My 1st Coop Build

BF2014 said:

Ok, food inside-

, Water inside-

, Electric net fencing for perimeter protection (soon to be

)
Thanks and appreciate everyone for the info and continue to look for suggestions!

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Having food and water inside increases the mess inside- not just from spillage, either: the more time the chickens spend inside, the more poop is inside.

jimbob86 said:

Having food and water inside increases the mess inside- not just from spillage, either: the more time the chickens spend inside, the more poop is inside.

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X2. You don't want to give yourself more reason to have to clean the coop more often. Plus the feeder and waterer will take up valuable square footage where space is already tight. I have 8 hens in an approximately 4'x8' coop. I keep food and water in the run. My birds also don't usually get let out until 8am. Given your climate, I'd put a water bottle with a single nipple on it in the coop and that's it. That way they've got water first thing in the morning. Provide plenty of ventilation so they don't cook in there and they will be fine even if you don't get out at the crack of dawn to let them out. If it truly worries you, on days you know you're going to sleep in, stick a half of a cabbage in the coop the night before once they've gone to roost. It'll keep them busy while you sleep in.

And the info keeps ah flowing!
Ok, I'm trying to incorporate as much in suggestions as I can, and up to this point, this is where I'm at:
-I'm going to continue this initial coop to get my feet wet & continue gathering extra supplies for an additional larger walk in style coop for the future.

-I did use actual chicken wire for the eve vents and part of the large side door to access the inside of coop. I thought "chicken wire" and chickens go together LOL
If I'm using the electric net fencing, won't that address my predator concerns?....if necessary I could also add smaller sized hardware cloth wiring inside & over the chicken wire (leaving the chicken wire for aesthetic purposes).

- I'm going to use a solid floor with linoleum covering, and if possible, incorporate dropping boards.

-Reference nesting boxes: I can cut back to 2 nesting boxes & the area of where the other 2 boxes where originally going to be, turn that into a small storage box area for dropping scraper, misc supplies etc...good idea? What's the largest I should make the nest boxes?

-The nesting boxes are only about 4" higher than the main floor so as far as perches go, I can definitely get them above the boxes and still have a bit of head room for the hens. Is there any concern with the nesting boxes so close to floor level?

-Any concerns with blowing rain that may enter through the eve vents & side wire door? The perches will be close to these vents and wonder if that will make the little hens upset?

-the coop will be shaded the entire day. Any concerns with using a galvanized metal roof?

-I will do the single watering nipple inside and additional ones outside the coop.

-I may incorporate a neat idea into my electric door. Maybe I can set up the feeder to open when the door does and feeder closes when the door closes in the evening time. That will prevent mice or anything else from accessing the food during the night and less cleanup inside the coop....make sense??

Thank u everyone for opening up my eyes to ideas and concerns. Although I may have put the cart before the horse in the initial design, this allows me to be better prepared for the next coop build. As suggested, I can use this one as a backup for other things once a larger coop is built.

BF2014 said:

-I did use actual chicken wire

for the eve vents and part of the large side door to access the inside of coop. I thought "chicken wire" and chickens go together LOL

If I'm using the electric net fencing, won't that address my predator concerns?....if necessary I could also add smaller sized hardware cloth wiring inside & over the chicken wire (leaving the chicken wire for aesthetic purposes).

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A racoon can shred "chicken wire"/ poultry netting ..... "chicken wire" and chickens do indeed go together. Chicken wire and coons are a poor match. They'll hang on it and shake it, bending it back and forth until the wire work hardens and breaks ..... the wire itself is very thin and it's only twisted together, and the openings widely spaced, allowing for much stretch and movement. Try it yourself: take a piece and bend it back and forth - you'll be amazed how quickly it breaks, if you can bend it 45 degrees or more each time ..... limit that to 5 or 10 derees of bend and it takes much longer.

