MORE SPACE! Go bigger than you think you need, especially with your run! Chicken Math is sneaky. One day, you'll wake up to find that you've exceeded your space ... and you'll either have to re-home some of your babies or start building again. Another thing I would do is to build a separated hospital/broody area directly into the coop and run design. It would have been much easier than the multiple coop option I ended up with while retro-fitting the original set-up.Hi Peeps!
I'm planning a coop build and I'm hoping to take a few lessons from the BYC community before I start. So, please share one thing you wish you had included in your coop.
Thanking you!
I actually far prefer dirt floors to concrete. Every coop I've been in with a dirt floor has smelled better than those with concrete. I've always wondered if it has to do with the microflora from the soil helping the ammonia to be neutralized. Of course, all the coops I've had experience with were infrequently shoveled out--I believe the term used here is "deep litter." But the dirt floor coops never smelled and the concrete ones did.
I agree about the smell but due to rat and predator problems I have found the concrete helps keep my birds safer in the long run. The foxes and raccoon used to just dig holes into my coop to steal my birds.
I have a dirt floor, too, but my coop/run is a repurposed playhouse with a sandbox beneath it. We have coons, opossums, foxes, a handful of coyotes and my own digging beast to contend with, so I really wanted a concrete barrier, not just a hardware cloth apron. I solved the issue by digging a narrow trench all the way around my run, right up against the foot boards. I filled it with dry quick-dry concrete mix, ran a hose through it and mixed it up with a hoe. Instant concrete barrier! I planted some marigolds in front of it and covered the concrete with mulch - pretty chicken-edibles and no weeding!
