Does anyone know what this coop is like?

CherriesBrood

Chicken Photographer
8 Years
Feb 5, 2015
1,688
530
271
Hello, I will be getting 17 chicks in late February/early March. 7 of them are going to be bantams and I want to make a second coop for them. I already have a huge coop for my laying hens, but I want these to be separate to have piece and hatch eggs for me.

700


I want to build this coop, except I'm going to expand the run and make the walk down thing less steep. My questions are: Has anyone out there had this coop? What is it like, how do you like it? How should I make the inside runs for sleeping? Any other thoughts on it?
Thank you,
CherriesBrood~
 
I have not had that specific coop but I have an elevated grow-out coop. I don’t think that coop is suitable for what you want. It’s hard to get sexed bantams so I don’t know how many chickens you will wind up with or what the numbers of each sex will be. I don’t know how often those bantams will go broody or how many chicks you want to hatch. I’ll be kind of generic in what I’d want to do what I think you want. You might want to follow the link in my signature for some of my thoughts in how much room you might need. That might influence your thinking.

Most standard building materials come in 4’ or 8’ standard dimensions. If you base your coop around that you can often get a larger coop with less cutting and waste. It’s just more efficient.

Many people are quite successful in having multiple broodies hatch together or in the same coop. But occasionally there are problems with this. The hens may abandon their nest when the other hen starts to hatch to go to the chicks. The hens may get along or they may fight over the eggs or chicks, damaging the eggs or chicks. There are different ways to manage this. If you are going to have more than one broody hatch at a time, build your coop in a way that each nest can be locked up with a bit of room for feed and water so you can isolate your broodies just by closing a door. Or if you are going to commit to only having one broody at a time, build a broody buster and use it immediately for any hen that goes broody while another is broody.

If you are going to let the hen raise the chicks for you instead of taking them away and raising them yourself, you might want to consider splitting your coop and run so you can keep the hen and chicks separate from the other bantams. I normally let my broody hens raise chicks with the flock but I have lots of room and limit it to one broody at a time. I get the feeling you are wanting to limit how much space you are going to give them so separate facilities might be a good idea.

To manage them I’d want a walk-in coop. I’m not the least bit worried about a square feet per chicken ratio or anything like that. You are going to be working in there. Give yourself enough room to work. That way your chickens will wind up with plenty of room.

I suggest you look through the medium size coops at the top of this page under the coops tab and pick one you like. Decide how you want to set it up inside and build an extended run. If you are going to be hatching much I think you’ll be much happier with something bigger.

Good luck!
 
My (adopted) girls came with a coop. It consists of "rooms", with the laying box on the back similar to that. I would not recommend anything all dividing up like that, it's a pain in the neck to use and clean. 2 of my bunnies are using it temporarily. I have to open the run to give them their veggies, then I go to the nest box to put their hay in there, then I have to open another door to clean out their "toilet" area.

I'd prefer one room without bits attached. Walk in is much easier, as ridgerunner said, but even if it isn't, just one area is way easier to deal with, IMO.

(are those flowers just there for show? I wouldn't consider planting anything on top.)
 
Thank you both for the responses. :)
I will be making a slide out tray on the bottom of the coop to clean it out easier, and I do want to make the whole thing at least 2x bigger. I have another coop in mind that I would like to do, but I am sort of limited on space. I'm still looking at other coop designs and this was an option, I just wanted to know what it's like, but thank you both. :)
 
I have this very coop! I've been waiting for someone to ask me about it!
smile.png
I have the exact one you picture here, that I ordered pre-made from Williams Sonoma (no building skills). I also did the same thing you are planning to do, and built an expansion onto the run that is a walk-in (there is a little connector hallway; pics below).

I have two large size hens, and the coop works quite well for them. They did need some help with the ramp at first, but eventually they figured it out and have been fine. Bantams might need a block under it to prop it up and make it less steep, plus maybe some more treads on it, since they are spaced kind of far apart.

The positioning of the windows has worked well for ventilation, and the inside of the coop has done a good job staying dry even in very heavy rain. I love the cedar; it is sturdy and rot resistant. I do plant stuff in the planter, and that has worked fine and been very pretty; the planter is built with this nice drain-out feature that sends water out past the run. But my birds are heavy and non-fliers, so they never go up there.

