bigger within weeks of having the ladies.. we've built our run in 3 sections so it is movable and we can add another section to it at a later date.. We bought the coop and already after a few months wish we'd got a bigger one as we are planning on expanding the family next year.. having seen how the coop is made, we'll most likely make our own this time - or add a granny flat to the 'old' one!! :mrgreen: as for nesting boxes.. I have 5 black rocks which produce five beautiful eggs per day in one nest box which is the about two foot long and about one foot (ish) wide.. good luck and good fun!!

[tegfryn]

I am looking into getting 3 welsummer hens, as there is a breeder near me.

Would a coop that is 3'x2' be adequate?

Also, what height is recommended? I have only been able to find width and depth measurements.

What size pop hole would be recommended for welsummers?

finally what dimensions should the nest box be?

Sorry for all the questions, just want to offer a nice home but on a very limited budget.

Many Thanks

[AnnaB]

Hi tegfryn

We made ours after I trawled search engines for coops. There are quite a few sites that give all dimensions and we made a guess at the nest box area of how it was showing on the diagrams. The nest boxes are the right size as when I first got the last girls there was a thunderstorm and I went to see if they were OK - there were 3 girls huddled in one box....
If when we make another one I will not have attached nest boxes only a very dark area in one end of it.
The library is also a good place as they have lots of chicken care books as well as coop building.
Best wishes with it.
Anna

[Willow]

As Anna said if you do a search on chicken coops / dimensions you'll get plenty of information on size etc..

I suppose looking at the basics -

They like to be able to perch at night (2"x 2" timber with rounded / smoothed edges) mine are about 6" or 7" off the floor.

They like to lay eggs in slightly secluded areas which they can 'nest' in - remember that you need to be able to reach the eggs easily.

Make sure you have a 'door' big enough to allow for thorough cleaning - (they poo a lot at night!)

Try to get the coop off the ground, against damp and vermin.

Appart from that, just think of ease of cleaning incase of bug attack, and make it weather proof.. but allow for ventilation..

As for the size of the pop hole - I think they must be sort of average... unless you have chook giants or pygmies.. I'll measure ours for you if you'd like..

The chickens really dont care how pretty their house is as long as it does the job, Pallets are a source of good wood and are free!!

[Mo]

My arc is a triangle, sides 3', so that makes it a bit 2'7" at the tallest, I think the perch may be a bit too high as they don't use it much. If they did a 3' perch would be enough for 3 or 4, but they huddle together in the corner, and nest box. My nest boxes are1'x1'x1'. I have 6 and the arc is big enough, but I can't leave them in the 6'x 3' run for long.