Topic of the Week - Building a Chicken Coop

[kathy2691]

Welcome to BYC.

If you put your location into your profile people can give better-targeted advice because climate matters -- especially when it comes to housing.

The general recommendation for ventilation is 1 square foot of permanent, 24/7/365 ventilation per adult, standard-size hen. The way you protect vents from predators is to cover all openings with 1/2" hardware cloth.

Here's my article on coop ventilation: Repecka Illustrates Coop Ventilation

Thank you, I edited my post to share my location. I was thinking of maybe replacing the standard window screen with hardware cloth.

 

[aart]

I was thinking of maybe replacing the standard window screen with hardware cloth.

Definitely a good idea, since regular window screen is not predator proof.

I edited my post to share my location.

Here's how to add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, and then it's always there!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum from Louisiana, glad you joined.

My question is about ventilation. The shed has a window we can open and close but I don’t want to leave it open at night due to predators. I live in coastal NC so it gets very hot and very humid. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

In addition to asking "where are you?" another standard question is some form of "what are you working with?" In your case, that shed. Do you have a link we could go to so we can see the specs and photos? Or can you post some photos and tell us a bit about it? My main interest are what materials it is made out of (wood, metal, or plastic) and the roof (both roofline and roofing materials.) Does it happen to have a ridge vent, things like that. There are lots of ways to provide ventilation. The more we know the easier it is to suggest something specific that might actually apply to you.

Yes, use 1/2" hardware cloth to keep out predators. Snakes big enough to eat an egg or baby chick can get through 1" openings.

 

[3KillerBs]

Thank you, I edited my post to share my location. I was thinking of maybe replacing the standard window screen with hardware cloth.

from Moore County in the Sandhills.

Here in the Carolinas the more open your coop the better. My experience is that I need either DEEP shade or 2-3 times the normal recommended ventilation to keep the coop under 100F on a 90F day.

Another article: Hot Climate Chicken Housing and Care

 

[Chicken Chow Man]

This thread is a bit old but having just constructed a coop from recycling my old pool deck i figured i'd chime in seeing as how recycling pressure treated lumber from an old pool deck is not the usual way to go about building a coop.

Currently my 8 Plymouth Rock Barred are all healthy and coming up on a year old. We made it through what i feel was a relatively mild winter here in northern MA. Maybe about 2 weeks total where it got below zero.

When we decided to get the chickens i had a 16W x 30L above ground pool that the kids no longer used and i was tired of running it, cleaning it, for nothing. So i took it down and repurposed the 20 x 16 pressure treated pool deck.

The pool deck was constructed of 2 x 6 x 20' planks and 4 x 4's to lift it up 4' to be level with the top of the pool. All the screws were pulled and the deck fully dismantled.

The area where the pool was, was covered with stone dust which i had read somewhere was good for chickens and so far... no complaints from the chickens.

There were concerns about using this old PT wood but i had also read that someone else had used PT and had no issues. So that concern was alleviated although on the inside of the coop i did line it with non PT plywood just to separate them from 2" rigid foam insulation i also lying around and that i put in that 4" space in the walls and floor.

This thing IS A FORTRESS! And yes i may have over done it. But i used what i had available.

So because it was originally a deck, i figured i'd keep the coop off the ground as well but only by a couple feet as it didn't need to be 4' off the ground.

Being off the ground does have advantages where in the summer, the chickens escape the heat under the coop.

I do NOT let them free range! They would eaten by predators in days.
My wife reads posts about people who let their chickens free range and she photos of injured chickens from hawk attacks, or just dead and i'm not into feeding local hawks, coyotes, raccoons, or bobcats.

So the 2 x 6 plank sheathed coop is only 4 x 8 inside. It would have been better to make it a little bigger as there are "behavioral" butt pecking issues but other than that they are healthy and laying between 6-8 eggs a day.

As mentioned the inside is lined with plywood as i wanted to keep the chickens away from the PT planks and the rigid foam i put in the walls to hopefully keep the coop cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

I did not heat the coop with anything other than a heated roosting bar i made myself by hollowing out the length of a 2" dowel so i could put a line of deicing wire down the hollowed out length of the roosting bar/dowel.

That heated roosting bar idea worked great and it was cheap to run a 6' strip of it this winter to work just were it may be needed...on the feetzies.

I have a 2gal heated water container for winter use as well so that they had unfrozen water.

So yes there is electricity in the coop where i installed a couple circuit breaker outlets where the 12/2 electrical runs outside the coop to a plug i can plug into an extension.

The electricity to the coop is seasonal where it will be used to power the water heater, and the heated roosting bar i made.

