Wide shallow coop: good idea? Bad idea?

[christinemix]

Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie currently working on the design for my first chicken coop. My partner and I have 6 chickens coming home to us in the middle of July. 3 are bantams and 3 are standard size. We're in zone 9b, northern California, so no snow but we do get frost and the occasional freeze. Summers are hot, with some days in the 90s.

I am interested in incorporating passive solar design to try to stabilize the temperature in the coop a bit. The basic passive solar principles I know include orienting the longest wall to face south, with the majority of windows facing south, and a roof overhang sized to shield those south-facing windows from direct sun in summer but allow for more direct sun in winter.

We have snakes here and concerns about soil drainage during our very wet winters, so I would definitely like to elevate the coop. But elevating the coop also makes the prospect of a walk-in coop a bit more challenging, and we're also hoping to avoid having to crawl around in there to clean.

With those ideas in mind, I've been considering a coop that is 10' wide but only 4' deep. The 10' wide sides would face north/south, and at least the south wall would have a large cleanout door taking up most of the wall space so that we can open it up and clean without having to crawl in. The door from the coop to the run would be on the north side, so I'm not sure if I could make as much of the wall a cleanout door on the north side given that the hens' door is there. The roost bar would run parallel to the 10' wide side, so that there would be plenty of roosting space for the birds, and all on one level in the hopes of minimizing fighting over the highest roost. I know that the roost bar should also be at least 18" from the wall and 2' from the top of the floor. The nest boxes would be along one of the 4' walls, close to the floor. I am under the impression that 2-3 nest boxes would be OK for a flock of this size. I also know there should be a minimum of 18" of vertical distance between the hens and the ventilation put at the top of the wall, so I'm figuring that a bit more than 5' tall is a minimum range if I want to have ventilation on the shortest wall. Since the coop will have a shed-style roof, maybe ventilation could just be on the higher side to keep the shorter wall height down.

Is there something I don't know that would make coop dimensions like this a bad idea? I've noticed that a lot of coops seem to be more square than this so I'm concerned there's other information I should be considering.

In addition to the coop, they'll have a 25' by 10' fully enclosed run with a polycarbonate roof + shade cloth in the summer, and I'm hoping to also build or acquire a chicken tractor eventually to take them around our 3 acres of open space. I do not plan on putting feed or water inside of the coop, just in the run. I am purchasing an automatic Pullet Shut door to let them in and out, but I also permanently work from home and can see the coop area from the house, so I can make sure they have run access without relying on the automatic door.

Please feel free to pick apart this design idea! We would like to start buying materials soon so that we have several weeks to build before the hens arrive. I would rather find out now about issues before we get into the building process, and definitely long before our hens actually come home to us.

Thank you!
Christine

 

[OlympicChick]

Have you looked at any of the Woods coops designs? It's been a while since I've looked into it, but I think that maybe a Woods style coop might solve some of the heat and cold problems.

 

[Chipper Chicken]

I’ll second that recommendation to look into a Woods open air style coop!
In fact, although we don’t have many poisonous snakes on the west side (rainy) of the Oregon cascades, I still don’t want any snakes getting into my chickens areas. Or ANYTHING else! And I built my Woods coop on an 8’x16’ trailer frame and parked it with the “front” or narrow end facing South as recommended by the designer of the Woods Coops. Please see the My Coop under my avatar to see what I did (I‘m not done)

theres a list of links to many other woods style coops at the bottom of my page, although there are several new ones on BYC that I haven’t listed yet.

By building the coop on a trailer frame I can use it as a chicken tractor a la Joel Salatins, or I can leave it where it is until I want to move it.
Right now I have 25 4 week old chicks inside the coop while we secure their immediate “yard” and ultimately the “moat” that encircle’s our garden. The predator protection is/will be as follows:
1) 1/2” hardware cloth (HWC) buried (around the entire garden) or laid 24” in the ground or laid flat around their yard.
2) 6’ cyclone Fence in front of and secured to the HWC. This is for the moats outer perimeter fence.
3) electric fence attached to outer cyclone fence.
4) inner perimeter (completes the moat) fence is temporarily plastic deer fence with either HWC or stucco wire at the base. the stucco wire will be added to the plastic deer fence as we expand their usable areas.
5) a combination of poultry wire (flimsy, don’t use by itself) shade cloth and white opaque plastic over their immediate yard to keep them dry and safe from hawks, owls etc.
Also a 6-8’ horse fence wire roof straddling the two perimeter fences which form the moat and their 550’ circular run. Hopefully this makes sense, I’ll try to clarify if it doesn’t, but you can get ideas of what we’re doing from my coop page.
I hope this gives you some ideas and encouragement to think big. Good luck.
CC

 

[OlympicChick]

Please see the My Coop under my avatar to see what I did (I‘m not done)

I just checked out your coop! Nice

 

[Chipper Chicken]

Thank you @OlympicChick!

