I need help ironing out the details of our new home built chicken house.

    We are first time chicken owners, our flock consists of what was supposed to be 6 standard sized hens, 2 bantams and 3 ducks. Well, one of our "hens" has turned out to be a roo. But that's besides the point of this thread.

We recently moved into our forever home and decided to build a small barn for our critters. (We will be getting goats soon) It's a 12'x16' pole barn. We have it almost finished, just some little things here and there to do, like a few more pieces of trim, paint, 3 more windows to install, flooring, roosts and nest boxes. Who would've thought the building of the 4 walls, and roof would be the easy part!?! I'm starting to get overwhelmed now, it's almost done but I have no idea what to do about a floor! I've read several posts on here about wood floors but we live in the Pacific Northwest, a wood floor would rot in a very short time. I've also seen people recommend cement flooring but we've already spent to much on this thing, cement might break the bank! We also have some gaps between the ground and the walls that I'm not to sure what to do about. Taking wood all the way to the ground might be a big mistake due to all the rain we get in the winter.

    In the beginning of our great idea for this "chicken mansion" as my husband likes to call it, we thought we were just going to let the chickens/ducks have the whole thing to roam freely in, but now, seeing how big it is I'm wondering, would that be a mistake? Can I just collect all my chickens, ducks and soon to have goats every evening and put everyone in the barn, close the door and call it a day? Or, should each different type of critter have their own enclosure inside the barn? A coop within a coop?  

 Oh I have no idea what I'm doing!! Please, help!

I was wondering if I could just leave it dirt but what about cleaning? Will it hold more junk that will make my critters sick? I will clean it regularly of coarse, just like I do now with the temporary coop and chicken yard they are currently in, but I'm just concerned it'll cause health issues. Your coop is a big one too, what kind of flooring do you have? And, is it easy to clean?

I was thinking about using bricks to close the gaps, what do you think about that?

Thank you so much for your help, I have seriously been losing sleep over this, I'm really overwhelmed! I'm not usually an easily stressed person but holy smokes there's so much to consider and so many options! I just want them to be happy, healthy and safe and I want me to be happy and able to care for them as easily as possible! Which is why I'm also second guessing my original idea of letting them have free run of the entire pole barn, that might require more cleaning then I bargained for. 

HEChicken, yes! I've seen your coop, I actually just posted a comment there. Your coop is great and I loved seeing your progress. You were so detailed in your descriptions it was great! You had the cinder blocks around the bottom of yours for the gaps, right? That was genius and looks great! I wish I had stuff like that laying around here to use but unfortunately, nope we don't, we have to buy everything we need. I will definitely have to look into the deep litter method, I don't really know what that is. I think I could guess pretty adequately, the name is pretty self explanatory. Lol

What's a treadle feeder?

Achickenwrangler, I'm just thinking if the wood goes right to the dirt and the dirt is wet 8-9 months out of the year, I would think the wood would rot pretty quickly. Maybe not, I'm no building expert but that's what everyone around here is saying. We've spent a pretty penny on this barn, I'd hate to have to replace the wood by next summer. Your comment makes me think I should look into it more though, I might be worrying over nothing!

Skunknchatter, Ha!! That's what I was thinking! I started thinking, maybe I watched to many farm animal movies as a kid because in Charlotte's Web and all the others I can't think of now, they all lived together! Lol. I know, I know, t.v isn't reality. 

Thanks everybody for all your advice and input, it helps a ton and I really appreciate it! Please, keep it coming! 

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpcode 

Yes the goats will eat the feed, plus some goats can be very aggressive and chase the chickens, as long as they can get away it should be fine.
 

 Good to know! Thanks! The goats that can be very aggressive with the other animals, is that breed specific or just different personalities from goat to goat?