Mrhein
Chirping
The following plans are my own design as we had a small moveable coop that we experimented for three years. When we were ready to commit we hand stacked the rock wall and created a drain field underneath the coop site as we receive 13 feet of rain each year here and the coop smelled because the ground was always wet.
The egg collection doors are hinged on the top and bottom edge so the doors can open completely for cleaning. The board you see lining the bottom edge of the run keeps rain from splattering in and creating a wet floor which also creates smell.
The size of coop was determined by: 1(the space we could create 2) a reasonable size to move around inside the coop and run 3) if the chickens were retired in the future and the coop. made into a useable shed
The following photo shows the chicken jail/infermery as a promise to my husband to keep the chickens out of the garage.
The nesting boxes are built nearly square at 11.5"x12" and a roosting rail placed in front to aid in the entrance and exit of the nests. If any roosting does take place then the poop falls to the ground and not in the nests. They are also lined with artificial turf purchased from Amazon in 1' squares for easy cleaning. Since the coop has been in use for nearly a year, the chickens prefer the grass to the wood chips so the last two boxes will be replaced with turf soon. This space above the nesting boxes was cut out to create a tool shelf accessed from the inside. The space under the boxes is the back of the storage cabinet accessed from the outside.
The windows are recycled windows from the neighbors and are covered with removable hardware cloth frames held in place by a wooden block. The upper gable helps vent the coop as heat rises and this opening facing the non-weather side of the structure. There are also four vented holes at the junction wall between the run and the coop near the roof for air movement.
The roosting poles are made from recycled treks decking and placed on hinges so when it comes time to clean the coop, as most of the poop falls on the poop board above the chicken jail, I simply loop the rope over a hook in the ceiling and scrap the remains into a bucket with a small hand hoe. If I ever need to remove the poop board, it is not nailed down but only fit in place and kept there with wooden blocks.
The chicken door can be opened or closed by a rope that was installed after ward and run to the outside of the coop.
This clearly shows the turf grass in the nesting boxes that can be hosed off if needed and shaken off on for small clean up.
My husband found a digital timer/light-switch that can be manually turned on or off and will automatically come on to give light during the day and eight hours of darkness at night. Since the roof is composition roofing the coop can be dark even during the day as we have many hours of lowlight conditions living on the coast. If the use of any tools or to plug in my leaf vacuum are needed in that area of the yard, I also have an outlet to use.
The feeders are filled once a week and came from recycled drain pipes off our house. We bought the elbow and cap. The roof of the run is painted to give more light and the clear panels on the back of coop helps with the rain splash off the rock wall that can get pretty severe. Keep the water away and you keep the smell away! There is also a light and an outlet in the run side of the structure. The tire is to perch or take a dust bath as shavings were added later.
This is my FAVORITE part. As I am standing in the rain filling the hens water I thought, there has to be a better way. We installed a gutter to create a water collection that can be drank from nipples. Bags of them can be purchased for cheap and the piping was recycled or purchased at a minimal price. I have since moved away from the feeders you see here as they fill will debris when the chickens scratch and replaced with another feeder from the previous photo. The perches are simply to create vertical room in the coop as well as the floor space.
The last winter was exceptionally cold so I hung a heat lamp at times because the smaller coop we had just moved them from was not adequate and they were still adjusting, as you can see the rooster has a bit of frostbite. He has since healed and doing fine.
Finally, the entire cost of the coop was only a few hundred dollars as most of our materials were repurposed from other places and my husband built the structure.
The entire floor is made from wooden car decking on a railroad tie platform so it sits off the gravel several inches. There is storage for tools on the inside and buckets on the outside under the nesting doors. The buckets are for extra feed and Sweet PDZ which is used to keep the smell down when it arises. It is a granule used for horse stalls. The tools are to clean the poop once a week and my chores tend to take 15 minutes or so weekly.
I honestly would not change anything about the coop as it has fit our needs perfectly. When it is raining I can step inside and do the chores quickly as everything is already stored there. We use the deep liter method in the run.
