Small compact coop vs. tall coop?

[pdirt]

Glad you had a successful and productive summer.  Got a question for you about the new coop - how do you handle water running off the sloped roof of the coop onto the roof of the run?  Does any leak by and get the run wet?  I tried to bring up the images larger, but my old eyes still couldn't see.

When it's finished, there won't be a gap between the coop and run roofs. Not much rain here, anyways. But it will mostly be for snow. Not quite sure that snow will easily slide off the run roof, and I may just have to nudge it off with a shovel. Next coop will be taller with a slightly less sloped coop roof. It's as steep as it is now because two of the plywood pieces we found already were cut for such a roof line.

 

[MissMonty]

If you're going to have to worry about digging too you can look into hardware cloth. Some people talk about laying that on the ground, or digging down a little I think and laying it down then putting stuff over top of it so nothing can dig in.

I'm thinking I'll probably bury the hardware cloth and possibly put large rocks around it. That's what we did with my one husky before. He use to dig along the fence line. The big rocks detered him from digging. That would be another expense tho so I'd probably start out just with the hardware cloth.

 

[donkeydew2farms]

Blooie hi I am new to this part of the forum I have ducks and geese. but I now have 8 Easter eggers and I saw your cattle panel design I like it. I have cattle panels for my donkeys and are easy for me to handle my myself. I was even thinking about making my ducks a pen out of them. how well does it hold up to wind and a lot of rain. I live in SW KY. how did you cut it to fit the ends. What kind of tool? I see you have a door but I can't tell how you did it from the pictures. sorry for all the questions but I am doing this myself. I don't want my chicks in the same free range area that the geese are in. Right now they are still in the house they are 2 weeks old. I am hoping the weather will stay nice till I can get them out. thanks for any information.

 

[chickmomma03]

Quote: This may sound silly, but seriously check on craigslist or somewhere to see if anyone has any free or cheap rocks! I always have rocks in my yard, some big, some smaller, but I have used them for so many things!

 

[Blooie]

Blooie hi I am new to this part of the forum I have ducks and geese. but I now have 8 Easter eggers and I saw your cattle panel design I like it. I have cattle panels for my donkeys and are easy for me to handle my myself. I was even thinking about making my ducks a pen out of them. how well does it hold up to wind and a lot of rain. I live in SW KY. how did you cut it to fit the ends. What kind of tool? I see you have a door but I can't tell how you did it from the pictures. sorry for all the questions but I am doing this myself. I don't want my chicks in the same free range area that the geese are in. Right now they are still in the house they are 2 weeks old. I am hoping the weather will stay nice till I can get them out. thanks for any information.

Thanks. Glad you like it. It has withstood our Wyoming winters beautifully - handles extreme winds even with a snow load on it. If you head over to My Coop under my avatar, you can get a better idea of how we did it. The south end is a large piece of welded wire that we wired to the end cattle panel and fence posts.

The north end and the actual door was pretty easy too, but the door frame was a little harder. Ken used a heavy cutter of some kind (sorry, he's not here to ask what kind it was, but I think it was a bolt cutter) and cut the remaining cattle panel to fit on either side. We used pressure treated lumber and built the door frame in place. The front cattle panel sits on the top of the pressure treated upright on both sides and is anchored with super heavy fencing panels. The door is where he really showed off the swearing skills he learned during his 26 year Naval career. Shoot, I didn't know he could string that many cuss words together in one long sentence without taking a breath! So if you can find an easier way, I'd say go for it! Some folks have cut plywood to fit that side with a light frame to secure it. Hope that helps.

 

[redmacbear23]

You are absolutely right. We are at 7200ft in CO, and have 4, 10X10X8h runs, walk-in 4X4X8h coops with heat lamps in winter, and not only double fencing with chain link and chicken wire, but opaque poly roofing over the runs for the snow. We have bears so we really worked on safe fencing, especially since a sow with 2 cubs fell through wire roofing and killed most of our first batch of chickens.

 

[BleuSaphir]

I prefer tall coop, so I don't have to crunch down all the time when cleaning the coop.

 

[Jack Speese]

I've always had another building which I converted into a chicken coop. My present flock occupies a couple of stalls of a horse barn and they are allowed to run in a large-fenced-in pasture by day, large enough so the grass still grows and it doesn't turn into bare ground, not even in the hot dry Georgia summers. The floor of the barn is hard clay, not an ideal surface for cleaning but OK for a backyard flock. Fortunately we don't have weasels and mink here, but it's proof against other predators. And in the event that an occasional hawk does show up, it's large enough to keep the birds penned up in for several days, or theoretically even permanently. If I were to build a coop from scratch, I'd make it as large as I could, large enough so I could keep all my birds in it comfortably if I had to (like if I wanted to go away for a weekend and have a friend care for the flock, or if I had limited run space that got muddy during a prolonged rainy period, etc.). Commercial recommendations call for 4 sq ft of space per bird but I'd shoot for at least twice that. And I'd opt for a solid floor, which gives added protection from digging predators and is easier to clean. I think a raised wood floor would work best, as it wouldn't make an attractive hiding place for rodents. Rats and mice can build tunnels and nests under cement floors. Ventilation is more important than insulation (which mice love to nest in). If you live in a cold area, I'd choose a breed adapted to cold climates. Most American breeds fit this bill nicely, and many of them were developed in parts of the country where the winters are miserable (Rhode Island and New Hampshire Reds, Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Buckeyes, etc.).

 

[BWKatz]

Build as large as you can and cover your run. Security is always first. I started out with 4 chicks in a doghouse in my garage that I "free ranged in a 8x8x8 moveable pen. I built a coop out of wooden pallets with a raised floor. I was able to get enough 12 ft pallets from a medical supply house from power wheelchairs being shipped.The windows and door I got free off of Craigs list so the only thing I paid for was screwws and nails. I used old trailer underpinning for the roof on the coop. For the attached run/pen which I built first I used reclaimed pressure treated wood and paid $300 for hardware cloth to go up & over the roof with 1 1/2 ft extension at the bottom covered with dirt and also held down by lg boulders. I used the opaque plastic roof since I have hot summers. My roofs are 2 ft higher in front than back so rain & snow slide off. The run is directly on the ground but I filled it with about 6inch deep sand and pine straw in the winter. My chick are healthy , happy and really appreciate the dry run. Even in the winter they spend most of the time outdoors.Oh and I use covered litter boxes for egg nests. Hope this gives you some more options.

 

[Hensongs]

Good question to be asking now. We started with the Eglu - found that it was not fun to crawl into the run to clean it and bending down to get eggs from the Coop was hard on the back. We have just finished an enclosed run (all hardware cloth) that we can stand up in and gives the hens all of the sun and air they need. The coop is also tall enough to allow cleaning without bending over (the hens walk up a ramp to get in. Ditto for the nests - we can access them from outside the run/coop. Here's an "under construction
picture. I'll post a completed pic soon.