Calling all roost & poop board designers! ;)

[aart]

When my bf built our coop, he created a door at one long end of the coop for entry/exit that is about 14" off the floor. It's about 14" or so down to the floor of the coop and about 12-14" up to the first roost bar. In the photos you showed above, imagine the roost bars running from side instead of lengthwise in the coop.

Our first roost bar is just inside of the door by about 14" but about 14" higher than the door threshold (it's a step up in effect), so to roost they have to jump up to go to the higher roost bars. Those remaining roost bars run laterally (like the first) but another 14" higher and each successive roost bar is the same total height of about 42" off the floor. The chickens just jump from bar to bar as they wish. In the morning, they file across the bars one by one, jump down to the low bar, then to the door threshold and come out.

When they need to reach the nest boxes, they jump down to the floor from the doorway and walk to whichever nest box they need to reach. When finished, they walk across the floor, then jump up to the door opening and exit.

Try thinking about a split level house for what I've described and you'll get the picture of our entry door versus the floor and the door versus the roost bars. ADVANTAGE: we don't have issues with them being able to reach either the nest boxes or the roosts and we're using most all the horizontal space at the floor level and at the roost bar level.
BEST OF ALL HOWEVER:
We put a pullout floor (drawer) in the same end as the door and just below it that allows us to pull the entire "floor" from the coop and clean it super easily any time we wish.

With a slanted, stepped setup like I see in your photos, it looks like you're creating work for your birds to get to the roosts and eliminates easy access to that side of the coop, not to mention cleaning under the roost bars will be less than fun.

This needs a coop page, got pic to go along with it?
Sounds amazing!

 

[sillygolucky]

With a slanted, stepped setup like I see in your photos, it looks like you're creating work for your birds to get to the roosts and eliminates easy access to that side of the coop, not to mention cleaning under the roost bars will be less than fun.

So the roosts you see in our coop is how the builder made them, and what we are wanting to get rid of and rebuild, hence my reason for this post We've just disassembled them and now this is what we have to work with! (pix below)

When my bf built our coop, he created a door at one long end of the coop for entry/exit that is about 14" off the floor. It's about 14" or so down to the floor of the coop and about 12-14" up to the first roost bar. In the photos you showed above, imagine the roost bars running from side instead of lengthwise in the coop.

Our first roost bar is just inside of the door by about 14" but about 14" higher than the door threshold (it's a step up in effect), so to roost they have to jump up to go to the higher roost bars. Those remaining roost bars run laterally (like the first) but another 14" higher and each successive roost bar is the same total height of about 42" off the floor. The chickens just jump from bar to bar as they wish. In the morning, they file across the bars one by one, jump down to the low bar, then to the door threshold and come out.

When they need to reach the nest boxes, they jump down to the floor from the doorway and walk to whichever nest box they need to reach. When finished, they walk across the floor, then jump up to the door opening and exit.

Try thinking about a split level house for what I've described and you'll get the picture of our entry door versus the floor and the door versus the roost bars. ADVANTAGE: we don't have issues with them being able to reach either the nest boxes or the roosts and we're using most all the horizontal space at the floor level and at the roost bar level.
BEST OF ALL HOWEVER:
We put a pullout floor (drawer) in the same end as the door and just below it that allows us to pull the entire "floor" from the coop and clean it super easily any time we wish.

I would absolutely love to see a photo of this! Sounds like a super efficient use of space and great for your chooks We considered doing horizontal stair-step bars across the whole width of the coop, but wanting the droppings boards made that not possible with the space we have. If I wasn't dead-set on the boards, I think that setup could work excellently in our coop with a few minor tweaks. I assume your coop is not a walk-in type then? I peeked at your profile and found one partial pix of a light green coop and wasn't sure if it was a walk-in or not.

That's awesome you have the removable litter drawer. We could have had pull-outs in ours as well, but we didn't like the way it felt when walking on it inside since ours is a walk-in coop. Not to mention they were mega heavy, and at one point we were considering using sand as litter. If I had a waist-high coop, I'd definitely prefer pull out trays, though!

