[Chicken Lickin]

OK, I had designed a hen house with internal nest boxes for 3/4 hens, it was going to be 4' wide by 2'6" deep.  I had thought to have a large opening door accross the wide side and inside the house, have nest boxes (2) on one side of pop hole and perches on the other.  I had planned nest boxes to be 12" sq.   I had also planned to have a run coming off the wide 4' side, so the run could be 4' wide by 8' long.

So, the problem is my husband thinks that the house is too big, well too wide.  He doesn't think we need it to be 4' wide.

Is it too big?    I figured the hens would have some room to move inside the house that wasn't taken up by perches and nest boxes, but maybe they don't?  How much area should the perches take up?

I apologise that this is rather a rambly post! 

[Jane-M]

This is a nice size for four standard birds (oodles of space for four bantams). I have a house this size that I (OH I mean) built for five birds.  As they only sleep in it I decided it would sleep eight, then our numbers rose to ten and we installed another little coop that sleeps 3/4 - unfortunately no-one sleeps in it, although it is a popular laying place. So I have ten birds all sleeping in the same house, I assume they take in it turns on the roosting bar. You can only do your best.

Any road the recommended minimum floor space is 1sq ft per bird, so OH is right that you don't technically need all that space, but (see paragraph above) numbers tend to rise quite quickly.

[poultrygeist]

Hi chicken lickin.

Have you had a read of the sticky on houses ?

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=32947.0

There's lots more info in the poultry information section.
The run could do with being bigger unless they're only in it a very short time before free-ranging. You could do with a run about twice the size for 3 or 4 birds or even bigger if they're in it permanently.

Our house is about 3ft sq for 6 medium hens and an external nest box and it's about right but I wouldn't want to add any more birds.

Rob

[Chicken Lickin]

Thanks!  We've come to the conclusion that we'll have a 3' x 2'6" house with internal nest boxes x 2 and perch 27" long for 3 birds. (can't have any more as our garden is too small!)

I was thinking we could have a drop down flap on the side of the house for egg collection, do you think this will work?  Or should we just reach in back of house??

The only way we can make run bigger is to have a 'pen', but it wouldn't be much bigger.  Will try to free range as much as possible.

[poultrygeist]

If you can make the flap draught proof and secure it with a bolt or two, then no problem with that idea, It is a shame when you don't have much room but they do need more space to make them happy than a lot of people realise. It's something you'll have to play by ear but if they start getting a bit scrappy with each other or one gets picked on, it may be down to lack of space and boredom.
If you have the option of letting them run round the garden it'll do them good. More exercise too for their cardio-vascular system.

Rob

[andreadon]

i would be inclined to add another 2ft to the side of that run (to make it 6ft by 8ft)

but the size of the house sounds fine - they don't go inside the house during the day, except to lay eggs.
althought, if you're going for 3ft by2ft6, i would say to have external nest boxes: that way you could have a lifty-roof on it.