Any "wish I would have done differently" tips?

[dmhoob]

Hi all!

We (my husband and myself) are going to start our first chicken coop today. I have spent a lot of time on this forum reading and getting ideas (lots of great ones!!!) I have the info and specifics, while he has the carpentry skills so hopefully together we will do a decent job.

My request is for any tips/suggestions of things you learned while building your coops, things you wish you thought of before you built, or would have done differently now that it is completed. It would be much appreciated by us newbies!!!

Thanks in advance

Dawn

 

[teach1rusl]

1) Wish I had built bigger, 8x8 rather than my 6x8
2) Wish I had planned my roosts along the narrow stretch so they had more room getting up/down
3) Wish I had placed my pop door about 5-6 inches high rather than the 2-3 off the floor it is now (bedding gets into the track)

Happy Building!!!

 

[tryingtohaveitall]

I wish we had put poo boards in and finished the floor with linoleum, maybe more ventilation. Other than that, my DH did a great job.

 

[patman75]

Added more windows. The coop gets dark in the evening with only one south east facing windows. The hens want to roost early in the evening and egg production stopped until I added a light with a timer.

 

[easttxchick]

Yep, wish we had put in dropping boards. Still working on that.

 

[Zahboo]

A whole 27 pages worth

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=140561

 

[elmo]

I wish I had roofed my run to begin with. It was a pain to retrofit because I had to add slant to the roof so the water wouldn't accumulate on the polycarbonate panels.

I wish I had cut my pop door higher so that the bedding doesn't clog up the bottom runner of my sliding door.

I wish I hadn't put wire aprons on my tractor. After less than a year of use, the wire is all bent and mangled from moving the tractor around the yard. I wish I'd made the opening door to the tractor bigger. The small opening I have makes it hard to put the food and water inside. The door is also too small to put a nestbox in, so I had to cut another opening in the roof of the tractor to put the nextbox in. It's a pain when I move the tractor because I have to take the food, water and nestbox out first, move the tractor, then put everything back in. I'm building a new tractor right now to fix all of these issues.

 

[mikecnorthwest]

I wish I had made the gaps around my door openings with a little more clearance. In the winter the wood naturally swells a little and all my doors/windows started sticking. I'll need to trim them up a little.

 

[fldiver97]

- more windows, preferably ones that open and can be screened ( I ordered another one and will have to add it)
- pop door bottom higher to keep shavings in.
- wider poop board
- PVC type feeder (as posted here in a few threads) , will 'build'/add that later this month.....
- bigger run
- bigger solar shed light
and did I mention...more windows???? For more natural light and more ventilation (in the summer, we did fine in the winter with the vents we have)
All this - fortuntely - can and will be added or changed this spring without too much trouble but it would have been easier to get it 'right' from the start. And I have to add that I switched after 3 months from a pre-fab 'Chick-N-Barn' with attached and roofed 4x8 run for 5 chickens to converting the old wooden shed (window and ventless at the time, dark and full of shelves) that is 8x12 and attached 4x12 roofed run to that. But the chooks also get time in the fenced backyard every day

 

[RocketDad]

I'll be moving my entire coop and run 10' to the south this summer - in the winter the sun never shines in the run. The shadow from the neighbor's garage is too deep, and it's right over the run.

Made for a long winter for the hens, because the snow never melted off in the run, and it's still soggy.