When putting up your hardware cloth, ensure it is tight and sandwich it between two pieces of wood, with screws going through the outside piece, through an unbroken square of the welded wire/hardware hardware cloth, and deep into the framing member ...... pulled down tight, so the outside piece of wood squeezes the wire- so that it's held solidly in tension all the way around, and not just by the screws all holding just the outermost strand of wire....

..... the same can be done with chicken wire, but because open expanses of chicken wire are so stretchy, it's less effective ..... one thing that can be done in small areas is to make 1"x1" or larger crossbucks behind the wire, and put lathes (1"x 3/8") over the wire, screwing them down tight ...... this limits the amount of movement in the wire, making it harder to bend back and forth until it breaks. This takes a lot of work and wood and screws - it's cheaper and easier to use hardware cloth to coon-proof a coop, but if that's all you have, then that's how to make it work. Our brooder house/meat bird coop on the farm I grew up on only had chicken wire on the windows- they were old 24"x32" four pane sashes nailed into the opening with no glass in them- we just secured the chicken wire to the muntins with nails, lathes and baling wire ...... never had a coon get in.

If you do want to coon-proof your run too, keep in mind that they can dig under the wire as well ...... badgers will do this as a first option, anyway ..... bury chicken wire out at a 45 degree angle to a depth of a foot or more, with the edge cut so that pointy-pokey wires encounter digging paws should the critter try to dig under the wire..... keep in mind that in wet soils, (especially wet soils with a lot of chicken poop in them!) chicken wire will rust away to nothing in as little as a year or two- you'll have to maintain this on a regular basis. I think it's just simpler to have a predator-proof coop/roost and shut them up every night. YMMV.

Jimbob86, the way you described sandwiching wire between the wood is basically how I built it. I first built the main frame. Then took chicken wire, knowing how brittle it can be when there's the opportunity to bend it; I stapled the wire to the frame, stretching it as tight as I could as I went around. I then used Gorilla Glue (wood glue) and coated the frame, staples and wire edges. Then I basically duplicated another frame, screwed them together while glue was wet and finally, I added a wooden cross brace for extra frame support. The wire is VERY tight and the frame very rigid.

As for the predators, badgers we don't have & I don't think my two donkeys will go for having anything foreign around like raccoons, dogs, foxes, coyotes etc as I've seen them challenge dogs before and their great alarm clocks when things "aren't right".

When I get the electric net fencing, I will purchase additional stakes to go around the parameter, just to help with ground level security. We do have lots of hawks around but I've never seen them bother full grown chickens ( neighbor has 10-12+ hens in open pasture with no issues). The electric netting will be set up within the donkey pasture and placed so that the donkeys can travel all the way around it, making it difficult for predators to enter without facing the donks first

Sounds good!

Percheron chick said:

RIR can be bullies in mixed flock. There are good ones out there but a first timer doesn't need the potential for drama.

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Oh, can they? The farm I work at and a friend I know both have RIRs who are very friendly and tolerant of their flockmates. But every bird is different, so if you've also had experience with them, that's good to know.


I agree about the food and water. I just moved the feeder outside last week, and finally my pullets are spending less time in the coop. Which is great, because it means less frequent coop cleaning! I do keep a nipple waterer inside, though, and recommend it.

Solid floor with linoleum sounds good, and so do 2 nesting boxes. You'd never use the deep litter method with your warm climate, so having nesting boxes 4" off the floor is fine. Rain may blow in vents, and if possible it would be ideal to make your roof longer to block that rain. It's not the end of the world if it blows in, though. I use a galvanized metal roof and it's great, so no issues there. And that's a BRILLIANT idea about the feeder! If you get that working, please make a thread on that.

Do you have any pictures so far?

No pics yet but I'll take some in the next day or so and post them. I have a cleaver idea on how to do the auto door / auto feeder combo.... May take me a bit to finish and perfect it & if I go that route, I'll definitely post a thread on it

Looking forward to them!

This is what we did with our windows. It's made out of plexiglass. Notice: the 1/2" hardware cloth. Good luck.