 

[Floof]

If it were me I would want to avoid messy chicken feet in the nests and would want to preserve an easy way to enter and clean the coop. The people I see give up owning chickens are the ones who couldn't keep up with the chores associated with a bad setup. I would just put a roost on either side of the door running to the opposite wall and then one going across the back wall. That way you can walk in and scrape your poop boards whenever it's needed instead of putting it off because the system is a pain to unhinge. The square footage rules are more like guidelines anyway; some chickens need more space and some need less. I have 5 hens and a rooster that all cram onto 3 feet of roost even though they have AMPLE room. I've also had birds that were loners and wanted a whole roost to themselves. Build it to suit your needs and then tweak it as needed (or rehome birds who don't play well within your system).

 

[Swbertrand1]

So the roosts you see in our coop is how the builder made them, and what we are wanting to get rid of and rebuild, hence my reason for this post We've just disassembled them and now this is what we have to work with! (pix below)



I would absolutely love to see a photo of this! Sounds like a super efficient use of space and great for your chooks We considered doing horizontal stair-step bars across the whole width of the coop, but wanting the droppings boards made that not possible with the space we have. If I wasn't dead-set on the boards, I think that setup could work excellently in our coop with a few minor tweaks. I assume your coop is not a walk-in type then? I peeked at your profile and found one partial pix of a light green coop and wasn't sure if it was a walk-in or not.

That's awesome you have the removable litter drawer. We could have had pull-outs in ours as well, but we didn't like the way it felt when walking on it inside since ours is a walk-in coop. Not to mention they were mega heavy, and at one point we were considering using sand as litter. If I had a waist-high coop, I'd definitely prefer pull out trays, though!

Ours is not a walk-in type. It was custom built from hand-drawn plans by my bf who has spent a lifetime remodeling and building. It's a sweet coop designed for about 10 birds.

In your photos, I see the chickens' entrance at the opposite end from the walk-in door.

MY BF IS TAKING OVER THE POST FROM HERE:
If it were me using the shell you have now, I'd run ledger boards down both sides of the coop just under the windows mounted to the vertical studs, notch the ledgers the size of a cross-section of 2x4 laid flat every 20" or so to create a cradle for 2x4 roost bars that run side to side in the coop with as many as you can get in there running them 20" apart. That makes ALL the roost bars removable for easy cleaning.

For the last "roost bar", the step-up bar where the chickens enter/exit, mount another removable roost bar half the distance between the floor and the height of the rest of the roost bars (can't really tell how a lower ledger board would work with the framing from the photos, but anything is possible). I've reworked our coop at least four times to create separations a 2nd bird entrance to make dual runs possible (good for young birds that need some protection from the adults), still gives us access via an access door that we can climb in, and allows for storage in the back). The coop is only 5' x 8', but ALL space is utilized.

With a little creativity, you can re-frame the walk-in door opening to incorporate a pull-out tray to remove all waste in one swoop without having to even remove the roost bars. Clean the "tray", add new pine shavings, insert back into the bottom of the coop.

A post above mentioned dirty feet in the nest boxes, and ours are much like yours and off to the side of roost area, but in 4 years we have never had a problem with dirty feet in the nest boxes, but that might be because my bf cleans the coop tray out every Thursday like clockwork. We have 11 hens and one rooster, and it works for us.

 

[sillygolucky]

If it were me I would want to avoid messy chicken feet in the nests and would want to preserve an easy way to enter and clean the coop. The people I see give up owning chickens are the ones who couldn't keep up with the chores associated with a bad setup. I would just put a roost on either side of the door running to the opposite wall and then one going across the back wall. That way you can walk in and scrape your poop boards whenever it's needed instead of putting it off because the system is a pain to unhinge. The square footage rules are more like guidelines anyway; some chickens need more space and some need less. I have 5 hens and a rooster that all cram onto 3 feet of roost even though they have AMPLE room. I've also had birds that were loners and wanted a whole roost to themselves. Build it to suit your needs and then tweak it as needed (or rehome birds who don't play well within your system). View attachment 2756022

Totally with you--we want to ensure clean feet for the nesting boxes! That is why I just can't give up the addition of the poop boards. I know it will eliminate a lot of the poop on the floor (at least on days where they are pretty much only sleeping in there), which will help keep their tootsies clean!

