Arizona Chickens

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Thanks for all the great feedback, I couldn't reply to everyone but I did read them all and I appreciate it. Didnt get to work too much on my coop these last few days, I do air conditioning (own my own company) and with the mid 90s temps people have been turning their ac on for the 1st time since last season only to discover it doesn't work. So busy busy busy.... :)

Question: So Im building my coop and Im going to add nesting boxes in a semi enclosed enclosure inside the main coop, my question is how high off the ground is too high for the chickens to climb up the ramp? I wanted it high so they could use the space under the floor of their "hen house" if you will. I plan on having a solid floor with windows covered in screen as well as a open roof that I can close when it rains or gets cooler out. The roof will be under the main coop which will have screen and sun cloth over it to allow for maximum air movement. I may even do a solid roof which is raised 6" -12" over the screen which will be on the top of the main coop. Whew. lol

Any thoughts? Thanks again!

Rick

ps Im going to add fill dirt in and around the coop to keep the flooded irrigation out but will build a small "river or canal" which will direct a small stream of the irrigation water through a small portion of the coop.The water we receive is ground water and we can drink it if we wanted, its that pure and good. I also ordered a solar fan for the "nesting" house to draw air through it and push it out the top. Yeah, they'll be spoiled lol. In time I'll probably add a longer run to the main coop that will give them an additional 40' to explore.
 
RSerafin said:
Thanks for all the great feedback, I couldn't reply to everyone but I did read them all and I appreciate it. Didnt get to work too much on my coop these last few days, I do air conditioning (own my own company) and with the mid 90s temps people have been turning their ac on for the 1st time since last season only to discover it doesn't work. So busy busy busy.... :)

Question: So Im building my coop and Im going to add nesting boxes in a semi enclosed enclosure inside the main coop, my question is how high off the ground is too high for the chickens to climb up the ramp? I wanted it high so they could use the space under the floor of their "hen house" if you will. I plan on having a solid floor with windows covered in screen as well as a open roof that I can close when it rains or gets cooler out. The roof will be under the main coop which will have screen and sun cloth over it to allow for maximum air movement. I may even do a solid roof which is raised 6" -12" over the screen which will be on the top of the main coop. Whew. lol

Any thoughts? Thanks again!

Rick

ps Im going to add fill dirt in and around the coop to keep the flooded irrigation out but will build a small "river or canal" which will direct a small stream of the irrigation water through a small portion of the coop.The water we receive is ground water and we can drink it if we wanted, its that pure and good. I also ordered a solar fan for the "nesting" house to draw air through it and push it out the top. Yeah, they'll be spoiled lol. In time I'll probably add a longer run to the main coop that will give them an additional 40' to explore.
Click to expand...

I personally wouldn't make the high end of the ramp any higher than 2-3 ft and it should be made of something they can get traction on. I had a ramp about 1 ft high and 4 ft long and my girls were sliding down it. I ended up painting it with primer paint and then dumping a bunch of construction sand on it and then painting more primer and some outdoor paint on it so it had a tooth too it and they stopped sliding down it. If you're making a wood ramp thin cross bars can help with this too. You'll find most of them won't bother walking the whole ramp and will jump to the top of the ramp from the ground.
 
RSerafin said:
Thanks for all the great feedback, I couldn't reply to everyone but I did read them all and I appreciate it. Didnt get to work too much on my coop these last few days, I do air conditioning (own my own company) and with the mid 90s temps people have been turning their ac on for the 1st time since last season only to discover it doesn't work. So busy busy busy.... :)

Question: So Im building my coop and Im going to add nesting boxes in a semi enclosed enclosure inside the main coop, my question is how high off the ground is too high for the chickens to climb up the ramp? I wanted it high so they could use the space under the floor of their "hen house" if you will. I plan on having a solid floor with windows covered in screen as well as a open roof that I can close when it rains or gets cooler out. The roof will be under the main coop which will have screen and sun cloth over it to allow for maximum air movement. I may even do a solid roof which is raised 6" -12" over the screen which will be on the top of the main coop. Whew. lol

Any thoughts? Thanks again!

Rick

ps Im going to add fill dirt in and around the coop to keep the flooded irrigation out but will build a small "river or canal" which will direct a small stream of the irrigation water through a small portion of the coop.The water we receive is ground water and we can drink it if we wanted, its that pure and good. I also ordered a solar fan for the "nesting" house to draw air through it and push it out the top. Yeah, they'll be spoiled lol. In time I'll probably add a longer run to the main coop that will give them an additional 40' to explore.
Click to expand...

If you put the next boxes just high enough for the chickens to go underneath and put a perch in front of the nest boxes, you won't need a ramp. I think you can see how I did it in "my coop" pictures. I haven't updated them for a few years, but you can see the nest boxes and the perch in front. It's been working great.
 
Beckyhsinglsc said:
If you put the next boxes just high enough for the chickens to go underneath and put a perch in front of the nest boxes, you won't need a ramp. I think you can see how I did it in "my coop" pictures. I haven't updated them for a few years, but you can see the nest boxes and the perch in front. It's been working great.
Click to expand...

That's what I was going to suggest too but it sounded to me like he was describing putting the ramp up to a raised floor which is the floor to the enclosed portion of the coop and the nest boxes will be inside that. I had to read the post a few times but I don't think he was suggesting putting the ramp leading directly into the nest box. If I'm wrong than I suggest what Becky said. Nest boxes raised about 2 feet off the ground can be jumped to by most breeds if they have a landing bar. Silkies and other Bantams may need lower. I know my silkie couldn't jump to the high roost bar to sleep and only made it to the one that is about 1 and 1/2 feet off the ground using a secondary hop point I created out of bricks, so we planned on adding a floor level nest box but she never made it to laying. Here's a pic of our nest boxes with the little "landing bar" in front.

 
DesertChic said:
RSerafin said:
 
If I were smarter Id build the coop out of Calichi! Or maybe my future garage :)

So what breeds should I look for? 
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That's the million dollar question, and you could easily get just as many answers. I started with three breeds of hatchery quality stock - Australorps because they were purported to be egg-laying machines, Barred Rocks because they had a fantastic reputation as a dual purpose bird, and Silkies because of their teddy-bear personalities and broodiness. Of those three my BR girls are my favorite. I raised them from day-old chicks and they've been wonderfully friendly and calm and started laying at 18 weeks old while my Aussies have just started laying at 24 weeks old. 

Now I have Naked Neck Turkens (NNs) and I can't say enough good about them. I know that many people don't care for the breed because of their looks, and I was the same way at first, but now that I've hatched and raised them to nearly 11 weeks of age, if I could only have one breed this may very well be it. They're very sweet, affectionate, hardy, wildly entertaining, and diverse in appearance....and my perception of them has adjusted dramatically. The more time I've spent with them the less "abnormal" and more beautiful they've come to appear to me. My husband and teenage son have reacted the same way. And the breed really is nearly perfect for this hot, desert environment. 

I recently hatched Bielefelders, which are now about 5 weeks old, and I'm also very impressed with this breed so far. They're lovely chicks, already very friendly, and really very smart. 

The reality is, there are a lot of good breeds to choose from. You may want to start by researching the breeds and reading reviews here on the BYC, and then decide from there. 
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What color eggs do the N.N. lay, how big & what colors.. Will you post up some photo's?
 

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