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

[Egghead_Jr]

A great coop and one I'll be building for our second coop is the Purina Mills coop plan. Thinking I wont be installing a sky light but like the coop design. Plans are free and you can easily enlarge it by doubling one dimension or both. The 4X4 truly houses 8 chickens if you don't lock them in during days. I'm just going to move the door to side with two nesting boxes same side and put clean out door on the front. This way it fits in the kennel space and as I don't have a solid roof for kennel provides rain shelter and shade form mid summer sun.

http://poultry.purinamills.com/stellent/groups/public/documents/web_content/ecmp2-0160674.pdf

 

[chfite]

All in all, the chickens aren't so picky about the amount of coop space they need. I added 5 to the flock of 5. Looking at the numbers, I should have more coop space. I built another coop adjacent to the original one. Both are 24 inches off the ground 4 x 8 floor with 4 foot walls.

When they were old enough, the new birds were placed in the adjacent coop and run. Common fence. After a couple of weeks, the door between them was opened for mingling. No one has slept in the new coop since.

They all crowded into the old coop, so I added roosting bar space to it. I use the new coop to store pine shavings and other odds and ends.

I built a nice nipple watering system. The chickens prefer to drink from the dog's water bucket.

This whole thing has been over-thought.

Chris

 

[Tamena]

I fell in love with my poop board + PDZ under my roosts it saves the shavings and there is no smell in my coop. I just scoop it like cat litter.

OK what's a poop board???
PDZ I use with the cavy so we already have that here....
never heard of a poop board before

 

[Mavrk]

OK what's a poop board???
PDZ I use with the cavy so we already have that here....
never heard of a poop board before

Poop boards are boards that are put right under the roosting bar. Chickens poop a lot at night and onto the poop board. Some people make them like trays so you can put stuff like PDZ in it. Others just put a wide board and scrape it off. That way you have to clean the floor of the coop less because you are cleaning the board instead. This will make your bedding last longer.
Edit to add: they are also called dropping boards (or droppings board).

 

[TheCrazyChick]

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.

 

[Mavrk]

This whole thing has been over-thought.

Chris

This is actually a good thing to note for the "1 thing I wish I knew..."

Remember, the chickens don't care what the coop looks like or if it has a perfect design. Most of that is for you. A roost, a nesting box, food, water, and clean(ish) floor in a place that is not drafty and protected from predators is all that is really needed.

Recommendations I have from there are to have a slanted roof on the nesting box, small wire to keep mice out (as mentioned previously), and a poop board is nice. Food and water is normally hung from the ceiling to keep the shavings out, so consider that and make sure the roost is far enough away so they don't poop in the food/water. Also, if you have a way to keep them from standing on the food/water that is good too.

 

[Tamena]

you guys are awesome thank you
it's little things that I wouldn't know not ever owning chickens before (or maybe being owned by chickens???)
There are some things I see that would carry over from our experience with raising guinea pigs -
guinea pigs are truly sometimes pigs when it comes to feed and water!

I'm a firm believer in K.I.S.S. **Keep It Simple Stupid** and the over-thinking comment helps.
Provide the basics to the best of my ability will be the way to go it seems....

keep em coming folks! I'm learning a lot here!

 

[Mavrk]

A great coop and one I'll be building for our second coop is the Purina Mills coop plan. Thinking I wont be installing a sky light but like the coop design. Plans are free and you can easily enlarge it by doubling one dimension or both. The 4X4 truly houses 8 chickens if you don't lock them in during days. I'm just going to move the door to side with two nesting boxes same side and put clean out door on the front. This way it fits in the kennel space and as I don't have a solid roof for kennel provides rain shelter and shade form mid summer sun.

http://poultry.purinamills.com/stellent/groups/public/documents/web_content/ecmp2-0160674.pdf

That's a nice plan. I like the simplicity. I know the 4x4 will house 8 chickens like you say (if let out during the day), but I find it funny that they say in the plans that it holds 8 and then says you should have a minimum of 4 square feet per bird. That is just confusing. Plus, I don't think you really need 3 rungs on the roost ladder. But it is all very easily modified.

 

[Regan71]

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!

 

[Tamena]

PDZ is a stall "freshener" sold at most feed stores.
Tractor Supply carries it I know for sure
It's a powder that you put down under bedding/shavings that helps keep the smell down, You can find it online too by searching PDZ. It works well for most animals including kitty litter boxes btw!
and someone explained the poopboard in the thread I think on the first page....things I would have never thought about for sure =)