ShotgunDog
Chirping
Backyard Chickens was so helpful when we first started our chicken journey, that I wanted to 'give back' to the community, and hopefully help other who might be starting their own journey. So this post is a description of our chicken coop/run/yard, the challenges we faced and our solutions to raising a happy and healthy flock.
When we first decided we wanted chickens, we knew we would keep them at our ‘farm’ (our secondary/weekend home). Years ago we had a fenced garden area that has since become an overgrown mess (mostly due to an F3 tornado that came through). We decided to repurpose that area (and part of the fence) for the chickens. Our needs were as follows:
The coop/run structure is built from pressure treated materials (much of it was repurposed). The sloped roof over the entire coop/run is repurposed roofing tin. For the floor support of the coop we repurposed deck railings, built from pressure treated 2”x4”s. The coop floor is supported on leveled concrete blocks and bricks, barely clearing the ground.
After building the bulk of the structure, we had a torrential storm. The storm revealed to us that, much to our dismay, we had just created a huge, muddy bird bath! Our solution to the drainage issue was concrete—we ran sloped concrete around the entire back side of the structure which re-routed the water that would have run under the coop floor and pooled into the run. I’m proud to say our solution worked perfectly! The concrete also gave us a secondary method of predator-proofing.
Predator Proofing and Biological (wild birds and rodents) Threats
As mentioned, the entire back of the structure (which includes the 3 external sides of the coop) is surrounded on the ground with thick concrete, at least 12” in length. The remaining structure is surrounded on the ground with a predator apron made of vinyl coated welded wire, attached to the run with 1.25” length staples. The entire back wall of the run is covered with floor to ceiling roofing tin. The remaining 3 walls of the run is surrounded at the base by a 12” strip of roofing tin, and then floor-to-ceiling hardware cloth. The cloth is installed with 1.25” length staples. We covered the gaps in the ceiling (created by the roof support) with pieces of decking boards (prevents predators as well as small birds from entering). The door of the run has only about .25” clearance at the base, with no gaps around any other portion of the door when closed (not even the smallest mouse or snake can enter). Any gaps created between the bottom of the run walls and the ground (where small rodents might enter) were filled with sand/gravel. Any small areas on the walls where a small rodent might enter was filled with spray-foam (the chickens don’t mess with the foam, incredibly). All access doors (egg collection hatch; cabinet doors; run door) are secured with racoon-proof latches.
Nesting Boxes
A lot of thought and planning went into the nesting boxes. We built the structure from plywood, giving us four 12”Lx12”Wx14”H boxes, leaving about a 3” gap on the bottom of the back wall. Behind the back wall is an egg collection gutter that runs the width of the entire nesting box structure and is about 6.5” wide. The nesting box structure is supported on the bottom with 2”x4” boards. Three of the supports are extended out to the front, where we have installed a perch (removable for cleaning).
We then cut four 11.75”x13” ‘floors’ from ¼” plywood and covered them with indoor/outdoor carpeting. We created a slope (1.5” at the front to 0” at the back), so that the eggs would roll to the back, under the rear wall. The sloped floors fit snuggly into the boxes, but can still be easily removed for cleaning (surprisingly, though, I don’t need to clean them much at all!). The gutter is lined with shelf liner to cushion the eggs as they roll into it. To help make the boxes feel more ‘nest-like,’ I cut strips of artificial turf (ordered a pack of three 12” squares from Amazon) and stapled them into the sides and back of each wall (leaving a gap below the strip so that the turf doesn’t impede the egg movement as it rolls to the back. To give the girls a feeling of security, I made small curtains and attached them to the boxes with Velcro. This enables me to easily remove them for a quick dusting or cleaning.
The nesting boxes are installed completely inside the coop area, with access to the egg collection gutter from the outside, on the back wall of the coop. We built a sloped ‘roof’ over the boxes to discourage the girls from perching on top of the boxes. The nesting box structure sits about 2.5 feet above the floor of the coop. For a finished look we surrounded the area under the boxes with repurposed decking boards. In doing this, we created a small storage cabinet under the boxes, accessible from the outside.
The Coop
Knowing that I wanted 10 chickens, we designed a space where we could have room on the highest roost to hold all 10 (I wanted no pecking order squabbles as to who gets to sit on the highest roost). So we created an L-shaped top roost, with two other roosts below it. The small bottom ‘roost’ is really more of a step for them, and sits fully on the coop floor. All of the roosts are removeable for cleaning. The top two tiers of the roosts (as well as the perch in front of the nesting box) are painted with outdoor paint for more easily cleaning.