Christine,
I forgot to mention the most important part about Woods coops! He did several variations of his design, but several of them were wider than deep and facing south just like you want. 4’ might be a little too shallow to get the advantage of the passive air flow however. (There are free links to the Woods books to look at on my page as well)
CC

 

[SteveUK]

My offering is: I have a raised coop. The floor of the coop is at my waist level. (I'm over 6ft). Cleaning it out is an absolute doddle (brush straight into a bin or bag).

I have enclosed the area under my coop completely. It sits on a concrete base and is wrapped in 1/4 inch mesh/cloth with a hole cut into the floor of the coop and a ramp (the ramp is hinged to allow for shutting off access and cleaning) giving access to the coop itself and an auto door giving access to the run. Doors on the back side for sweeping out and restocking (same as coop). I keep perches and all their food and water in this area as it's shaded and secure from rodents at night and still gives them access to it.
I also have an adjustable vent in the gable of the coop which provides good airflow between it and the ramp hole.
Hope you can take something from this. Good luck with your build.

 

[Acre4Me]

You don’t have any extreme weather, except for the heat of summer. Your coop sounds fine with one possible problem. Chickens have a pecking order and a certain amount of space is needed for a lower chicken to stay away from a higher chicken. 4 ft is a bit short for proper distance to keep a lower bird from getting reprimanded. Maybe having a pop door on both sides of the wall to act as a second escape route? But could be problems in evening or early morning. You just need to see personalities/pecking order as the chickens grow up.

I love the Woods stylecoop but they are generally used in very cold climates to allow ventilation and draft free roosting. They are longer than wide and roosts are in the back. Your dimensions are not at all conducive to this format, nor do you need that functionality in your climate.

my coop is elevatec(although not as high as @SteveUK) but high enough for a wheelbarrow to go under access area and push soiled litter into wheelbarrow. its helpful, but we have more birds than you. And we don’t use poop boards, so we do full clean outs fairly often.

if you shade your windows as planned and add in a lot of Upper ventilation (Raise roof up on 2x4 for all around open space, and roof vents, and some upper area wall vents), you’ll be good.

Good luck.

 

[aart]

Chickens have a pecking order and a certain amount of space is needed for a lower chicken to stay away from a higher chicken. 4 ft is a bit short for proper distance to keep a lower bird from getting reprimanded.

Yep.....and 4' wide is also hard for the keeper to navigate.

I love the Woods stylecoop but they are generally used in very cold climates to allow ventilation and draft free roosting. They are longer than wide and roosts are in the back. Your dimensions are not at all conducive to this format, nor do you need that functionality in your climate.

Woods are specifically for cold climates.

Hot climates need open wire walls and large roofs for shade.
Here's a great example for a hot weather coop:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/texas-coop-build-pic-heavy.1371038/

 

[christinemix]

I have been continuing to work on my coop and run plan. I changed the coop dimensions to 5'x10' instead of 4'x10. Would an extra foot be enough to give chickens space from each other when walking back and forth in front of the roost bar? The distance between the roost bar and the chicken door to the coop will be more than 3' and the roost bar will be at least 18" from the other wall opposite the chicken door.

Expanded plans are here that might make more clear what I'm talking about... https://xd.adobe.com/view/bcd215ad-c6d2-42e1-7b81-0d60023e3b6b-cae3/grid/?hints=off

We are heading to Habitat for Humanity ReStore and the hardware store this weekend to start buying materials. I am also keeping an eye on Craigslist in case any useful materials pop up there.

My partner has begun clearing the area for the run and we're going to start by laying down welded wire under the run area, then mounding a few feet of soil on top of it, so that the run will be enclosed even from below and the extra elevation will help with drainage during our wet winters. We think we have badgers out back and want to make sure that they can't tunnel under the run. We will do a predator apron on the edges too with hardware cloth. I know there needs to be a fair bit of soil between the welded wire and the surface of the ground in order to keep the chickens from making contact with the welded wire since they dig and scratch around.

Thank you all for the info and well wishes!