new basic coop design

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IvanTsary

IvanTsary

Chirping
Mar 18, 2016
116
16
53
Greenville County, SC
My Coop
My Coop


I am about to start constructing a new coop after deeming the prefab I bought a month ago inadequate. Here is my basic design. The back, whis is open in the pic, I expect to have double swinging doors so you can open the whole thing up for maintenance. I will be attaching this right up to my 6x8 run. Any recommendations?

Not shown is the 2x4 framing and the hooks that will hold the feeder and water buckets depicted with the blue buckets. The dimensions are 4x6, 4 ft high and the grey areas are mesh or hardware cloth.

I did this in a program called Sketch Up Make, and with practice you can actually make stuff look better than this.
 
What's the mat under the roosts? If your thinking of going with a poop board put feed and water under that. I'm wary that your nests are too high and will cause some roosting in them. Makes for dirty eggs.
 


The thing under the roosts is the area I put my wood chips or sand for easier cleaning.

Here is a 2nd (and more proficiently drawn :) ) coop. I guess I can expand to 8x4 and use the whole sheet of plywood. I just want the food off the floor and away from the roosts. I have lowered the nesting platform to 12" which keeps it same or lower than the roosting bars at 15" and 2 foot and still allows for usable floor space.

At this point I'm not worrying about electric, but may eventually put in a outlet for a small fan or light on a timer.
 
I'd think you'd want the pine shavings or whatever your using for liter over the entire floor. Sure they concentrate poop where they roost but do spend time in coop and will poop everywhere. With openings plan on the depth of liter so it doesn't spill out every time you open a door. With my coop on stilts the clean out door is flush with coop floor but I put a 1x6 board that's longer than door in place and is held by the liter. Pull it out when cleaning coop.
 
I considered putting a tray if some kind under the roosts so I could pull it all out, but I'll think about that after I have the main structure built. With these chickens any shavings will he all over the coop in seconds.
 
Hard to tell in the pic, but I do have a low slant for water runoff. Not sure what roof will be but likely corrugated plastic. We don't get more than 4" of snow a year so snow pack is not a concern.
 
I think I wiLL start with just the roosting bars and feed and water in there too. Since the prefab has next sting boxes and roosts at same height next to each other they tend to use both the same, so if I can force them to use the roosts only for a month or two, by the time they are ready to start squatting they will be used to sleeping in the right place.
 
400


New coop size v old coop. All said r7n and coop together will give me 80 Sq foot. I might he able to add 2 or 3 more birds down the road!
 

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