Making a coop need advice

As a first time chicken owner i know i will be making some mistakes but i am here to ask if there is any extreme mistakes that i can fix now before i actually start spending money. I found this coop online for sale for 500 bucks. I looked for a while and i thoguht i could buid this my self. it may seem small but my chicks can roam in my yard once in a while. i would love it if anyone could point out any adjustments i should make to the plan i have for the coop . thankssss

with a small coop like that you should have chickens free ranging all the time.That means you need to chicken proof your yard.

That just looks so inefficient. I think you can build something else that will work better. You might look at the top of this page in the coops section and pick out something you like better that might be easier to build. I don’t know how many chickens you plan to have, where you are located (mainly climate), or really anything else about how you plan to manage your chickens so I can’t really make any recommendations. They’ll enjoy roaming in your yard once in a while but since it’s only once in a while it really doesn’t help provide more space.

What serious mistakes should you avoid? First, build for your climate. Chickens can handle cold better than heat, but they still need some help in really cold climates. The most important things they need for climate is proper ventilation, shade against heat, and wind protection against cold.

Next, avoid building and locating something where it will get wet and stay wet. A wet brooder, coop, or run is an unhealthy brooder, coop, or run plus it will stink.

Don’ build too small or too inconvenient for you. In general the bigger I build the fewer behavioral problems I have to deal with, the more flexibility I have to correct issues as they pop up, and I just don’t have to work as hard. By building bigger I’m talking coop and run size, brooder size, roosts, nests, basically everything. Don’t look at how many can I squeeze into this space, decide how many you want first, then figure out how to provide enough room for them.

A big part of this is your convenience. You need to be able to comfortably access any part of your coop or run. I really like being able to walk into my coop and stand up in my run, but you are probably in suburbia with a limited number of hens only allowed. Many people are quite happy with smaller elevated coops and smaller runs. I still think you should be able to walk into your run without banging your head.

One of your issues is probably going to be poop management. Chickens poop a lot. At night they are not moving around so it can build up. If you have a high chicken density for your space it can build up in the coop or run. Many people in suburbia wind up cleaning the coop and sometimes run very often, some of us with a lot more room may wind up cleaning the coop once or twice a year and basically never clean the run. It’s a factor of how much room you have and how wet it gets. When you clean you’ll need to dispose of the poop and maybe bedding. I compost mine but I don’t clean that often. With a weekly cleaning it can really build up.

You might read these articles while you are in your planning stage and follow the link in my signature below for some more details.

Pat’s Big Ol' Ventilation Page
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-VENTILATION

Pat’s Big Ol' Mud Page (fixing muddy runs):
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-fix-a-muddy-run

Another big mistake people often make is not asking questions on this forum. There are experienced people on here all around the world in all kinds of conditions and keeping chickens for all kinds of different reasons. If you ask a question you can get help. It does help to modify your profile to show where you live. That makes answering a lot of questions so much easier. And when you ask a question, put the right information in the title to attract the right people.

A trap with this though is that we keep them in a lot of different situations and for different reasons. Not everything someone says will apply to you and your unique situation. You are probably in suburbia, I’m not. I have a lot of space, you probably don’t. I keep a rooster with the flock, have broody hens hatch eggs and raise the chicks with the flock. You are likely to have only a small flock of just hens. I integrate new chickens into my flock all the time. You will probably only do that on rare occasions. A lot of stuff I do will not work for you or you may not need everything I do. Your challenge is to pick out stuff that actually applies to you. That’s not always easy. A lot of people on here will answer questions without having a clue what your situation is like or whether their answer applies to you.

Welcome to the adventure of chickens. It doesn’t have to be hard or stressful and can be very rewarding. Good luck!

If you have a few basic tools and the ability to do some basic building I would build something. Just FYI I purchased materials last weekend to build a 6x8 8 foot tall, shed style coop. I am recycling roof metal so I didn't need that, but I got everything else for right at $300.00.(just the coop not the run) I found the smartside siding on sale but everything else was regular price. I would not pay $100.00 for the coop you showed so the asking price seems way high.

I'm currently expanding my flock from 6 to 20ish! I've just about got this new coop done. It's 6x8 with 5' tall walls. I will have roughly $700 and about 20 hours labor in it. Same type of coop built by Amish sold at local feed/tack stores are going for $1800.

thanks soooo much for the wonderful advice i did some researching and i did find a nice coop i intened building. I live in the city with a tiny yard so chicken proofing the yard is easy im just worried that if i let the chickens roam all day while im away from home something might attack them is it okay if i open their door for a few hours?

thanks yall for all the great advice

Urbanfarmer26 said:

thanks soooo much for the wonderful advice i did some researching and i did find a nice coop i intened  building. I live in the city with a tiny yard so chicken proofing the yard is easy im just worried that if i let the chickens roam all day while im away from home something might attack them is it okay if i open their door for a few hours?

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I live 10 miles out in the country. There are raccoon footprints on my deck and grill from time to time. I have fox, coyote, Hawks, and Eagles on my property as well. We routinely let our chickens free range all day and shut the coop up at night before dark. We haven't lost one yet(knock on wood) If you live in town you may have a cat or something try to get them but I would think you'd be safe to let them out during the day.