Unfortunately we won't be able to add roosts/poop boards in the full U-shape because we only have 3.5 feet of width there! If it were only roosts, that might work; but with added poop boards that most say need to be 24" wide with a roost centered over it, the most we could do would be an L-shape (I'd do the left side and then back).

In our latest brainstorm (pix below), we are considering the L-shape with a poop board of 18-20" wide (may make it all one level; I made the back higher in this drawing). I know that width is pushing it. lol. But we really want to open the space up as much as possible for fly-downs while keeping it cleaner with the boards. We can always rebuild them if needed. A few people have suggested ramps (easily movable) which we will definitely do as well--maybe two, as shown in blue. I'd try to keep them as far back as possible as not to take up needed floor space. The black areas on the bottom right are nesting boxes that will never be used, as this coop has 8! I figured 2-3 is all we'd need but we may leave the front 4 open once they start laying. We'll use the extra ones for storage most likely.

I think you are spot on--we will do our best to change it to suit our needs, working with what we have; and if needed we can rehome chooks who are uncomfortable with the setup!

 

[Swbertrand1]

So the roosts you see in our coop is how the builder made them, and what we are wanting to get rid of and rebuild, hence my reason for this post We've just disassembled them and now this is what we have to work with! (pix below)



I would absolutely love to see a photo of this! Sounds like a super efficient use of space and great for your chooks We considered doing horizontal stair-step bars across the whole width of the coop, but wanting the droppings boards made that not possible with the space we have. If I wasn't dead-set on the boards, I think that setup could work excellently in our coop with a few minor tweaks. I assume your coop is not a walk-in type then? I peeked at your profile and found one partial pix of a light green coop and wasn't sure if it was a walk-in or not.

That's awesome you have the removable litter drawer. We could have had pull-outs in ours as well, but we didn't like the way it felt when walking on it inside since ours is a walk-in coop. Not to mention they were mega heavy, and at one point we were considering using sand as litter. If I had a waist-high coop, I'd definitely prefer pull out trays, though!

Okay, here are the photos:



You're looking at the L end with the exhaust vent from an temp-controlled fan at the top of the gable, a double-hung window in the middle, chick entrance and ramp bottom left, and the pull-out drawer just below that.
On the front are four of our five nest box down-swinging doors, another window, and our "person" access to the coop via the larger door on the front right of the coop.

Closer shot of the pull-out drawer

This is a view of the "step-up" roost bar just inside the chickens' entrance. There is plenty of room for them to jump down to the floor to go to the nest boxes OR to jump up to reach the roosting bars. Note, these were not attached with ledger boards, but hand-cut "U" shaped wood brackets. Note here the sloped edge added to the bottom of the wall to direct droppings into the slide-out drawer. On the opposite side, there is a slanted area that overhangs the nest box entrances that keeps poo from landing even in the entranceway of the nest boxes.

Here are the roost bars. Note that there is a perpendicular bar added because there was room to do so. Also note the "U" brackets on the nearest roost bar. I'll get to that in a future photo.

Our access to the coop as originally constructed:

Rear view of a secondary entrance to our "juvenile" side of the coop and a storage closet on top. NOTE: This used to be a full-length door like the front, but I decided to make it a 2nd entrance after construction to give us 2 coops in 1:

This is inside the "person" access front door and the inside view of the secondary entrance for the juveniles. Note the lower roost bars, and there's even a "step-up" bar that you can't see just inside the door:

You can see the step-up bar for the juveniles in this photo, and there is a fence door separator for the two coop sides.

Entrance for juvenile side with an added nest box that used space beside the tunnel that was added during a remodel of the coop. You can see the step-up bar in this photo:

The "U" brackets here are used when we're using the coop as a single versus divided coop for extra roosting space. In this configuration, we remove the divider door with the fencing in it shown above, and add more roost bars that meet the other "U" brackets on the opposing wall:

Opposing "U" brackets for use when the divider door is out:

Clean eggs and clean nest box 3 days after the last weekly cleaning:

Interesting feature here: sliding dividers that allow us to vary the number of accessible nest boxes per coop side. There are two (2) sliding doors on this nest box, one on the L that slides on an angle to close the boxes that are side by side. The slider with the mesh in it slides left to right to cut off these two nest boxes from the main coop. With this customization, we allow access to all four front nest boxes to the main coop, only 3 available to the main coop, or only 2 available. The converse is true too: If the main coop only gets 2 nest boxes, the secondary coop side can get all 3, 2, or only 1 nest box:

