EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
Two years ago my wife was given some chickens and I built her a 10x20 chicken coop. We're now getting about 16 eggs a day from them. Last year she was given guineas and needed a coop to keep them in short term, so I built her a 12x12 coop as part of our horse barn. After releasing the guineas one at a time so they would stick around, she bought a couple dozen broilers and raised them there before we butchered them.
Last month she decided she needed to have silkies and several other breeds of chickens. Even more important, she wants roosters to breed them. We've learned that roosters are pure evil and that they have to be confined and separated from other roosters, and only have short periods of time with the hens. If left with them too long, they tear up the hens with their spurs.
The plan evolved from multiple chicken tractors to combining them all into one circular chicken coop with 8 pens laid out similar to the spokes of a wheel.
Below are two sketches I drew up on graph paper to get my dimensions figured out. There will be a 36 inch exterior door to get into the enclosed portion of the coop. There will be a separate door to each pen, laying boxes, waters with heaters for winter and feed. They will have a small door to go out to the open area that will be fully enclosed with wire field net and a door to get into that area from the outside. It will require over 40 posts and probably take me the rest of the year to finish if I'm lucky.
Last month she decided she needed to have silkies and several other breeds of chickens. Even more important, she wants roosters to breed them. We've learned that roosters are pure evil and that they have to be confined and separated from other roosters, and only have short periods of time with the hens. If left with them too long, they tear up the hens with their spurs.
The plan evolved from multiple chicken tractors to combining them all into one circular chicken coop with 8 pens laid out similar to the spokes of a wheel.
Below are two sketches I drew up on graph paper to get my dimensions figured out. There will be a 36 inch exterior door to get into the enclosed portion of the coop. There will be a separate door to each pen, laying boxes, waters with heaters for winter and feed. They will have a small door to go out to the open area that will be fully enclosed with wire field net and a door to get into that area from the outside. It will require over 40 posts and probably take me the rest of the year to finish if I'm lucky.