If you knew then what you know now...

another suggestion, strong suggestion....yeah dont buy the big opening poultry wire for the top and upper sides of run.. The blankety blank wild birds get thru those 2 " by 2 " openings and steal food and prob bring in mites and lice....
I was under time frame and I ordered the 150 roll of 6 foot tall poultry wire for the run roof.... Ordered over phone.. went by price not seeing.. didnt realize, since sight, unseen, the size of holes..... Then read on here about getting the 1 inch holes instead....
Got hardware cloth on the Run's apron and first 51 inches backed by cattle panels...
prob gonna have to add the shade cloth for top, already have, but gonna be a pain to install
also in a hurry, got first ( adult chickens before real coop and run built....
so coop is just less than a foot off ground, more like 2 or 4 inches on the people door side.... closer to temites
also did not realize all the lice and leg scale problems... may have just bought eggs.. a lot cheaper than expensive kennels and wire, fencing and labor and headaches.. Heck never even picked up my adult chickens,,, Newbie chicken owner since March....
Lucky to get one egg a day.. plus I spoiled them....
Now I do like the poop board part we did for the adult 2 years old.
Just dont make the mistake I did and think "Freds Fine fowl chicken tractor" is fine... duh,,,
Modified it to not have the people entrance but it still is only less than 3 feet wide.... Now will prob modify it again and drop the floor so its taller ....
Oh, just notice last nite that overhead is open .....about 6 inches. Hubby did not tell me.\
He did make a too small, hardware cloth sided porch, though..... that nice
so far 4 chickens in it.. two more coming....
Plus the" Freds fine fowl" coop one, has no room presently for " sweet Pdz" poop board... duh....me.....
just chiming in yall

This is a great thread!!

Definitely one of the things that I wish I had thought about are lips to the openings. I didn't make them high enough on the nest boxes, and completely forgot to do one for the chicken door. The pine shavings that I use for the coop floor fall out into the run. Not the end of the world, but certainly something I will keep in mind for when I have to build a new coop.

I also think I might paint the roost bar next time when this one needs to be replaced for better cleaning. I would think that the paint would prevent the poop from soaking into the wood. I usually have to scrub pretty hard to get it clean!

One poster mentioned skipping the vinyl flooring. I've only had my coop since April, so I haven't seen any of the deterioration that they mentioned, but at the moment, it sure makes cleaning the coop a breeze. I did install a drain in the coop. Next time I don't think I will bother. I was hoping it would make it easier to rinse out the coop, but I didn't account for the fact that the coop would inevitably lean just a little, so the drain is sitting a good 14" past where the water pools. So that is a step I will skip. But hey, it was worth a shot.

Things I'm happy with on the coop I designed:

-Big doors for easy reach when cleaning (My coop isn't a walk-in)
-Removable roost bar
-Exterior nest boxes (Though of course, I suppose they couldn't be interior with a non-walk-in coop, but I'd do it again even on a large size coop)
-I'm liking the vinyl flooring, I guess time will tell how it holds up
-Water accessible from outside via bucket with PVC piping and nipple system
-Since the coop is small, we elevated it for safety for the chooks and convenience for us

sarahandbray said:

Thanks again for all the replies!!
This project did turn into a retrofit/up cycle/Craigslist kind of thing, so I'm not building new at the moment. I am writing down all of your ideas on my iPad for future reference, though!! And I can incorporate some of them into the pony shed.
I will definitely be buying some hardware cloth, that's for sure!

Location is good, plenty of space for 20 hens, 10'X10' with a large electrified fence run, I think.
Today should be the day!!! Been getting texts as to where the little chicks are--they just got in to Albany (9 miles away!) this morning at 5:38am. They should be to my little post office soon and the woman who works there owns chickens as well--she said she'd call the minute they got there!

Sarah

Click to expand...

Ooh an exciting day for sure. They grow faster than you can get that coop done. My run wans't finished so they were "cooped" up for an extra week longer outside while I secured the perimeter. Oops. But, they love it now.

Good luck!