Best ideas for low maintenance coop?

[3KillerBs]

I'm a newbie, but make it as big as possible and don't overload it (mine's 12x12 for 7 chickens).

New but wise.

The more space per bird the easier the maintenance.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

If I thought I could not leave my chickens for a week I would not have them, my set up would allow me to leave for two weeks.
And if I thought I needed poop boards or to clean poop all the time I would never have started this
Big secure coop
Dirt floors
Multiple feeders, I use 4" pipes that dumps into rubber feed bowls, I have 4 of them and they hold 60 pounds of feed when full
Multiple waterers, I have 4 and they hold 25 gallons of water.
Auto pop door, but I have turned it off on trips so I would not worry it mal functioned

 

[aart]

If I thought I could not leave my chickens for a week I would not have them, my set up would allow me to leave for two weeks.
And if I thought I needed poop boards or to clean poop all the time I would never have started this
Big secure coop
Dirt floors
Multiple feeders, I use 4" pipes that dumps into rubber feed bowls, I have 4 of them and they hold 60 pounds of feed when full
Multiple waterers, I have 4 and they hold 25 gallons of water.
Auto pop door, but I have turned it off on trips so I would not worry it mal functioned

Yeah, poop boards are not for vacationing keepers.
What do you do about eggs @IdyllwildAcres ?

 

[Callender Girl]

Well, Mamajewels, I am known for my frugality, so I make poop boards out of whatever I can find or recycle. But the basic concept is to place something -- a tray of sorts or a flat surface -- a few inches below the roosts and above the floor that will catch your girls' droppings.

Ideally, since they aren't going to be walking on it, a poop board can have a slick surface. Some of my plywood ones are covered in free vinyl flooring pieces, given to me by a friend who owns a furniture store. Others are made from leftover wall chunks from a neighbors' hog house. Easy clean up is the goal.

Some of mine are removable; others are permanently attached. While you still have to clean the boards, their floor stays cleaner and everything on the poop board can be easily scraped off and disposed of.

Did that help? It seems kind of dumb when I re-read my explanation.

 

[NatJ]

I assume that many of you have kids, activities and travel. What are the essential chicken coop “hacks” to make chickens as low maintenance as possible? If you want to leave for a weekend or a week, what are the best coop modifications to make that seamless?

I would go for:
--big coop, few chickens
--secure run, so no need to open/close a pop door
(That means the run is dig-proof, and has sides made of sturdy wire mesh in an appropriate size. Chicken wire is not sturdy enough. The run also needs to be covered, either with wire mesh or a solid roof.)
--food & water, with multiple dispensers for each
--no poop boards, just let the poop drop into a deep layer of bedding, and the chickens can scratch it around
--no high-maintenance chickens. Any with health conditions that require daily care, or any that regularly bully or are victims, would get butchered or re-homed.

You can never be positive whether THIS night is when a dog or bear will come, a tree fall on the coop, lightening strike it, or something of the sort. So I would prefer to have them checked at least twice a day.

But if I had cameras I could check them myself remotely. I would arrange the cameras to show food & water containers, and enough space to see whether the chickens are acting normal. Then I would arrange with someone that I COULD call if there's a problem. (Of course, it would be important to watch the chickens on the cameras regularly before going away, to recognize what behavior is normal.)

 

[Mamajewels]

If I thought I could not leave my chickens for a week I would not have them, my set up would allow me to leave for two weeks.
And if I thought I needed poop boards or to clean poop all the time I would never have started this
Big secure coop
Dirt floors
Multiple feeders, I use 4" pipes that dumps into rubber feed bowls, I have 4 of them and they hold 60 pounds of feed when full
Multiple waterers, I have 4 and they hold 25 gallons of water.
Auto pop door, but I have turned it off on trips so I would not worry it mal functioned

Every one is so nice and informative!! So yes, I plan on a larger coop, Even when this was my daughter's set up and these were her birds. I thought it was to small. At one point she had 8 chickens in there. She did however eventually open it and allow them to free range, but also has 2 dogs and no fence keeping each away from each other.

So on your waterers how do you keep the water from freezing and getting dirty? Especially if you have made your coop and run able ready for you to leave for up to 2 weeks, please share and a couple pictures would be great if you don't mind.

 

[Mamajewels]

Well, Mamajewels, I am known for my frugality, so I make poop boards out of whatever I can find or recycle. But the basic concept is to place something -- a tray of sorts or a flat surface -- a few inches below the roosts and above the floor that will catch your girls' droppings.

Ideally, since they aren't going to be walking on it, a poop board can have a slick surface. Some of my plywood ones are covered in free vinyl flooring pieces, given to me by a friend who owns a furniture store. Others are made from leftover wall chunks from a neighbors' hog house. Easy clean up is the goal.

Some of mine are removable; others are permanently attached. While you still have to clean the boards, their floor stays cleaner and everything on the poop board can be easily scraped off and disposed of.

Did that help? It seems kind of dumb when I re-read my explanation.

Thank you!! Visual is so much easier. I guess the part that confuses me is "below the roosts and on top of the floor that they don't walk on the trays" How does that work??

 

[Carson213]

i use the gutters on the coop to feed two 50 gal food safe barrels with heaters

 

[rosemarythyme]

So on your waterers how do you keep the water from freezing and getting dirty? Especially if you have made your coop and run able ready for you to leave for up to 2 weeks, please share and a couple pictures would be great if you don't mind.

Heated horizontal nipple waterers. Mine's good for probably 4-5 days in the summer, up to 2 weeks in winter (since the birds would rather drink filthy mud puddle water). If you're gone regularly I'd definitely invest in extra waterers just in case.

 

[Callender Girl]

I agree, visuals would be better, and if you search for poop boards on this forum or Google, there are probably some nice photos. My suggestion, based on the photos of your roosts, would be to suspend a horizontal board -- perhaps by wire -- directly from your tree branch roosts so that it's a few inches below the roosts to allow poop to drop directly onto that surface. Now, there's not enough space between the roost and the board for the chickens to stand or walk around and poop won't drop onto the floor -- where there is now clean space for the girls to walk around.

I do use the "deep litter" method in a few of my coops. I try to never tell anyone that my way is the best or only way to do things, but I much prefer scraping poop off a suspended board to having to remove a foot of dirtied litter off a coop floor come spring. And, I do both.

The longer you are a member here, the more you will learn that everybody has their own preferences on nearly everything that has to do with chickens! Ultimately, consider what everyone says and do what works best for you. Best wishes with your new adventure!