A Few Coop & Run Questions

[CoopDeDoo]

Hello All!
Brand new to BYC and to Chickens. First off let me say you all are awesome - this site is a wealth of information and if I hadn't spent the last week glued to it I would have a had a ton of questions (not just 2 or 3).

We are going to get 3 hens (most likely Buff Orps but possibly Brahmas or Barred Rocks or a mix of each) in Mar/Apr. We are currently in the design stage for the coop & run. Since I am hoping to avoid too many costly "oops" I have posted my questions below.

1. Can the coop share space in an 8x8 garden shed (with the pop door out to an attached run)? So the chickens would ave a caged off section (picture a wire wall along oneside) and the rest of the shed would house the normal garden tools, flower pots, lawn mower etc?

2. We live in NW Washington (State) and the month of Nov-Jan it is dark when I go to work & dark when I come home. Could open the pop door before I leave & close it when I get home (as long as the run is secure)? I don't want to think that they would have to spend all day "cooped" up

3. As mentioned above PNW = WET! We are going to cover the entire run with PVC roofing - the blue-tinted clear roofing panels (UV coated). Since we have resident bald eagles & many types of hawks, will the dive bomb the run if they can see through the roof? Free range will not be an option ... even small dogs & all outdoor cats are not safe in our neck of the woods.

Thanks for your time

 

[Sinfonian]

Hey from the Seattle area. I'm in the same boat as you being new to chicken keeping (planning on 4 chicks) and designing my own coop, but I wanted to share some research from here and elsewhere.

1. Yes, I've seen that done, but it will get very dusty in the rest of the shed, which is bad for anything with a motor.

2. I'm in the same boat, but would definitely be keeping them in my ark (similar to your run concept, but movable) all day. Someone with more experience can state the ease of moving them from the run to the coop on dark winter evenings.

3. I'm fairly certain even flimsy bird netting on top will keep out predator birds, but your corregated fiberglass idea is better for the rain we get. I recommend a slant to the roof to allow for better drainage, and don't let the drainage flow back into the run. Wet runs stink fiercely and create a huge mess. A good look at the topography to drain down hill and maybe into a french drain or gravel filled ditch would be good too.

Lastly, don't put them outside until they've got their feathers in, roughly 2 months. I'm brooding mine in a spare bathroom (1 month) and then keeping them as "teens"(2nd month) in our unheated garage with a heat lamp. If the weather's decent here in May, they may get supervised field trips in the ark, but otherwise it's just too cold, wet and miserable for man, or beast in the early spring.

Good luck and congrats!

 

[Dogfish]

1. Build a solid wall. They are dusty creatures.

2. Invest in an automatic coop door. Set in a timer, done. About $100 for all parts, etc. Assuming that you have electricity to the coop. battery options are available, but those will run a bit more.

3. I finally covered the entire run, and wish I would have done so sooner. Covering yours will be appreciated by all. Just make sure you use either 2x4 wire, or hardware cloth for the sides of your run, and you provide some protection against digging by running the wire down and/or out from where it contacts the ground.

 

[CoopDeDoo]

Thank you both! Your answers have lead to other questions

I keep reading about dusty... how dusty are we talking????

What makes it dusty - the litter?

Anyway to keep the dust down?

We will not have electricity in the coop/shed so I will need to look into a battery for the pop door or maybe some solar lights in the run. As far as the roof goes we will be using a gutter and rain barrel with the overflow (on the rain barrel) running down hill to garden

So yeah..about the dust

 

[gryeyes]

Chickens shed feathers of all sizes, and feather bits. And feather dander. Chickens also scratch in the bedding, which stirs up bits of that, too.

Chick brooding dust is worse because it's in a confined space (like my bathroom). I have often threatened to spray lacquer all the chicks in the brooders at one time or another.

The auto-door I recommend is pricey, but SO WORTH IT! It operates on AA batteries, so no need for power to the henhouse. Check out: http://www.foyspigeonsupplies.com/catalog/2100-2107.html

 

[elmo]

Quote:
1. Yes, you can store your yard/garden stuff in the chicken coop, but you also need to make sure that nothing you put in there gives off fumes that could be toxic to the chickens. Birds have very sensitive respiratory systems (hence the canary in the coal mine).

2. Sure. It's a little less safe than closing the chicken door before nightfall, but not a terrible risk if, as you say, you build your run nice and secure. Your chickens will go inside the coop to roost before nightfall, and all you'll need to do when you get home is count them and then lock up.

3. Excellent question. While aerial predators won't be able to get into your run, the clear roof may leave your chickens feeling vulnerable. This is what I've discovered with my latest run, so what I've done is stuck a bunch of bamboo branches under the roof so the chickens think feel like they're under cover. An opaque roof, the white panels, let in light but would prevent hawks/eagles from seeing inside your run or your chickens from worrying about aerial attack. I wish I'd used white panels for my latest run but I had a bunch of the smoked ones left over from another project, so I used them.

Do be sure to site your run someplace where there's good drainage in rainy weather. Sometimes even roofed runs can get boggy if water drains there from other areas. I never paid attention to this before we had chickens, and I had no idea which areas of our back yard were wetter than others until after I put in some chicken housing.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Potentially "very very", especially while they are young (<16 wks or so) or the second half of a molt, and especially if you have less space per chicken and only as much ventilation as you 'have to'.

What makes it dusty - the litter?

Some litter can be somewhat dusty (e.g. particular brands of shavings) but the chief and most intractable problem is the feather dander from the chickens themselves. It is a fine, greasy dustlike substance. Gets everywhere, does not clean off as easily as normal dust.

Anyway to keep the dust down?

Not really, other than keep very few chickens in a very large space with quite a lot of wall open to the outside air.

It would really be best to have the partition wall (dividing them from the storage part of shed) be at least partly solid. (Having SOME of it be mesh can be useful during times of the year when you may want it for ventilation... but then you can staple plastic or cardboard or whatnot over the mesh during times when you do NOT need the airflow and/or when the chickens are going thru a particularly dusty phase.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​