I love the nesting boxes, our nesting boxes aren't as built at good as yours. I'll need to remember that when we build the rest of our nesting boxes this Sunday.My ceiling is about that high too...My Roost holds 15 to twenty birds...I have large breeds this year..12 to be exact...They have lots of room.....
My nest boxes....
Thanks for all the help. I will post pictures of the roost. Like I said we had someone build them for us and they're not the best. All this information is helpful. Thanks again!I grew up outside of LaFollette and had relatives in Maynardville but never heard of Corryton. I’m sure you never heard of the community I grew up in either, Finncastle. Still, I know your climate. They should be able to go outside practically every day of the year, though some strong cold winds may affect that. The cold is not a problem, we had chickens sleeping in trees, but they really don’t like a strong wind. When they wake up to a white world they usually won’t go out in the snow for a day or two. The snow is not the problem, they just don’t like the change to a white world. I’ve had chickens go out and forage in 9” of snow, but it took them a couple of days to build up the courage to go out in it.
The coop should be big enough with them able to go out every day but you could still have issues. One pretty common question on here is whether or not you need a run if you free range them. Technically no, you don’t as long as things go well. But what do you do if say a fox starts picking off one chicken a day? Or someone drops off a dog or two in the country and the dogs see your chickens as supper? Or maybe you are doing something in that area where you just don’t want them roaming around. Or they are destroying your garden and you want some time to build a fence. I really believe in flexibility and a run gives you some flexibility. We free ranged and never had a run when I was growing up though so no you don’t absolutely have to have one. But we only had two predator issues my entire childhood until I left home at 18. One was a dog. My uncle happened to be visiting that day so he graciously shot it for us. The other was a fox that was taking a chicken each morning. That happened until Dad recognized a pattern of where she was coming from and when. When he was off from work a Saturday morning he set up an ambush and shot her. Foxes can be rough unless you can detect a pattern. You can never predict predators. You may go years without a problem or you may be wiped out today.
I can’t say you absolutely need a run, but I’d suggest you look at building something right outside the coop pop door that creates an area that blocks the wind. If you can make it to keep the snow out so much the better. It doesn’t have to be that big but it gives them another place to go on those windy cold days. It’s quality space for those lousy weather days.
The way you manage them you really don’t need to feed and water them inside the coop. That can free up a lot of room. If they are hitting things on the way down from the roosts, they can injure themselves. I once found a dead hen in the coop. I think she hit the feeder on the way down and broke her neck. Again, if you can build something outside the coop that keeps the snow out you can keep feed dry there.
You will have days below freezing where the water will freeze. I don’t know how you plan on watering them. In winter I use large black rubber bowls I get from Tractor Supply. Since they are black, if you set them in the sun you can keep water from freezing well down into the 20’s using solar heat. Since they are rubber I just knock them around to break ice free in the mornings or when the sun doesn’t shine. In summer I use white bowls in the shade.
If you feel you have to add more nests, you can add them outside the coop. If you build something to keep the wind and snow out it will keep the nests dry in the rain too.
I’m still waiting to see your photos of the roosts to make many specific comments. Two roosts separated by at least 12” and at least 12” from a wall will probably be enough for 22 chickens but that is tight. You may find that some start sleeping other places, like on or in your nests. That would be a clear indication you need more roosts. I put up an extra roost over my nests and use the top of the nests as a droppings board to give mine more room and to use as a juvenile roost. Since you are going to be hatching chicks and integrating a separate juvenile roost could come in really handy. Mine is a bit lower than the main roosts and horizontally separated.
If you keep that number of chickens or even somewhat fewer chickens and try to integrate young chicks you will probably face serious challenges. A huge issue in integration is having enough room for them. If they are too crowded the older ones are likely to pick on the younger and maybe even kill them. Before you hatch chicks I suggest you do some more building. You can make a separate grow-out coop, physically separated from the main coop but with a pop door so the chicks can free range with the older ones but be able to be separate from them at night. That’s what I do. Or you could expand your present coop, having a separate room but with a door you can open or close as you need to separate them or let them mingle. If you have a broody hen raise the chicks with the flock she might be able to manage with what you have until she weans the chicks and leaves them on their own with the flock, but Rhode Island reds are not known to go broody much. If you are going to be hatching them for meat you are probably going to have to use an incubator. My chickens go broody a lot but I still have to use an incubator to get enough chickens to keep me in meat.
As far as what to use for the roosts, you’ll get all kinds of opinions. For some reason, many people passionately believe whatever they use is best, although we use different things. I’ve tried 2x4’s flat and on edge as well as tree limbs. In my experience and having actually tried them all I firmly believe the chickens just don’t care. Any of them work just fine in our climate. I’ll show a photo of how I attached my tree limbs so I can remove them if I want to. I seldom do. I put up a short 2x4 for them to rest on and drilled holes and dropped a big nail through to keep them stable.
With that many chickens in that small a coop, poop management might become an issue. They poop a lot from the roosts. You could put a droppings board under the roosts and scrape it as necessary, I partially did that. But I also got some plastic bins from Walmart and set them under a portion of the roosts. When I need to I scrape the poop on the droppings board into a bin and carry it outside. As long as the poop stays dry it shouldn’t smell but if it builds up thick enough it won’t dry and can stink.
Can you get by with what you have? Maybe, especially if you feed and water outside. Poop management and integration may become serious issues. You might wind up working harder (poop management) than I like to. You will not have much flexibility in dealing with issues that can come up. That can lead to a lot of stress if you have an emergency. Some of that is how you manage them but some is luck. Hopefully you can get something useful out of this long post. Either way I wish you luck.
That's a great idea. I'll see what i can do. Thanks!I used an external laying box setup as my coop is pretty small. That way I don't have to bend down to collect eggs too.
That frees up more internal space if you need it.
Yeah, I see what you mean by being hard to clean under....Interesting....
Here's the roost. We haven't clean the floor yet today, so please don't mind the mess.
Yup! It takes forever to clean, because of the weird design.
