Anybody else regret their initial coop design?

[mboreham1]

Mine was well built - seriously to house specs, studded walls the lot!

But..........

Didnt give myself outside access to the laying boxes.......

Now i have an ugly set of nesting boxes, rotated 90 degrees that also had to be deeper than the old ones because the ladies thought eating their eggs was a great idea...... so now they have angled flooring with a sub wall.

Of course its too small.

 

[Where The Wild Things Are]

Oh let me count the ways. I would make it larger. I would NOT elevate it (no ramp, so the ducks could use it for shelter). I would make it tall enough for me to stand in. And it would have a closet in it for storage (food, bedding, rake etc.). And more outlets (both inside AND outside). I have a cute little coop, please don't get me wrong! It really serves my girls well...it just doesn't serve ME well. I put a lot of thought into what would serve the birds, but little thought in the human element. Now that Old Man Winter is here, I find myself needing more access to the coop than I thought I would. As they say, "hindsight is 20/20". My whole poulty experience thus far has been one of "live and learn". It has been rewarding and I have come to enjoy my little feathered friends more than I dreamt I would. I'm happy to do all I can for my babies...but on the next coop (yep, another "do-over") I'm going to do more for myself. I have come to realize that if I make it easier to care for them, the better care they are gong to get. Well, at least I will grumble less

But all that having been said...there is not a "one coop fits all"! My needs and the needs of my flock are going to differ greatly from others. IMHO ya just need start somewhere and tweak things as you go along. There is a wealth of ideas an information here on BYC, we just need to find what works for us

 

[abhaya]

I built my first coop out of all reused stuff to it is what I had. The girld like it. Good thing I life in the middle of nowhere because it is an eye sore. But it works keeps them safe and warm and that is really all that counts.

 

[Unclebean]

It's too small and I used rough cut boards from a saw mill. The boards were not dried enough and now I have warped/cupped boards. This caused gaps to open and now rain is getting in. I had to go around and silicone every joint. I still like the design and the layout of the inside.

 

[dsqard]

The only thing I regretted was the size. It was large enough for the pullets I had but by the time we finished it I wanted more!

 

[Sootsie]

still waiting for DS to build mine my chickens are still with my DD's 7 miles away

and with all the snow i cant get to them luckily my DD can

 

[chicmom]

Oh did I ever! And that first coop my husband built for me has been torn down. It was just a great idea, but so inconvenient. I had to lift the roof to collect the eggs. The roof was hinged, but it was sooo heavy because it had shingles. I kept telling my husband that it was too heavy for me, but he really didn't believe me. (I'm pretty strong.) Sooo, It got worse then I had to collect eggs in the winter time and it snowed. I had to try and brush the snow off the roof, and sometimes it was really stuck. I had to hold the roof up with one hand, and fasten the chain that held it up for me with the other hand. My poor shoulders and rotator cuffs were damaged. I had to baby my arms for the entire summer and not pick up anything heavy. I even had pain when using the hairdryer. It was terrible. Plus, the roof leaked at the hinged area. So it lasted one winter, the girls did fine because I was very vigilant in keeping it clean and dry inside for them. It was alot of work.

Hubby surprised me in the spring and let me buy a used small animal barn from Craigslist and we had that moved to our place. It's soooo wonderful. He built me a nice, totally enclosed chicken run too, so the gals are safe when I'm not home and they want to be outside. I do think he felt bad about me injurying my arms. Since then , he's built nesting boxes for me and helped me winterize it.

Now I feel like my chickens have a nice little palace!

 

[sheila3935]

Ours has been in progress since May and will probably be well into next year. This is our first year with chickens and has been a learning process. We started in May with 2 RIR and a little coop my hubby built from stuff on hand. Not real pretty but functional. Then chicken math hit. Next we got 6 more RIR's they all fit ok in the coop DH built. Next came 6 BR babies. When they got big enough to go outside they were too little to go into coop with big girls so we converted a metal shed into a coop. Chicken math again. Got 5 more babies and needed some place to put them so DH built a small coop with attached run. Some of my BR's were roo so rehomed some roos and put the rest of the 3 BR's in with the reds. Now coop to small so we enlarged original coop. In the meantime chicken math hits again and we got 11 more. Long story short we enlarged original coop built a wooden shed and attached a coop off the side still have small coop with attached run in garage for my bantam mixes and DD has a little coop run in her bedrom for her show bantams
Original coop

coop now

original grow out coop

grow out coop now

baby coop

DD's coop

 

[elmo]

It took me three tries to get a coop I'm finally happy with, three tries to get a tractor I'm finally happy with, and I'm still fiddling with the third try at the chicken run (I need to fix the roof).

 

[teach1rusl]

I regret not putting in more ventilation, especially the kind that can be restricted in winter time. Or maybe an exhaust fan. I never thought about how hot and muggy my coop would get in summer time.

I also regret not roofing at least part of my run to help with rain and snow (and shade in summer).