Chicken coop designs for 12 chickens

The design: a walk-in coop 8 ft by 6 ft

Twelve standard hens want 36 to 48 sq ft of house, and 8 ft by 6 ft gives 48 sq ft, with its long wall the length of one sheet of plywood. The run beside it is 20 ft by 6 ft, 120 sq ft at 10 sq ft a hen.

Open this design in the tool

Twelve is where the breed decides the coop

The same twelve birds need very different coops depending on their size. Bantams are a half to a quarter of the size of a standard chicken (Florida), and the guides give them less room: 2 to 3 sq ft inside and 5 to 8 sq ft of run against 3 to 4 and 10 for laying hens (Virginia Tech). So twelve bantams fit a hen house on legs, while twelve standard hens need the walk-in above.

The bantam house is 6 ft square on legs with 36 sq ft of floor, and its roosts sit 15 in up, inside the 12 to 18 in that Penn State gives bantams, which need only 4 in of bar each. It takes 60 boards against 103 for the walk-in.

Hard winters

Set the climate to cold winters and the walk-in keeps its size, but the roosts change: the tool lays 2x4 bars flat, wide face up, so the hens can cover their toes with their feathers against frostbite (Colorado State). The vents stay open all winter, because a coop needs air even in frigid weather to carry out moisture and ammonia (Arkansas). Wooden bars, not metal or plastic, which hold the cold (Arkansas). A heat lamp is a fire risk.

Nests and roosts for twelve

Three nest boxes at one per four hens (Oregon State), or 4 by Penn State's rule. Two roost bars of 71 in give 11 in a hen at 30 in above the floor, and the tool keeps them above the nest boxes so the hens sleep on the bars, not in the boxes, as Maryland advises; Oregon State sees it the other way round, so read the nest box guide if you build them yourself.

The material list