- May 6, 2011
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So I'm reworking my existing coop to try and accommodate a few more hens. I've had 7 living happily for 2 years and bought 4 chicks this year. So...need to figure out how to get enough roost space in there and accommodate droppings boards.
It's a bit shy of 4' by 8' (just by inches, width is 44"). Current set up is one roost spanning the 8' length with a board underneath. Works great but 8' of roost isn't going to accommodate 11 large fowl hens.
My 2 ideas are:
1. Keep things basically as is but add 2' of roost by adding a short roost perpendicular to the existing roost at the end of the coop. (Does that make sense? I mean having a roost come out at a right angle a foot from the end of the existing and go the 2ish feet from the roost to front)
2. Put down wider droppings board and somehow squeeze two 8' roosts along back wall. The narrow coop is the problem with this seemingly genius plan. The widest dropping board I can squeeze in would be 30". That leaves me 14" to step in coop for board scooping. This would basically be creating a 2 story coop indoors. There would be a ramp leading up to landing the same level as droppings board.
The ramp would be hinged to landin so I could flip it up when I enter coop.
Here's a sad little mock up of the board layout I was thinking, but I can't figure out how to squeeze two roosts over that 30" droppings board without them being too close together. My current roost is 8" from wall which seems to keep poop off wall, but I'd like to keep the roosts far enough apart that they don't peck each other or poo on each other if it were a ladder style.
Ideas?
Edited to add: the hens just sleep in the coop, and go in to access nest boxes. Attached is a open air pen with roof they can use for wet rainy days and the free range sun up to sun down.
It's a bit shy of 4' by 8' (just by inches, width is 44"). Current set up is one roost spanning the 8' length with a board underneath. Works great but 8' of roost isn't going to accommodate 11 large fowl hens.
My 2 ideas are:
1. Keep things basically as is but add 2' of roost by adding a short roost perpendicular to the existing roost at the end of the coop. (Does that make sense? I mean having a roost come out at a right angle a foot from the end of the existing and go the 2ish feet from the roost to front)
2. Put down wider droppings board and somehow squeeze two 8' roosts along back wall. The narrow coop is the problem with this seemingly genius plan. The widest dropping board I can squeeze in would be 30". That leaves me 14" to step in coop for board scooping. This would basically be creating a 2 story coop indoors. There would be a ramp leading up to landing the same level as droppings board.
The ramp would be hinged to landin so I could flip it up when I enter coop.
Here's a sad little mock up of the board layout I was thinking, but I can't figure out how to squeeze two roosts over that 30" droppings board without them being too close together. My current roost is 8" from wall which seems to keep poop off wall, but I'd like to keep the roosts far enough apart that they don't peck each other or poo on each other if it were a ladder style.
Ideas?
Edited to add: the hens just sleep in the coop, and go in to access nest boxes. Attached is a open air pen with roof they can use for wet rainy days and the free range sun up to sun down.
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