My DH and I inherited an old chicken coop - a room at the end of our ramshackle barn. It's about 10x6 (I think...need to remeasure), and originally housed our 11 hens. However, the girls - who came to me from my MIL with bad feather picking habits already - beat the tar out of two Easter Eggers, so we had to build "Hospital Coop" next door. The second coop is 10x3 and houses 4 chickens, including the Easter Eggers, and butts up against the big coop in an "L" shape.
Well, now we have a rooster, AND we let everyone free range when we're home, so they all seem happier. The coops, meanwhile, are a pain for me to maneuver in due to poor space planning, and the 8 chickens in the big coop can't all squeeze on the top of the roosting ladder like they want to.
So...this weekend I'll be remodeling, starting by cutting a chicken access hole between the two coops, removing the roosting ladder and adding some new fir branch roosts (higher up to make everyone happy!), and throwing out my rickety old nasty nest boxes and replacing them with the three plastic sorting containers I got from Goodwill yesterday for $.99 each! (That's the most exciting part to me.)
If I can, I'm also going to enlarge the Hospital Coop a foot or two in width, and flip it's board-and-welded-wire-"lid" on it's side so I can actually have a coop I can stand up in! I think for now I'll keep the two outdoor runs separate, since the chickens would have a choice of which to use and access to both.
Whee! I'll post before and after photos after my weekend construction adventure! Thanks for all your ideas and tips, everyone!
Well, now we have a rooster, AND we let everyone free range when we're home, so they all seem happier. The coops, meanwhile, are a pain for me to maneuver in due to poor space planning, and the 8 chickens in the big coop can't all squeeze on the top of the roosting ladder like they want to.
So...this weekend I'll be remodeling, starting by cutting a chicken access hole between the two coops, removing the roosting ladder and adding some new fir branch roosts (higher up to make everyone happy!), and throwing out my rickety old nasty nest boxes and replacing them with the three plastic sorting containers I got from Goodwill yesterday for $.99 each! (That's the most exciting part to me.)
If I can, I'm also going to enlarge the Hospital Coop a foot or two in width, and flip it's board-and-welded-wire-"lid" on it's side so I can actually have a coop I can stand up in! I think for now I'll keep the two outdoor runs separate, since the chickens would have a choice of which to use and access to both.
Whee! I'll post before and after photos after my weekend construction adventure! Thanks for all your ideas and tips, everyone!