The way it is sold from W-S, it has fairly narrow dowels for roosting bars, which I might change if I were building it myself. The coop maker also used wire flooring, which I didn't like, so I put in pine boards over it. The one problem with that is that, because of the coop design (those vertical slats where the alternating ones are recessed), you end up with little gaps at the end of the floor where bedding can fall in, so I have to clean those out occasionally, but not a big deal.

The other thing I did was add another layer of hardware cloth to the big main door, just for extra security.

In a perfect world, I might prefer to have the ladder outside the coop, leading to the exterior run, rather than part of the floor because it makes the floor a little more complicated to clean - if, for example, they poo on the ladder, that's harder to clean up than if the floor were just solid and covered with shavings.

On balance, though, I really like it. I am a first-time chicken owner, and it did not create any of the problems for me (moisture, drafts, etc.) that other people sometimes have to deal with. Having it elevated also makes it easy to clean and collect eggs from. Also, if you live on a small suburban lot like I do, its attractiveness is helpful for keeping neighbors happy.
.





 
I do plant stuff in the planter, and that has worked fine and been very pretty; the planter is built with this nice drain-out feature that sends water out past the run.
Thanks, drainage was my main concern, if they've taken care of that, then it's all good (depending on your climate and what you plant).

Ballerina Bird, how do you find it having to walk right the way around to access the main part and the laying box? Is it hard to get in under the house run (if OP is using it for young birds, she might have to crawl in after them)?

It looks really nice, as you say, it's just the thing for a suburban backyard. Your row of petunias across the front of the run looks nice, too.
 
Thanks, drainage was my main concern, if they've taken care of that, then it's all good (depending on your climate and what you plant).

Ballerina Bird, how do you find it having to walk right the way around to access the main part and the laying box? Is it hard to get in under the house run (if OP is using it for young birds, she might have to crawl in after them)?

It looks really nice, as you say, it's just the thing for a suburban backyard. Your row of petunias across the front of the run looks nice, too.

These are excellent points. I do have to crawl into that underneath run to clean, etc., and I definitely did a lot when my pullets were little. It's not ideal, but at the same time, I like having that completely covered part as their food and water are protected from the rain.

I should also add that my quirky girls decided that they did not want their nest box to be in that next box section that sticks out from the coop; they wanted their nest box right by the front door, next to the ladder opening, so that they can look out the window while they are nesting. They were very insistent about this.
smile.png
That actually made things much easier, since I can just open that main door and take out eggs. But that was the funny chance of my girls' silliness resulting in something more convenient.

Thank you for the compliment! It is really nice aesthetically -- everyone always comments on it, because the whole back of my house, which faces the garden, is large glass sliding doors and big windows, so the coop is visible from everywhere inside the house, as soon as you walk in. That's why I really needed something that would be pretty.
 
I do have to crawl into that underneath run to clean, etc., and I definitely did a lot when my pullets were little. It's not ideal, but at the same time, I like having that completely covered part as their food and water are protected from the rain.
You can roof a full height run, the run attached to my coop is under the same roof. I have the underneath of the house as part of the run and I've found it "no fun" when I've had to encourage somebody out from under there, when she doesn't want to come (not often with my tame girls, but I would find it very annoying with young birds who won't come to you. (My little not-yet-completely-trusting girls are in a low run and I really can't get them out, I have to corral them in the house, block the door and get them out of the house which has access through the roof). If I was dealing with babies regularly, I'd want some way of easy access to them.
Quote: That's what I'd like in a coop. Easy access, and no multiple doors, walking around and about. Your girls have good sense. :D
 
You can roof a full height run, the run attached to my coop is under the same roof.  I have the underneath of the house as part of the run and I've found it "no fun" when I've had to encourage somebody out from under there, when she doesn't want to come (not often with my tame girls, but I would find it very annoying with young birds who won't come to you.  (My little not-yet-completely-trusting girls are in a low run and I really can't get them out, I have to corral them in the house, block the door and get them out of the house which has access through the roof).  If I was dealing with babies regularly, I'd want some way of easy access to them.  
That's what I'd like in a coop.  Easy access, and no multiple doors, walking around and about.  Your girls have good sense. :D


It's true! They are sensible young ladies. You are totally right about the run issue, too, with little ones.
 
It's true! They are sensible young ladies. You are totally right about the run issue, too, with little ones.
I"m thinking of making some kind of "chicken corraler". Like a snow plow out of timber, that I can come up and "encourage" them into a little spot so I can pick them up. They are all right when I've got them, they are happy to be held and patted, they just run away when I want to do the picking up.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom