A question about expanding and upgrading new coop

[wonderpup]

So I've been convinced by some of the fine folks here that my new coop could be better

To whoever told me in my first thread that I'd be speaking a new "foul language" trying to hay and dropping off a double wire floor, yes you are right. I'm also finding that I'm kind of attached to my chickies and don't really relish the idea of parting with two of them (we have 6 now and only planned to keep 4 originally). I think I have a roo and he'll have to go : ( but I can live with that and in the meantime I can hope he's is really a she and can stay.

Sooooooo what I'm wondering is if I have my husband (poor guy, his honey do list is never done lol) make our coop two story with a full second floor will the chickens use it and will that be enough additional space? What I am thinking he can do is enclose the bottom part of our coop to make a basement of sorts for the chicks. I want him to add a large door to that so I can clean it out, though it won't be the easiest of chicken keeping tasks. Then the top floor which is now wire can be cleaned and covered with something solid? Oh and would I need to cover the floor on the bottom level to keep anything from digging in? Then sand or something could go down on top?

Here is a photo of the current set up

The present location of the coop is not going to be where it goes permanently. I want to move it across the yard where it will sit under a big oak tree next to our shed. If I put a floor of some kind on the bottom will that make it harder to move? Also the the flock free ranges in the afternoons until shortly before dusk so they aren't cooped up ALL the time (if that matters). Hehehe I'm also kind of hinting to the husband that maybe he can expand the coop length wise and I've decided I really want him to add nesting boxes to one side. We'll see how that goes over. He did agree to try and close in the bottom already but I wanted to run that by a few more experienced people since I don't want to waste the $$$ or time if it's a dumb idea.

 

[jenesis536]

If I were you I wouldn't do the double decker... I would expand it length-wise, and you would have to figure out the best door situation to clean it. Maybe in that big section in front to the right of the current door make that another door. On the addition, add 2 nest boxes that you can access from the outside on the right. I would also enclose it underneath and create a coop door in the floor for them to go down there when they can't be out free ranging. I would cover the floor with plywood covered with linoleum and add wood shavings. I have this in mine and it's really easy to clean. I bring the wheel barrow over, use a dust pan to scoop all the shavings out, give it a sweep and add new shavings. Takes me 5 minutes.

My husband is in the same boat as yours. If yours is like mine, he was so happy to be done with the first coop... now I have him building me another.

 

[WallTenters]

Would it be possible for you to duplicate the coop you have - and put them like face to face, so it's a full house shape instead of the half-house?

It might be easier - and would give you twice the room with only a little more framework. If you have another structure to screw it into for support (fence?) you wouldn't even have to put legs on the new side - just basically continue the roof a bit, take the current front off and change that into the rest of the floor and put a back door in.

 

[WallTenters]

Oh yeah. And welcome to the world of chicken math.

 

[meowteri2]

You could in close what you have with a bottom in there. Add a few windows and add a enclosed run. They could sleep in the enclosed area at night
and come into the run during the day. This would give them alot of room. Then they would have a good shelter for bad weather. You make a door you
can open the enclosed shelter to clean with a small door in the door for them to come out thru. If you do a meowteri2 search for author you can see some pics of mine.

 

[meowteri2]

Quote:
(look on page 3 of show off your coops after you put meowteri2 in the author search)
Hope this helps you.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

If I were you I wouldn't do the double decker... I would expand it length-wise

That's what I'd do too​

 

[meowteri2]

Make your run higher than your house so you can walk in. Let the roof of the run pitch over the roof you already have for draining away.
You will be able to walk in clean the house and the chickens will be safe and happy.

 

[patandchickens]

I agree. Making a downstairs will really not do much in the way of giving them more floorspace FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE, so it will not alleviate crowding.

Add sideways, in one direction or another.

Also, wire floor aside, that is a nice florida-climate type coop you've got there, good job! Although you may want to doublecheck the manufacturer's installation specs for your roofing, as I cannot see for sure from the photos but strongly suspect that it exceeds permissible unsupported overhang dimensions and may well not be well enough supported in the middle of the sheets. Doublecheck before doing any more of it. I know it can get windy down there sometimes and it's really better not to have the roof rip apart because of installation faults

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[wonderpup]

Quote:
I'm not exactly sure what that means up there with the overhang, I'm not a builder of any sort haha. I don't even know what the material on the roof is, it was left over from building the area around my tub for my dog grooming business. It's this wavy pastic stuff and the husband put this foam like material that matches the plastic's shape to seal up the gaps that were left, he did the same for the tub. Anyhow, I don't think anyone thought about how much or how little it hung over the edges. There are two pieces up there, which overlap because we didn't have one piece large enough for the entire roof. It does not hang over more than a few inches from the outside of the roof's frame, looks like 2.5 to 3 inches maybe to me, that is all the way around the entire roof. I ran out just now and snapped photos of how it's attached. I can't imagine the wind being able to rip the roof apart, except in a hurricane maybe in which case the chickens wouldn't be outside so no worries for them. It seems well attached to me, but what do I know.

underside of roof as seen from inside the coop. It's screwed to those beams and there are four of them total.

Screws on outside every few inches around the edges as well as onto the beams in the middle. Excuse the leaves, we had a nice rain last night - coop is dry this morning so yay.