The floor of the coop is made of pressure-treated plywood and is covered with a vinyl-floor-type material (another repurposed material). Should it need a good scrubbing, the material cleans just like a vinyl floor might. The bedding material I use is pine straw. We are in middle Georgia, USA, where you can’t spit without hitting a loblolly pine. So gathering pine straw is just a matter of raking it up, sorting out sticks and pine cones, and placing it under cover to ensure that it dries. It is free and provides a pleasant pine scent in the coop.
There are three windows in the coop; two smaller windows on opposite walls, and a larger window on the back wall. All three are covered with hardware cloth and have removeable (or just moveable—they also just slide to open) plexiglass. There is plenty of venting at the top of the front wall of the coop, where it vents into the run area.
The door of the coop is a repurposed vintage barn door. The bottom of the door had rotted, so it needed to be cut off anyway, which provided the perfect space for the chickens to enter the coop. Incredibly we had this door just lying around, waiting for a new purpose; and it fit in the door space like we intentionally made it that way (we were just lucky!).
The Run Area
The covered, east-facing run catches the first morning light and has areas of sun and shade throughout the day. It contains the food/water, dirt bath, and recreational aspects.
The Cheap Cheep Café: We chose horizontal water nipples from Rent-A-Coop for the water source, installed into a 20 gallon barrel. The barrel is a thicker plastic than 5 gallon buckets, and is less prone to leaks. The 20 gallons of water will sustain 10 chickens for about two weeks in the summer; much more in the winter (although I’d never intentionally leave them for more than a few days). For the coldest nights of winter, we’ve installed an aquarium heater to keep the water from freezing. For the food, we are using gravity feeders in a bin. This oversized bin can hold enough food to sustain my 10 girls for 3+ weeks. We also added a gravity feeder for oyster shell (although, now that they are on layer feed, they don’t partake much in it).
The Chic Chick Spa: Against the front wall of the coop you will find the girls’ dirt bath. It is a 2’x3’ area surrounded with concrete blocks on two sides, the coop wall on the back side, and protected on one side with floor-to-ceiling repurposed roofing tin. It stays dry, even in the most extreme wind and rain. The bottom is lined with the same roofing material that is on the floor of the coop. We filled it with sand mixed with the sandy soil found in our area. Since our soil is already very sandy, I just add more dry soil from time to time to keep it full.
The Jungle Fowl Gym: We added a two-tier swing for the girls to enjoy and placed an empty wooden wire spool for a structure to jump/fly/perch on. They use both, but it did take them a bit to become accustomed to the swing (they love it now).
Chickin Sittin: We keep a chair hanging in the run for our chicken therapy sessions. We love spending time with our girls, just sitting in the yard watching them scratching around. They jump up on our laps for a quick pet, then back down again for some more scratching. Yes, chicken therapy is a real thing!
Fenced/Open Area
When we are at our farm (which we now spend more time there than at our ‘home’), we wanted our girls to be able to forage in a more natural habitat. Although our dog hasn’t been overly aggressive towards ‘the girls,’ I still don’t trust her fully--her predator/prey instincts are sharply honed (she’s a rescue/survivor). We were able to preserve some of the initial fence from our years-ago garden, but also patched in other forms of fence. The crazy back portion of the fence is 7-8 foot chain link pieces that we had just lying around, waiting for a purpose. We did have to buy some more welded wire fencing for other portions. The fence is not pretty (I call it a Frankenstein fence), but it serves its purpose—it keeps the chickens in and the dog out. Most of the fenced area is well shaded, with several pine trees, a cedar tree, and many other small trees and brush.
Conclusion
In the end, I am very pleased with our entire chicken yard/run/coop. The girls all use the nesting boxes to lay their eggs (I’ve had a few odd ones, but it is rare). Most of the eggs do end up in the egg collection gutter (I think many of them are actually pushed into it by the hens—I’ve seen them do it!). Although there is an occasional squabble, my girls really don’t fight and I cannot even tell what the pecking order is among them. We’ve managed to raise all 10 into healthy adult hens with no predator mis-haps.
When we first decided we wanted chickens, we knew we would keep them at our ‘farm’ (our secondary/weekend home). Years ago we had a fenced garden area that has since become an overgrown mess (mostly due to an F3 tornado that came through). We decided to repurpose that area (and part of the fence) for the chickens. Our needs were as follows:
- A self-sustaining food/water setup for the chickens for up to a week (or more if necessary)
- Plenty of coop & run space for 10+ chickens
- A dry coop/run that is secure against predators and biological risks (primarily other birds and rodents)
- Roll-away egg collection system as to prevent egg eating and brooding
- Repurpose materials we had from other projects or sources (tin roofing, lumber, etc.)
