Building a cabinet to hold feed, nest boxes and roosts. Any advice?

[sojeo]

I've taken apart a work bench that was given to us by a neighbor to build a shelfing systems of sorts that will hold bins of feed on one side of the first level and nesting boxes on the other side. I plan on having it raised up so as not to lose floor space. Above the nests and bins, there will be another level which I am going to use as a litter tray and a set of double roosts above that.

My questions are:

How high should the first level be in order to allow the chickens to go underneath? I will be using dml through the winter, so I imagine the litter will get quite deep. For now I plan to screen it in for my 2 youngest chicks and use as a brooder area.

I've been searching around and it seems a lot of people have slanted tops on their nests to prevent the birds from sitting on them. The top level will be covered with laminate, have an edge to hold in the shavings, be wider than the lower level and also be covered with a hardware cloth frame on a hinges for cleaning. Will I run into any problems with purposely having the roosts above my nest boxes?

Lastly, I really would like to have a double roost. Seems like they would be able to stay warmer huddled this winter (Atlantic Canada, winter sucks). I've read 18 inches between roosts, but is that really necessary? I was hoping to get away with 10-12 inches between. With 2 roosts side by side there will be lots of room, so they should be able to space themselves out staggered between the two.

This is my first attempt at building anything, so I'm quite nervous to start making it. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[Omran]

You are going in the right Direction, so please don't be nervous.

Bin for storage is very good Idea, nest boxes should be a bout 18" from ground. you can put the roosts about 12" apart, that;'s no big deal. I did that, and there is no problem.
I won't put roosts above nestboxes, because they will make the top of them real nasty with the poo.

best of luck.

 

[chicken_angler]

What I have for a rost is a 7 foot long board that is a foot wide. It stretches from one side to the other. I have 9 chickens in that coop and they all huddle and pack onto 2 feet of the roost. It isnt cold in there. I just think they are scared cause the coop door is open till a little after dark sometimes. lol

Cody!!

 

[patandchickens]

If you want them to be able to "sort of" use the space under the cabinet, 12-14" is enough for normal sized chickens -- 18-24" will let them make much more full use of the space so if the extra height is available in your coop I think it's really worth mounting the cabinet a little higher like that. Remember that those are heights ABOVE THE LITTER not above the hard flooring, so add in whatever litter depth you usually have before hanging the cabinets.

I have my roosts (with droppings boards) over the nestboxes in all my pens and am quite happy with it. You do need to make sure your droppings boards are WIDE ENOUGH and that they overhang the front of the nestbox by an inch or two, but if you do it that way, no you do not get any poo in the nestboxes and it works great.

I have no personal experience with two parallel roosts (though am going to be doing that for the EE pen for this winter... so, we'll see) but from watching the chickens in somewhat-similar situations I'd say that if the two roosts are too close together there can be some picking develop just because, you know, somebody's rump is sitting there *right under someone else's nose* and it is too tempting. I do not know what the minimum spacing is before you start to run into this, though - try posting another thread on that question specifically, or do a search on 'parallel roosts'.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Judy]

I have 3 parallel roosts that are about 20" apart on center and would not want them any closer. As Pat said, their nose is right there in someone's tail as it is, since of course they all crowd to one end of the roosts, even in this heat, silly things.

 

[sojeo]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm going to get more lumber today and hopefully start cutting some boards! The trickiest part will be fitting in the 3 tip out bins. I will have to make it in the coop, that should be fun in this heat.

I may skip the double roost idea if the droppings board is to narrow. We have about 5 roosters that won't be here in the fall so there will be more room eventually.

Wish me luck!