So after 3 years with my first chicken coop (which wasn’t what I had in mind, I might add), I’m finally in the process of building a new coop from scratch and it’s going to be everything I dreamed of and then some, not to mention after 3 years of having chickens I think I’ve managed to work out all the minor and major issues of chicken keeping. I created this plan on floorplanner.com, just in case anybody is wondering. I have nothing to do with the website, other than finding it and creating my coop on there. Anyways, here it is:
Plans:
3D pictures. I had to use a pergola, which is a garden thing for my roost. My actual roost will be tiered and the individual 2x4s will be removable. I also made some of the walls translucent, which won't be in real life, of course. You can do all this on that website and it's free for one project. So glad I found it.
It will be a metal building this time. My chicken coop I have now is wood and where they buried the boards, after 3 years the boards are already rotten on the bottom where they touch the ground and have mold/ mildew on the bottom 3 feet even though we painted it with barn paint. I also currently don't have a cement floor and only one access into the coop which makes cleaning it so unbelievable difficult. I haven't cleaned my coop out since last summer! Yikes! It's not messy but it is incredibly dusty now.
My new coop will have a sealed cement floor which will allow me to easily sweep the pine shavings out. Also the roosts will be removable 2x4s and the wall behind the roost will have a 6x3ft hatch style door at the floor which will allow me to sweep out my pine shaving into a tractor bucket, making cleaning up a breeze.
The front entrance of the coop will walk into a "clean room." This room will be totally sealed off from the chickens, so that it will be dust free. That brown looking box thing that's in my clean room and in the general area is a through the wall feeder (I got the idea from https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/558635/wooden-chicken-feeder-designs post #6).
That black box in my clean room will be a homemade feed bin that will hold over 600 pounds of feed at one time. The through the wall feeder will be easily filled on this side of the wall with only the feeding trough exposed on the chicken side. This trough is 4 ft long and I plan to make it big enough to hold around 100lbs of food at a time.
The brooder room will be a chicken wire wall and door so that chicks will be able to interact with adults without adults being able to peck them. This room will also have 2-3 rabbit style cages mounted on the wall. I'm going to use those to break brooders or allow brooders to hatch eggs. My brooder room will also act as a breeding room, if I want to separate my pure breeds to ensure I get exactly the birds I want.
Also my backdoor entrance will be where my chicken can go out to their run. I plan on leaving the door open during summer days for added ventilation, and leaving it close during cold winter months and having a doggy style door made into the big door so chickens will still have access to the outside.
Windows, Windows, Windows!!! For both light and ventilation!
3 - 36x36 inch windows in the front. One 24x36in window (beside the back door) and one 36x36 in window (in the brooder room) in the back of the coop will provide my ventilation. Not the mention the door in summer months. I will also have a 24x36 in window in the front in my clean room along with a small 24x24in sliding window in the same room will provide my ventilation for that room, just so there is some air circulation in that room. The little sliding window between my clean room and chicken area will just be for looking through purposes, since that door will not a have window in it.
Brooder door and door going from clean room to chicken area will be raised from the floor 1 foot to allow pine shaving clearing and to keep pine shavings out of my clean room.
Let’s see what else. Oh there will be electricity in this coop. Lights and plug-ins. Also if we can find a nice cheap fan, I’d like to put a ceiling fan in the general area of the coop. The roof will be a shed style (one slope). We plan on putting a gutter in the back of the coop and collecting rain water for the chickens.
This chicken coop could up to 125 chickens based on the square footage. I plan to have no more than ~70 at a time.
Not sure if I left anything out, but if you have questions or suggestions please reply. I love hearing feedback and hope this might give yall some ideas!!!
Plans:
3D pictures. I had to use a pergola, which is a garden thing for my roost. My actual roost will be tiered and the individual 2x4s will be removable. I also made some of the walls translucent, which won't be in real life, of course. You can do all this on that website and it's free for one project. So glad I found it.
It will be a metal building this time. My chicken coop I have now is wood and where they buried the boards, after 3 years the boards are already rotten on the bottom where they touch the ground and have mold/ mildew on the bottom 3 feet even though we painted it with barn paint. I also currently don't have a cement floor and only one access into the coop which makes cleaning it so unbelievable difficult. I haven't cleaned my coop out since last summer! Yikes! It's not messy but it is incredibly dusty now.
My new coop will have a sealed cement floor which will allow me to easily sweep the pine shavings out. Also the roosts will be removable 2x4s and the wall behind the roost will have a 6x3ft hatch style door at the floor which will allow me to sweep out my pine shaving into a tractor bucket, making cleaning up a breeze.
The front entrance of the coop will walk into a "clean room." This room will be totally sealed off from the chickens, so that it will be dust free. That brown looking box thing that's in my clean room and in the general area is a through the wall feeder (I got the idea from https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/558635/wooden-chicken-feeder-designs post #6).
That black box in my clean room will be a homemade feed bin that will hold over 600 pounds of feed at one time. The through the wall feeder will be easily filled on this side of the wall with only the feeding trough exposed on the chicken side. This trough is 4 ft long and I plan to make it big enough to hold around 100lbs of food at a time.
The brooder room will be a chicken wire wall and door so that chicks will be able to interact with adults without adults being able to peck them. This room will also have 2-3 rabbit style cages mounted on the wall. I'm going to use those to break brooders or allow brooders to hatch eggs. My brooder room will also act as a breeding room, if I want to separate my pure breeds to ensure I get exactly the birds I want.
Also my backdoor entrance will be where my chicken can go out to their run. I plan on leaving the door open during summer days for added ventilation, and leaving it close during cold winter months and having a doggy style door made into the big door so chickens will still have access to the outside.
Windows, Windows, Windows!!! For both light and ventilation!
3 - 36x36 inch windows in the front. One 24x36in window (beside the back door) and one 36x36 in window (in the brooder room) in the back of the coop will provide my ventilation. Not the mention the door in summer months. I will also have a 24x36 in window in the front in my clean room along with a small 24x24in sliding window in the same room will provide my ventilation for that room, just so there is some air circulation in that room. The little sliding window between my clean room and chicken area will just be for looking through purposes, since that door will not a have window in it.
Brooder door and door going from clean room to chicken area will be raised from the floor 1 foot to allow pine shaving clearing and to keep pine shavings out of my clean room.
Let’s see what else. Oh there will be electricity in this coop. Lights and plug-ins. Also if we can find a nice cheap fan, I’d like to put a ceiling fan in the general area of the coop. The roof will be a shed style (one slope). We plan on putting a gutter in the back of the coop and collecting rain water for the chickens.
This chicken coop could up to 125 chickens based on the square footage. I plan to have no more than ~70 at a time.
Not sure if I left anything out, but if you have questions or suggestions please reply. I love hearing feedback and hope this might give yall some ideas!!!