- Have an area that the chickens are able to roam outside of the run (when we are there), but safe from our dog.
- A covered, eastern-facing 12’x16’ run with a 6’x8’ attached coop
- The run wall is covered on western side with repurposed tin roofing material; the 3 other sides are covered with hardware cloth
- Coop walls are made from repurposed tin with 3 windows. Windows of coop are covered with hardware cloth with removable/moveable plexiglass.
- Coop contains 4 nesting boxes
- The run/coop was built inside a 50’x35’ portion of the previous fenced area; the fence was repaired or replaced (primarily to keep the chickens and our dog separated).
The coop/run structure is built from pressure treated materials (much of it was repurposed). The sloped roof over the entire coop/run is repurposed roofing tin. For the floor support of the coop we repurposed deck railings, built from pressure treated 2”x4”s. The coop floor is supported on leveled concrete blocks and bricks, barely clearing the ground.
After building the bulk of the structure, we had a torrential storm. The storm revealed to us that, much to our dismay, we had just created a huge, muddy bird bath! Our solution to the drainage issue was concrete—we ran sloped concrete around the entire back side of the structure which re-routed the water that would have run under the coop floor and pooled into the run. I’m proud to say our solution worked perfectly! The concrete also gave us a secondary method of predator-proofing.
Predator Proofing and Biological (wild birds and rodents) Threats
As mentioned, the entire back of the structure (which includes the 3 external sides of the coop) is surrounded on the ground with thick concrete, at least 12” in length. The remaining structure is surrounded on the ground with a predator apron made of vinyl coated welded wire, attached to the run with 1.25” length staples. The entire back wall of the run is covered with floor to ceiling roofing tin. The remaining 3 walls of the run is surrounded at the base by a 12” strip of roofing tin, and then floor-to-ceiling hardware cloth. The cloth is installed with 1.25” length staples. We covered the gaps in the ceiling (created by the roof support) with pieces of decking boards (prevents predators as well as small birds from entering). The door of the run has only about .25” clearance at the base, with no gaps around any other portion of the door when closed (not even the smallest mouse or snake can enter). Any gaps created between the bottom of the run walls and the ground (where small rodents might enter) were filled with sand/gravel. Any small areas on the walls where a small rodent might enter was filled with spray-foam (the chickens don’t mess with the foam, incredibly). All access doors (egg collection hatch; cabinet doors; run door) are secured with racoon-proof latches.
Nesting Boxes
A lot of thought and planning went into the nesting boxes. We built the structure from plywood, giving us four 12”Lx12”Wx14”H boxes, leaving about a 3” gap on the bottom of the back wall. Behind the back wall is an egg collection gutter that runs the width of the entire nesting box structure and is about 6.5” wide. The nesting box structure is supported on the bottom with 2”x4” boards. Three of the supports are extended out to the front, where we have installed a perch (removable for cleaning).
We then cut four 11.75”x13” ‘floors’ from ¼” plywood and covered them with indoor/outdoor carpeting. We created a slope (1.5” at the front to 0” at the back), so that the eggs would roll to the back, under the rear wall. The sloped floors fit snuggly into the boxes, but can still be easily removed for cleaning (surprisingly, though, I don’t need to clean them much at all!). The gutter is lined with shelf liner to cushion the eggs as they roll into it. To help make the boxes feel more ‘nest-like,’ I cut strips of artificial turf (ordered a pack of three 12” squares from Amazon) and stapled them into the sides and back of each wall (leaving a gap below the strip so that the turf doesn’t impede the egg movement as it rolls to the back. To give the girls a feeling of security, I made small curtains and attached them to the boxes with Velcro. This enables me to easily remove them for a quick dusting or cleaning.
The nesting boxes are installed completely inside the coop area, with access to the egg collection gutter from the outside, on the back wall of the coop. We built a sloped ‘roof’ over the boxes to discourage the girls from perching on top of the boxes. The nesting box structure sits about 2.5 feet above the floor of the coop. For a finished look we surrounded the area under the boxes with repurposed decking boards. In doing this, we created a small storage cabinet under the boxes, accessible from the outside.
