Size of coop

It's me, I'm back with more questions. I'm getting very close. I have the site ready to go and someone who is going to build a coop for me, with a garden shed attached. So.....How big should the coop be? Let's say I might eventually have 10-12 chickens (altho I plan to start out with less, maybe 6). How big should the actual coop be and how big should the yard be?

My chicken yard will not be a regular square but will narrow as you get further away from the coop. However, I'm putting a 'run' around the potager garden for the chickens, so they can go from their chicken yard and into the run at will. The run will be about 50 feet on one side, then 40ish feet and then 10 or so feet in one direction. In the other direction it will only be about 10 feet. I have to stop the run at the entrance gates to the potager and unfortunately there are two. The run will be 2 feet wide. I have to measure how much space I have for the coop/shed and their yard. This will be in one corner of the potager.

I have to talk to the guys who are going to build the coop but at this point, I hope to have it slightly off the ground so the chickens can go underneath.

I've completely changed locations on the property where I'm putting the coop/chickens as I wanted to have the run. Someone I know does this and the chickens keep all the bugs and slug out of her garden plus they keep the grass pecked back.

Anyway, how big? Thanks.

wow, I am really confused. Could not follow that explanation at all to visualize. Sorry. If you want them to keep the grass cut down, but not scratched completely gone, I would make it as big as you have room for up to a 1/4 acre or so. I had 8 in my back yard of 1/4 acre and they kept it picked pretty clean, but did not tear up the grass.

I guess I didn't explain well! LOL I have a 40 x 60 potager garden. It's roughly in a rectangle but one side comes in at an angle so it's a bit wider on one side than the other. Around the perimeter of the garden, on the inside, will be a 2 foot wide run for the chickens. The run will come off their coop and yard. I have a small area inside the 40 x 60 garden that will be fenced off and house their coop and run. So I'm wondering how big I need to make the coop and how big I need to make the run.

So the chickens will have a coop opening to a small yard for them, which will also open to this narrow run that encircles the entire garden, but is fenced off. So they can't get into the garden. Is that any clearer?

Gwendalou!!! One thing I would warn against is allowing the chickens room to go under the coop! unless you are prepared to crawl under to retrieve the eggs. I would favor an 8x10 coop so you can have more birds than the six original. That way if you decide to sell eggs you can have enough room to house a sufficient amount of birds. It's much easier to go larger than you need, rather than go smaller and realize you don't have enough room for future expansion.
Maybe even an 8x 12. I'm excited for you and glad to hear your taking the plunge. What breed (s) are you considering? Haystack

Yup, Make it bigger that you expect to need. If you're like the rest of us you'll end up with more chickens than planned.

We have kept forty or more chickens in an 8x8' coop for many years, but they only use it at night and for egg-laying. The rest of the time they're outside. Keeping the coop at a reasonable size also means that it's easier for the number of chickens you have to warm it a bit with their body heat in the winter. However, they usually huddle together anyway so that might not be so crucial.

We have our coop raised about 15" so that the chickens can use the underside both for shade and to get away from hawks. That also keeps the floor from rotting and makes it less likely that other critters will burrow or chew their way in or that rats will move in underneath. Egg retrieval has never been a problem; our chickens seem to lay them pretty reliably in the coop. You always use a net to tease them out from underneath if you need to.

Our chickens have a small pasture at their disposal, but they still have denuded it of all vegetation except for two types of plant that they won't eat, so those things are taking over. One is a prickly pear cactus and the other is a form of milkweed. You might want to divide your yard in two sections so that you can exclude them from one and either let it grow back or reseed it while they're using the other.

You'll find that everyone has a different take on these issues, so you have to decide what will work for you!

So true porkpal. We started out with 8 chickens and now we have more than 60.

That is great Greenhouse.. I just planted a grass area.. and now I'm adding to it.. I bought some Omega 3 poultry forage seed online and I'm excited about planting that.

ZZ, where did you get the forage seed? I think I would like to do that.

I had never heard of omega 3 forage. Can you describe what it is?