Need your opinion: what should every coop have? - Page 8

I have no power to my coop, which is 8' x 12' about 15" off the ground and a little over 8' tall. I used vinyl remnants for most of the floor after seeing it suggested on another BYC thread. When the days began getting shorter, my hens started laying fewer eggs. Since I couldn't put in a light, I bought a dozen of those solar landscape lights and attached aluminum hardware bands to the 2x4s inside. Each morning, I stick the lights in one of my currently empty garden beds for recharging, and at night I stick them into the holders on the 2x4s.  They are laying again, but not quite as well as last summer.

One item nobody has suggested (possibly just more polite than I am) - the commode left from when my 93 yr old mother was with us now sits in a corner of the coop. It's doubled as a step ladder when I've had to nail something higher than I can reach.

Oh, I also nail up empty feed bags for insulation & toss them for easier spring cleaning.

Definitely human door and chicken door but access to you rake shovel and buckets are a must. I built 8 ft walls and then put built a rack to hang my rakes and shovels on and hangers to hang my buckets with feed in them and one with water for a quick hand clean up or just to fill the water up. I also put a shelf up high to put straw and bags of feed on it.

Gutters to a covered rainbarrell for fresh water.

A chicken door to the enclosed run for days when they can't freerange.  Then, a human door right into the coop.  Yes, two doors.

Ventillation.

Tender Loving Care.

Electricity!!!!!!!!!!!! Howw I love having electricity in my coop!!! Lights when I need them, power to do whatever it may be that I am trying to do including using power tools!!!

I love all of these ideas!  I'm finally working on a big coop for my whole layer flock to be in one place.  We have a barn and I'm going to use one side of it as a chicken coop.  It will be 9'w x 28' long with a door on each end.  I'm using doors with windows to give additional light.  I've decided to hang the roosting bars from the roof to keep everything off of the floor.  Hopefully this will make it easier to shovel the floor and spread fresh shavings.  I have a dirt floor.  We've also decided to make nest boxes without backs in them.  The plan is to hang the nest boxes against the wall on a bolt so I can pull the boxes up and out and dump the dirty shavings on the floor (or into a wheel barrow).  Then let them lay back against the barn wall and replace the shavings.  I hope this plan works, we haven't tried it yet.  Right now my biggest complaints with my small coops are having to shovel around the legs of the roosts and trying to shovel out the nest boxes with either a garden shovel or small dust pan.  I'm excited about having electricity too so I can offer a light to wake the hens up a little early and give them more daylight hours in the dreary winter time.  Has anyone used the automatic chicken doors?  I will have a pop door for the birds and I'm hoping to make it automatic in the future.  At least to close them up at night if I can't be home right at dark.  Thanks for all of the great ideas.

chickens do not need AC or Heat.  They need ventilation.  Chickens are prone to respiratory diseases and ventilation helps keep moisture out of the coop.

If I had to rebuild my Coop (for a small backyard flock) I'd do exactly what I already have---been working for years. See my BYC page.

P.S. It's not the Coop, it's the Run, I'd have planted more food trees earlier.

Do you have a picture of your poop boards you can share?  That sounds so smart! 
Thanks : )

Someone else to clean the coop. 

I'll just collect the eggs and give them treats.

My standard size chicken coop is a standard garden shed that was on the property when we bought it.

The front section is storage - feed, first aid kit, tools, shavings, room for me to move around without the rain falling on me (this is the Pacific Northwest, so it rains A LOT).

The middle section is the first chicken section, without a pop door. This allows me to separate chickens if I need to, great for broody hens and for allowing chickens to go outside to free range through the front storage section during the day.

The back section is the second chicken section, with a pop door to the outdoor pen. This is great for mammas and chicks or if I want to separate a roo and a few ladies for breeding, etc. without letting them free range.

The setup is really great because it gives me so many options. I've setup individual cages in the middle section and left the outer pen door open to let them free range that way, I've given a few new gals time to adjust before letting them free range by putting them in the back  section, etc.



For a small backyard setup like mine, since neither hubby and I can build worth crap, its a great system.  I also have separate brooder hutches for mammas and chicks, breeding pens, etc. but this was the first and it works the best.

I also bought one of these, its your basic big raised mini-barn for bantams with an attached pen. God, I hate this thing - its nearly impossible to clean (you literally have to climb inside to get to the nooks and crannies and you're likely to knock yourself out doing so) and frankly, the bantams don't seem to fond of it, either.



I mention it here because what every coop should have is A WAY TO CLEAN IT OUT WITHOUT KILLING YOURSELF!