So the coop is 4 x 8 inside and the run (completely enclosed with .5" hardware cloth buried in the ground 2' so nothing digs under the wire) which includes under coop is about 16' x 10'

now another thing to keep in mind is local building codes, and here in my area, anything over 10 x 10 has to have a permit pulled. In hindsight i could have made it 8 x 8 instead of 4 x 8!!!

So the construction is very solid, but now i had to get rid of the pool.
So i used the old steel pool walls to cover the 2 x 6's on the outside of the coop. It actually came out kind of nice because the pool had a wood pattern on it and Nothing is going to claw its way through that steel. :0)

Ok thats what i did...now what would i do differently?

- i would have made the inside of the coop bigger for the chickens. I think it's just a bit tight in there and they're pecking each others butts. They all look like orangutans with their red butts.
- access to the parts under the coop. I have easy access to one side under the coop but not the other. So cleaning it can be a challenge.
- the run area could be bigger which i can expand.

Even with the reuse of my old PT wood deck and steel pool and the material costs that may have saved, i figure i still put $600 into it for the 1/2" hardware cloth that was $80/roll, 2 sheets of 3/4 plywood, 2 sheets of 1/2 plywood, screws, hinges, other hardware....items today are just more expensive.

Hope this helps.

 

[chicken mama 0908]

One tip is, make sure your roosts are strong enough!! Last night I had a roost crack under too much weight. My bad!

 

[MyFlockIsMyLife]

To me the three most important things in building a coop (and run) are location, location, and location. If you put your coop (and run) in a low spot where water drains to it or stands you will have issues. If you build it where (or so) water drains away life will be much more pleasant. You need to keep it dry!

- Do's and don'ts - What did you wish you did differently, or knew, when you built your coop?

This is hard to answer because we all have our different preferences. My coop has been constantly evolving as I go along. You make your plans but they never work out exactly as you expect. We are all going to have different goals and conditions. Even if you have some experience your needs will change. Things you think you want are never used. I made a couple of my nests so I could access them from outside. I never use that feature, it’s much more convenient for me to just walk in and gather eggs. Some people really like access from outside, and if your coop is too small to get inside yourself it’s pretty necessary.

- What materials would you recommend (or not) and why?

Anything touching the ground needs to be able to stand up to touching the ground. Non-treated wood will rot pretty quickly in most climates unless you use special expensive varieties of wood. Some metals will rust. Pay attention to the foundation, use stuff that will last. That can be treated wood, special wood, certain metals, cinder block, brick, concrete, or something else. They can all work.

For roosts I want wood. Metal or plastic are good heat conductors while wood is a good insulator. Wooden roosts will stay warmer in winter and won’t be as hot in summer.

That’s about it for specific material recommendations. People successfully use wood, metal, or plastic in various combinations for coops. Some of that is personal preference, some might be climate, some might be what’s available or inexpensive.

- Coop size(s)?

You can follow the link in my signature for some of my thoughts on things to consider when determining coop size. We keep them in so many different climates, with different goals, set-ups, flock make-ups, and use so many different management techniques no one square foot number can fit us all. We are all unique.

Make it bigger than you think you need. I find the more I crowd them the more behavioral problems I have to deal with, the harder I have to work, and the less flexibility I have to deal with issues. A lot of this is about me, not the chickens. If I manage them right I can crowd them, but why make my life harder than it has to be?

Flexibility is priceless. If you shoehorn them into the tiniest space possible what do you do if you get a broody hen? Or if you need to separate an injured chicken for a while? Or try to integrate replacement chickens? If you plan your coop around free ranging all day so they only sleep and lay in the coop, what do you do if you have a predator issue?

You need to be able to access everything inside your coop. At some point that’s going to change from a small coop you can reach most places from outside to where you need a walk-in coop. Again, think about your convenience.

- Money saving tips for coop builders?

Consider the size of your building materials when planning your coop. If you are buying new, here in the States most building materials come in 4’ and 8’ standard dimensions. If you plan your build around this you can usually reduce cutting and waste. A 4’ x 8’ is probably not going to be much more expensive (if any) than a 3’ x 7’ and will probably be easier to build.

- Anything you'd like to add?

I’ll give links to a couple of articles that I think should be required reading for anyone building a coop (and run).

Pat’s Big Ol' Ventilation Page

http://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-VENTILATION

Pat’s Big Ol' Mud Page (fixing muddy runs):

http://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-fix-a-muddy-run

You will get a lot of advice on this forum, many people will tell you that you absolutely have to do things one specific way. But then you’ll see where someone did it totally differently and it still worked. There is practically never one way to do something, there are many different ways that work. That makes it harder because you have so many options that can work instead of someone just telling you that you have to do something a certain way.