Nest boxes:

 

[DobieLover]

I'm sorry for not reading every detail of the entire thread. I am assuming the floor print of your coop is 4x8.
I would use the below layout (eliminating the section crossed off in red) keeping the boards at the height of the bottom of your windows. The roosts cross in the corner (circled in blue). You could put that in the left corner as shown. Put the ramp as shown. I have mine up on a cinder block.
The left board would come all the way down to the door. Your door looks like an outswing so you should be able to squeeze by the board to get in to clean.
I would make the boards 20" wide (including the lip). That gives you almost 2' of space to walk along the boards to clean and would give you nearly 12' of roost space.

 

[sillygolucky]

Ours is not a walk-in type. It was custom built from hand-drawn plans by my bf who has spent a lifetime remodeling and building. It's a sweet coop designed for about 10 birds.

In your photos, I see the chickens' entrance at the opposite end from the walk-in door.

MY BF IS TAKING OVER THE POST FROM HERE:
If it were me using the shell you have now, I'd run ledger boards down both sides of the coop just under the windows mounted to the vertical studs, notch the ledgers the size of a cross-section of 2x4 laid flat every 20" or so to create a cradle for 2x4 roost bars that run side to side in the coop with as many as you can get in there running them 20" apart. That makes ALL the roost bars removable for easy cleaning.

For the last "roost bar", the step-up bar where the chickens enter/exit, mount another removable roost bar half the distance between the floor and the height of the rest of the roost bars (can't really tell how a lower ledger board would work with the framing from the photos, but anything is possible). I've reworked our coop at least four times to create separations a 2nd bird entrance to make dual runs possible (good for young birds that need some protection from the adults), still gives us access via an access door that we can climb in, and allows for storage in the back). The coop is only 5' x 8', but ALL space is utilized.

With a little creativity, you can re-frame the walk-in door opening to incorporate a pull-out tray to remove all waste in one swoop without having to even remove the roost bars. Clean the "tray", add new pine shavings, insert back into the bottom of the coop.

A post above mentioned dirty feet in the nest boxes, which are much like yours and off to the side of roost area, but in 4 years we have never had a problem with dirty feet in the nest boxes, but that might be because my bf cleans the coop tray out every Thursday like clockwork. We have 11 hens and one rooster, and it works for us.

I think I can visualize that! A fairly simple set up to create, which I like

My biggest with it is the lack of actual poop boards (LOL I know, I just can't let it go!). We are fine with scooping boards daily and don't want to empty the entire coop floor weekly. We also may try sand next spring/summer and that would just be way too heavy to pull out if the floor were a tray. I think I'd also prefer open walking space without having to mess with lifting bars out of the way. (With a non-walk-in coop obviously that wouldn't be an issue!) I just want most poop cleaned up more frequently (we both work at home and have ample time for daily chores!). I also want the ability to easily inspect poop on the boards for any health issues (as a newbie, I will probably be hyper-vigilant about that for a while!).

I love the idea of maximizing roost bar space to accommodate more chickens if we wanted AND the ease of the tray with the right setup! I also love the idea of a second entrance/exit for the birds and a separate run. We are actually getting ready to build a second run (connected to the original with a closable door), so another exit to it could definitely be in the works!

I am very grateful for all these innovative ideas and what works for people and their chooks...because ultimately we will either end up building onto this coop in a year or two or building a new one in the next few years!! (Because CHICKEN MATH...) I am most certainly keeping notes of all these designs. THANK YOU!!

