Since we were in Virginia, I should have set my coop in the shade. In the warm southern climates, you'll want to situate it in the shade. If your coop is going to be stationary, versus a movable tractor-type coop, then the location is very important. There are so many memories attached to that little coop that housed our very first batch of baby chicks! When we left Virginia and moved to Maine in 2015, it was hard to leave it behind. I ended up converting a dog house for the rest of the ducks, then turning a lean-to that was attached to our barn into a much larger coop for our entire flock. Over time, however, our flock grew to nearly three dozen plus a dozen ducks (chicken math at its best!) and so our original coop was converted to a duck house for eight of our ducks. (Otherwise, I would stick to just six chickens if they would be spending large amounts of time indoors due to inclement weather or your schedule or only have access to a small run area.) Measuring 24 square feet, technically it would have been enough space for up to 10-12 chickens who have access to the outdoors every waking moment and only use the coop to sleep and lay their eggs. It was the perfect size for our six original chickens - with room for more as we expanded our flock (or so I thought at the time). The coop had a hinged roof for easy cleaning, three nesting boxes with an exterior hinged lid, twelve feet of roosting bar and tons of vents that could be opened or closed depending on the weather. With virtually no prior building experience other than a few bookcases and birdhouses, I built this coop over the course of a few weekends with just a cordless drill, hammer, staple gun, jigsaw and circular saw. This is the coop I ended up building after several days of sketching out measurements and specs and then a weekend or two of cutting, sawing, hammering and drilling.
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