The Coop
Knowing that I wanted 10 chickens, we designed a space where we could have room on the highest roost to hold all 10 (I wanted no pecking order squabbles as to who gets to sit on the highest roost). So we created an L-shaped top roost, with two other roosts below it. The small bottom ‘roost’ is really more of a step for them, and sits fully on the coop floor. All of the roosts are removeable for cleaning. The top two tiers of the roosts (as well as the perch in front of the nesting box) are painted with outdoor paint for more easily cleaning.
The floor of the coop is made of pressure-treated plywood and is covered with a vinyl-floor-type material (another repurposed material). Should it need a good scrubbing, the material cleans just like a vinyl floor might. The bedding material I use is pine straw. We are in middle Georgia, USA, where you can’t spit without hitting a loblolly pine. So gathering pine straw is just a matter of raking it up, sorting out sticks and pine cones, and placing it under cover to ensure that it dries. It is free and provides a pleasant pine scent in the coop.
There are three windows in the coop; two smaller windows on opposite walls, and a larger window on the back wall. All three are covered with hardware cloth and have removeable (or just moveable—they also just slide to open) plexiglass. There is plenty of venting at the top of the front wall of the coop, where it vents into the run area.
The door of the coop is a repurposed vintage barn door. The bottom of the door had rotted, so it needed to be cut off anyway, which provided the perfect space for the chickens to enter the coop. Incredibly we had this door just lying around, waiting for a new purpose; and it fit in the door space like we intentionally made it that way (we were just lucky!).
The Run Area
The covered, east-facing run catches the first morning light and has areas of sun and shade throughout the day. It contains the food/water, dirt bath, and recreational aspects.
The Cheap Cheep Café: We chose horizontal water nipples from Rent-A-Coop for the water source, installed into a 20 gallon barrel. The barrel is a thicker plastic than 5 gallon buckets, and is less prone to leaks. The 20 gallons of water will sustain 10 chickens for about two weeks in the summer; much more in the winter (although I’d never intentionally leave them for more than a few days). For the coldest nights of winter, we’ve installed an aquarium heater to keep the water from freezing. For the food, we are using gravity feeders in a bin. This oversized bin can hold enough food to sustain my 10 girls for 3+ weeks. We also added a gravity feeder for oyster shell (although, now that they are on layer feed, they don’t partake much in it).
The Chic Chick Spa: Against the front wall of the coop you will find the girls’ dirt bath. It is a 2’x3’ area surrounded with concrete blocks on two sides, the coop wall on the back side, and protected on one side with floor-to-ceiling repurposed roofing tin. It stays dry, even in the most extreme wind and rain. The bottom is lined with the same roofing material that is on the floor of the coop. We filled it with sand mixed with the sandy soil found in our area. Since our soil is already very sandy, I just add more dry soil from time to time to keep it full.
The Jungle Fowl Gym: We added a two-tier swing for the girls to enjoy and placed an empty wooden wire spool for a structure to jump/fly/perch on. They use both, but it did take them a bit to become accustomed to the swing (they love it now).
Chickin Sittin: We keep a chair hanging in the run for our chicken therapy sessions. We love spending time with our girls, just sitting in the yard watching them scratching around. They jump up on our laps for a quick pet, then back down again for some more scratching. Yes, chicken therapy is a real thing!
Fenced/Open Area
When we are at our farm (which we now spend more time there than at our ‘home’), we wanted our girls to be able to forage in a more natural habitat. Although our dog hasn’t been overly aggressive towards ‘the girls,’ I still don’t trust her fully--her predator/prey instincts are sharply honed (she’s a rescue/survivor). We were able to preserve some of the initial fence from our years-ago garden, but also patched in other forms of fence. The crazy back portion of the fence is 7-8 foot chain link pieces that we had just lying around, waiting for a purpose. We did have to buy some more welded wire fencing for other portions. The fence is not pretty (I call it a Frankenstein fence), but it serves its purpose—it keeps the chickens in and the dog out. Most of the fenced area is well shaded, with several pine trees, a cedar tree, and many other small trees and brush.
Conclusion
In the end, I am very pleased with our entire chicken yard/run/coop. The girls all use the nesting boxes to lay their eggs (I’ve had a few odd ones, but it is rare). Most of the eggs do end up in the egg collection gutter (I think many of them are actually pushed into it by the hens—I’ve seen them do it!). Although there is an occasional squabble, my girls really don’t fight and I cannot even tell what the pecking order is among them. We’ve managed to raise all 10 into healthy adult hens with no predator mis-haps.