 

[sillygolucky]

Okay, here are the photos:



You're looking at the L end with the exhaust vent from an temp-controlled fan at the top of the gable, a double-hung window in the middle, chick entrance and ramp bottom left, and the pull-out drawer just below that.
On the front are four of our five nest box down-swinging doors, another window, and our "person" access to the coop via the larger door on the front right of the coop.
View attachment 2756120


Closer shot of the pull-out drawer
View attachment 2756123


This is a view of the "step-up" roost bar just inside the chickens' entrance. There is plenty of room for them to jump down to the floor to go to the nest boxes OR to jump up to reach the roosting bars. Note, these were not attached with ledger boards, but hand-cut "U" shaped wood brackets. Note here the sloped edge added to the bottom of the wall to direct droppings into the slide-out drawer. On the opposite side, there is a slanted area that overhangs the nest box entrances that keeps poo from landing even in the entranceway of the nest boxes.
View attachment 2756125


Here are the roost bars. Note that there is a perpendicular bar added because there was room to do so. Also note the "U" brackets on the nearest roost bar. I'll get to that in a future photo.
View attachment 2756126


Our access to the coop as originally constructed:
View attachment 2756127



Rear view of a secondary entrance to our "juvenile" side of the coop and a storage closet on top. NOTE: This used to be a full-length door like the front, but I decided to make it a 2nd entrance after construction to give us 2 coops in 1:
View attachment 2756129


This is inside the "person" access front door and the inside view of the secondary entrance for the juveniles. Note the lower roost bars, and there's even a "step-up" bar that you can't see just inside the door:
View attachment 2756131



You can see the step-up bar for the juveniles in this photo, and there is a fence door separator for the two coop sides.View attachment 2756132



Entrance for juvenile side with an added nest box that used space beside the tunnel that was added during a remodel of the coop. You can see the step-up bar in this photo:
View attachment 2756133



The "U" brackets here are used when we're using the coop as a single versus divided coop for extra roosting space. In this configuration, we remove the divider door with the fencing in it shown above, and add more roost bars that meet the other "U" brackets on the opposing wall:
View attachment 2756134



Opposing "U" brackets for use when the divider door is out:
View attachment 2756137


Clean eggs and clean nest box 3 days after the last weekly cleaning:
View attachment 2756141



Interesting feature here: sliding dividers that allow us to vary the number of accessible nest boxes per coop side. There are two (2) sliding doors on this nest box, one on the L that slides on an angle to close the boxes that are side by side. The slider with the mesh in it slides left to right to cut off these two nest boxes from the main coop. With this customization, we allow access to all four front nest boxes to the main coop, only 3 available to the main coop, or only 2 available. The converse is true too: If the main coop only gets 2 nest boxes, the secondary coop side can get all 3, 2, or only 1 nest box:
View attachment 2756145



Nest boxes:
View attachment 2756150

View attachment 2756151

View attachment 2756152

Holy cats!!! Seriously a work of art and a labor of love. Your bf should consider building those for a living. hehe. THANK YOU for sharing all of this!! I'm seriously impressed and I'd love to know what others think, too.

I reallyreally love the nest box flexibility, and the integration of everything you need for young chickens. And I have to admit I giggled at the "droppings director" boards...haha...such a perfect thing to add. Innovation!! It's the little things, for sure.

Your pull out litter trays are the same as what we could have had built into our coop. I think they are amazing for coops with roosting areas with a smaller footprint.

You should TOTALLY copy and paste this and make it into an article as your coop page. So many people would be inspired by it! Such creative ideas that work!!

 

[sillygolucky]

I'm sorry for not reading every detail of the entire thread. I am assuming the floor print of your coop is 4x8.
I would use the below layout (eliminating the section crossed off in red) keeping the boards at the height of the bottom of your windows. The roosts cross in the corner (circled in blue). You could put that in the left corner as shown. Put the ramp as shown. I have mine up on a cinder block.
The left board would come all the way down to the door. Your door looks like an outswing so you should be able to squeeze by the board to get in to clean.
I would make the boards 20" wide (including the lip). That gives you almost 2' of space to walk along the boards to clean and would give you nearly 12' of roost space.

View attachment 2756138

No worries!! The cool thing is what you are suggesting is almost exactly what our latest brainstorm has come up with. haha! See post # 25! Almost every suggestion you are giving is our current (tentative lol) plan. Great minds...hahah!

The only thing that is different is that the actual inside dimensions of the coop are about 3.5'x9.5. Which is why I'm considering 18-20" for the poop boards. It will leave us just shy of 2' of maneuvering room and also that much floor space for landing if needed.

I am not sure where the best place for the ramp will be, but the good thing is that it won't be permanently fixed so we can move it around, or have more than one!