Help with Coop Design

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jpruett86

jpruett86

In the Brooder
8 Years
Apr 14, 2011
54
3
33
Borger Tx
So I'm in the process of designing our coop and run. I'm still trying to finalize details but I'm not sure what would be best lol. I figured I'd ask some of the veteran coop builders for advice haha!



This is what I have drawn out so far. The back side of the coop will set up to the back of my garage and the side away from the nest boxes is next to the privacy fence. I'm thinking of setting the coop up two feet to give extra run space below. I'm going to run a gutter on the back side to route any water away from the run (it doesn't ever rain here in the panhandle, but who knows haha).

The grass box is a small raised bed I'm going to put in with wire over it so grass can grow for them to eat but they wont be able to kill is all the way down. I'm not sure where I should put doors on the coop for cleaning, I'm thinking I could just make an entire side open up or maybe build a door on the run side of the coop. I'm only 5'5 so with a 6' run I'll be able to walk right in.

Any details I should add, or things to change and what not would be appreciated! :)
 
Good design. Nice to have the nest boxes accessible from the outside. Well done. Just remember that they will at some point make you crawl on your hands and knees under the coop portion. It's what chickens do to humor themselves with us humans.
lau.gif
. Put a roof on it and voila. 5 X 14 is a good size coop/run for 7 full sized birds that will be kept in most of the time.

Wish you the best.



Yep. I've had to crawl under the coop before.
 
I'm thinking about putting sand under the coop portion and possibly putting a small misting system on a timer under there because of how hot it gets here! Then maybe I could just rig up a scooper on a broom handle to keep from having to climb under all the time haha.

I'm glad the size is good, I have 3 EEs and 3 BOs so I wanted to make sure they had plenty of space when I'm not off work to let them have at the yard.

I can't wait to start getting the frame built. :)
 
I love the barn look of your coop! I always heard red could make birds aggressive lol. I wasn't sure so I was going to go with a yellow color and fiesta type colors. I'm even thinking of getting sombre hat lights for the coop lighting haha!
 
i'm not real good at visualizing, but your drawing looks good & looks well thought out. the things I've found that I like about my coop are 1. I can walk into the coop. I've needed to do this many times for different reasons & really glad I can get in there like that. 2. the clean out door allows me to easily broom the litter to the outside for dumping into the compost. the floor is linoleum & I use the deep litter method. 3. the automatic pop door gives me a little more freedom. I don't trust it 100% so I check it morning and night - but I don't have to be there right on time 7days a week. 4. it's virtually wrapped top& sides w/hardware cloth & cracks stuffed w/steel wool so I feel they are safe once in the coop - no rats/snakes/raccoons/dogs.
the things I wish I had done differently
1. build better roosts, 2. make it bigger, 3. build a separate situation that functions as a brooder box, chicken hospital, isolation ward.
 
Maybe it is just me but I don't want to have to crawl under a coop or in the run. My coop is a 10 x 12 shed style with a full size person door, a large pop door to the run and lots of cutout windows and open eaves for ventilation. It is easily cleaned, I can shut them in and they have plenty of space to move around, easier to catch one if needed and they thought of opening the door and reaching in and grabbing a snake eating eggs gives me the shivers. I can look in the nest boxes before reaching in and in my opinion is less disturbing to the hen laying an egg because I can give her a little extra space by not being right on top of her when the door is opened.
 
Looks like a good design. Plan for plenty of ventilation and 1' of roost per bird. I would set the top of the roosts in your coop about 2.5' off the floor to provide at least 18" of headroom so they can fly up there without beating their wings on the ceiling. And yes, you will appreciate having a large access door, I made mine 3' wide and full height of the coop for access and cleaning.

As for the run, those chickens can dig like crazy and will quickly eradicate any grass in the main run area. Make sure you harden the edges by burying your wire or hardware cloth in an 18" or 2' deep trench and/or putting some soil cement or concrete down around the inside edge to prevent them from digging under your fence, and to slow down other animals trying to get to your birds. Some folks have also used landscape blocks or large rocks.

How many chickens do you plan to keep in there? Good luck with your project, I enjoyed building mine and found it to be therapeutic!
 
I'm keeping 6 chickens.

I was planning on putting the roosts at about 2" so they would be half a foot above the nesting boxes. We did plan on burying the wire but I've been playing back and forth with the concrete idea.

I'm now thinking of just running the coop all the way down so I can walk in
tongue.png
. Since that's two people talking about crawling under haha. I know that would take some run space out, but they won't be spending every moment in their run anyways. I'll let them run when I'm home, since I spend most of my time outside. I'm not worried about snakes, I'm planning making the nesting box tops open and making a huge side door to open to clean. I love that linoleum idea, I'm definitely going to do that!

Do y'all use square roosts? Or round roosts?

Thanks for all the feedback!
 
jpruett86 said:
I'm keeping 6 chickens.

I was planning on putting the roosts at about 2" so they would be half a foot above the nesting boxes. We did plan on burying the wire but I've been playing back and forth with the concrete idea.

I'm now thinking of just running the coop all the way down so I can walk in
tongue.png
. Since that's two people talking about crawling under haha. I know that would take some run space out, but they won't be spending every moment in their run anyways. I'll let them run when I'm home, since I spend most of my time outside. I'm not worried about snakes, I'm planning making the nesting box tops open and making a huge side door to open to clean. I love that linoleum idea, I'm definitely going to do that!

Do y'all use square roosts? Or round roosts?

Thanks for all the feedback!
Click to expand...
I use 2 x 4 on the flat side, I have found it is easier for them to fly up on, walk the length and keep their feet warm in winter. I also have a tree limb for the larger chickens and the littler ones to use to jump from one level to another.
 
Looks like a pretty good plan...always good to plan ahead!

An apron is far easier to install and functions better for deterring diggers.
 

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