The first thing to determine for anyone thinking of raising chickens is how big a chicken coop will you need?
That really depends on how much land you have and how many chickens you want to keep.
The general rule of thumb is that the ranging area outside the coop ought to be about 6 square feet per chicken. The more area you have, the better, because chickens love to roam around. It’s also very healthy for your yard, too, since they eat bugs, they eat grass, and their scratching around naturally airates the yard.
Also, the minimum number of chickens you should have would be at least two. Birds need company.
If you wanted to ensure that you have enough eggs every day, then you should have at least two birds per family member.
Once you determine how many birds you have and how much space you will alot to them as their free-ranging area, then you can determine the size of your chicken coop.
How Many Chickens to a Chicken Coop?
You should optimally have 3 – 4 square feet per chicken, if your chickens are allowed to roam around outside during the day.
This way if you had a 5 x 10 chicken coop, and your birds ranged freely, you could house 10 chickens.
Chicken coop designs are really dictated by the amount of area you have and the number of chickens you have or intend to have. In other words, size is probably the most important factor you want to consider in your design.
The other design factor that is vital and you should consider it right from the start is… how to design the coop so it is easy to clean and to collect the eggs.
That being said, perhaps the primary design factor is to make sure that your chickens are protected. They need to be protected from animals that make be on the lookout for easy prey, especially if you live out in the country. Chickens also need to be protected from the elements, like rain, snow, sleet and hail and of course, the heat and cold.
So, with these three factors (size, protection and ease of use) you can design your hen house or find chicken coop designs that fit these three criteria… i.e. the size is correct for the amount of space you have and the number of chickens you plan to keep, the design makes cleaning a snap and finally, that its built well enough to outsmart animals that could hurt your chickens. Don’t take that last point for granted, either. Some animals are very clever at entering what you “thought” was a bullet proof hen house. When it comes to dinner, animals can be very persistent.
Bill Keene is a farmer who has been keeping chickens for ages – who started out small with just 4 chickens, I think, and then gradually grew his farm. He built his own coops to save money and along the way discovered what worked and what didn’t, what designs actually benefited the chickens and what designs hurt them and how to make the coop functional and easy to clean and operate.
His book of chicken coop designs is probably the best non-commercial poultry house designs available.
For more information on poultry and poultry science, click here.