We all keep chickens in totally different conditions. When you see advice from someone I suggest you try to determine if they are talking about your circumstances. What works for someone free ranging a large flock with multiple roosters may not work at all for someone keeping four hens in a small suburban back yard, totally contained in a small coop and run.

Try to keep things simple. Again, that’s for your convenience, but animals are a commitment. If you leave town for a wedding, vacation, or funeral, you will need to get someone to feed and water the chickens. The easier you make it to take care of your chickens the easier it may be to find someone. Think about where you store your feed, get water, and such as that. Chickens should be easy to take care of. They are much more enjoyable if they are not a burden.

This had so many great points- literally all of it!!! Loved all your anecdotes and info. Very helpful.

 

[chicken mama 0908]

This thread is a bit old but having just constructed a coop from recycling my old pool deck i figured i'd chime in seeing as how recycling pressure treated lumber from an old pool deck is not the usual way to go about building a coop.

Currently my 8 Plymouth Rock Barred are all healthy and coming up on a year old. We made it through what i feel was a relatively mild winter here in northern MA. Maybe about 2 weeks total where it got below zero.

When we decided to get the chickens i had a 16W x 30L above ground pool that the kids no longer used and i was tired of running it, cleaning it, for nothing. So i took it down and repurposed the 20 x 16 pressure treated pool deck.

The pool deck was constructed of 2 x 6 x 20' planks and 4 x 4's to lift it up 4' to be level with the top of the pool. All the screws were pulled and the deck fully dismantled.

The area where the pool was, was covered with stone dust which i had read somewhere was good for chickens and so far... no complaints from the chickens.

There were concerns about using this old PT wood but i had also read that someone else had used PT and had no issues. So that concern was alleviated although on the inside of the coop i did line it with non PT plywood just to separate them from 2" rigid foam insulation i also lying around and that i put in that 4" space in the walls and floor.

This thing IS A FORTRESS! And yes i may have over done it. But i used what i had available.

So because it was originally a deck, i figured i'd keep the coop off the ground as well but only by a couple feet as it didn't need to be 4' off the ground.

Being off the ground does have advantages where in the summer, the chickens escape the heat under the coop.

I do NOT let them free range! They would eaten by predators in days.
My wife reads posts about people who let their chickens free range and she photos of injured chickens from hawk attacks, or just dead and i'm not into feeding local hawks, coyotes, raccoons, or bobcats.

So the 2 x 6 plank sheathed coop is only 4 x 8 inside. It would have been better to make it a little bigger as there are "behavioral" butt pecking issues but other than that they are healthy and laying between 6-8 eggs a day.

As mentioned the inside is lined with plywood as i wanted to keep the chickens away from the PT planks and the rigid foam i put in the walls to hopefully keep the coop cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.

I did not heat the coop with anything other than a heated roosting bar i made myself by hollowing out the length of a 2" dowel so i could put a line of deicing wire down the hollowed out length of the roosting bar/dowel.

That heated roosting bar idea worked great and it was cheap to run a 6' strip of it this winter to work just were it may be needed...on the feetzies.

I have a 2gal heated water container for winter use as well so that they had unfrozen water.

So yes there is electricity in the coop where i installed a couple circuit breaker outlets where the 12/2 electrical runs outside the coop to a plug i can plug into an extension.

The electricity to the coop is seasonal where it will be used to power the water heater, and the heated roosting bar i made.

So the coop is 4 x 8 inside and the run (completely enclosed with .5" hardware cloth buried in the ground 2' so nothing digs under the wire) which includes under coop is about 16' x 10'

now another thing to keep in mind is local building codes, and here in my area, anything over 10 x 10 has to have a permit pulled. In hindsight i could have made it 8 x 8 instead of 4 x 8!!!

So the construction is very solid, but now i had to get rid of the pool.
So i used the old steel pool walls to cover the 2 x 6's on the outside of the coop. It actually came out kind of nice because the pool had a wood pattern on it and Nothing is going to claw its way through that steel. :0)

Ok thats what i did...now what would i do differently?

- i would have made the inside of the coop bigger for the chickens. I think it's just a bit tight in there and they're pecking each others butts. They all look like orangutans with their red butts.
- access to the parts under the coop. I have easy access to one side under the coop but not the other. So cleaning it can be a challenge.
- the run area could be bigger which i can expand.

Even with the reuse of my old PT wood deck and steel pool and the material costs that may have saved, i figure i still put $600 into it for the 1/2" hardware cloth that was $80/roll, 2 sheets of 3/4 plywood, 2 sheets of 1/2 plywood, screws, hinges, other hardware....items today are just more expensive.

Hope this helps.

Will you post a photo? I already have a coop, but I'm curious what yours looks like.