1 thing I wish I knew when I was starting out...

[memechick]

Being new to this, and not having built our coop yet, was particularly interested in your " no smell" comment! What is a "poop board" and what is PDZ? Do you have any pics? thanks!

Not sure if you can see from this picture ... but just under the roost I have a shelf with a one inch lip around it so that it can hold the PDZ. Under the shelf is my nesting boxes. I just use a kitty litter scoop to clean the poop every day. It take 5 minutes. The shavings stay clean.

 

[sierraoscar]

Quote:
Agree with chris, I think we can all over think it and be humbled when the chickens point this out to us.

As others have said here, how pretty a coop looks, is only for us, I built one that would look better on an inner city house block. If I were on farm, I'd have built a very different coop.

My chickens really seem to enjoy their new coop, much better than their old coop, and I think for them, it was down to aerial space (nothing else). Their behaviour has changed in a way I wasn't expecting.

Before I built my coop, it was posts just like this which saved me from making big mistakes.

 

[Tamena]

the Purina coop is very much like what we were designing and those plans make things even easier thank you
a couple small tweaks because of my height and I think we'll be good to go

I notice a lot of coops have roosts that are just straight boards - I know when I've had exotic birds branches were better for their feet in the long run.
Are chickens the same or is there less worry about foot issues cause they're wandering around on the ground and digging in the dirt?

 

[ssterling1776]

D

Definitely build bigger than you think you'll need. While I agree with several of the posters that chickens adapt to just about any size space, chicken math WILL catch up to you eventually. I thought I'd order only 3 to start out with in December. Ended up with 7 because I couldn't decide which ones I liked more and was absolutely positive as a first time chicken owner that I would end up killing half the chicks before they were a week old! I ended up killing ZERO! (Not complaining.) Then found 3 beautiful rare copper marans on craigslist yesterday, too. Yikes! See how the Chicken Math goes? 3 turned into 10 pretty easily. I ordered 2 more back in January for April pick up, which I now may  cancel, but have 7 banties ordered for June. (Definitely see a bantie coop in my spring build!)

So, with that being said, I guess the REAL advice as to something I wish I knew when I was starting out is that ...

Chickens are addictive. Crazy addictive. Seriously. Really. Seriously addictive.

Ditto!!

 

[Curly Beard]

Build as big as you can because .......

Chickens are addictive. Crazy addictive. Seriously. Really. Seriously addictive.

Just might be the best advice of all .....ROFL

 

[ScottM]

I use a 2x4 on its side for a roost so at -30 they can keep their toes covered. Poop hammock is another option I wish I could have planned to include.

 

[judge]

I wish I would have installed drop boards under the roosts, instead of pullout drawers. The poop just builds up on top of the hardware mesh instead of falling through into the drawers. Yuck!

 

[shamrockmommy]

I wish I had been more patient and built our own coop. We have a really nice coop on wheels so we can do rotational pasturing, but for what we paid we could've had an even bigger coop and no credit card bill. Lol. That said though, it is adorable, matches our other barn (lawn tractor shed) and easy to move around.

 

[stefan333]

I did so much research on building my own coop and learned from others what not to do. I even bought plans for an ark, but when I added up the costs for lumber and realized how much work was involved I freaked out. I couldn't fathom spending so much money and time on something that housed only a few chickens. Many of the coops I've seen in stores (Rural King, TSC) couldn't possibly fit even one of my big chickens. When you buy baby chicks you really can't imagine how BIG they actually get when full grown. I happened to run across in these forums a picture of a chicken coop hoop house. It only cost us about $150 for 8x8, was so much simpler to put together than other coops, and we're in the process of building two more (cause yes, chickens are addictive). You can very comfortably put 10 full size chickens in it. The deep litter method works well in it, and because cattle panels are used for the hoop part it's so easy to hang feeders. Everyday that I walk into my coop hoop I thank God I built one that I can walk into. It's a lot sturdier than you might think. When the winds are so bad that our shingles are flyin off our house the coop hoop stays put. I wanted simple and thought that too many people complicated the heck out of chickens. Funny thing was after I built my coop our neighbor comes over and says, "Ya'll coulda just put up a fence and made a small metal shed." Which is exactly what most people do in rural KY, but I did want something that wasn't too tacky. I guess I could have housed my chickens simpler. I think the point of this is that you don't have to spend too much money on a chicken condo, and I totally agree with the other posts saying the chickens don't care. Simpler is better. I do plan on landscaping behind it with bushes, trees, smelly flowering plants like lilac in order to hide it better and mask any smell.

 

[JanetS]

I would build a bigger coop( we are planning on expanding soon). I also would build it cheaper. We spent to much money just to make it look nice.