You're making a good choice with the hoop coop, they're easy to build.
If you build a good predator proof hoop coop, it completely eliminates the need for a wooden coop at all, allowing you to put all your time and money into the hoop coop instead.
Separate coops only exist as a place to lock up the chickens because you don't have a secure run, or you don't have a run at all because you only free range.
Coops were created by humans as a way to protect our birds, they're a very unnatural environment for the birds. So long as they're protected, the birds will live much happier lives in a secure run, rather than locked up in a tiny house half the day or more.
Your birds will be much happier if they live in the large, well ventilated hoop coop. Happy birds also lay more eggs, my 12 hens in my hoop tractor, never dropped below 8 eggs a day, and usually produce 9 to 11, even in the dead of winter. I have some friends whose hens don't lay at all in the winter. I also free range, which I'm sure helps too.
A hoop coop is a total solution, nothing to add to it, but roosting perches, one community nesting box, food, water, and a dust box. If you make the nesting box a roll out, you'll never have poopy eggs, or have to mess with poopy straw.
If you're going to eliminate the wooden coop (I would), make the hoop structure at least 3 cattle panels long (12.5 feet), more of course, if you want more chickens.
That would give you a structure 8 feet by 12.5 feet, 100 square feet, and at 10 square feet per bird, that would give you a maximum of 10 birds in the hoop coop. That's more than the six you indicated earlier in the thread, but there's nothing wrong with extra space.
If you're serious about free ranging, have one rooster, if your local laws and neighborhood rules allow it. I've got a very big, aggressive rooster that loves his hens and would die fighting for them.
He was also very aggressive about demanding scratch and would run up behind me and attack my legs with his claws, usually drawing a little blood, I couldn't turn my back on him.
We finally cleared the air between us and established I'm the president, he's only the governor, and he is subject to federal law.
I had on soft crocs and shorts, and he got me from behind with his claws. I turned around, he puffed up and stood his ground. He flew up, thrusting out and slashing with his claws.
The trick is landing a kick on his chest in between those flailing claws. I was able to do that, and gave him a good swift kick, square in the chest, knocking him back about 4 feet, he came back 3 more times and got the same treatment, then he sheepishly turned away, trying to save his pride.
Since then, instead of trying to run behind me in my blind spot, and taking shots at me, he now runs alongside me about 8 feet away, and has not attacked me at all since that incident about 3 weeks ago.
I didn't like having to hit him, but he finally had to realize I out rank him, and as any who has chickens knows they're brutal creatures when it comes to establishing pecking order, and will draw blood on each other. He and I finally settled the pecking order.
You really want an aggressive rooster in free ranging, so it was worth the effort to teach him that lesson, so I could keep him in the flock, and not cull him. So think about keeping a rooster if you're going to free range.
The reason I want at least 12 feet of length for the hoop coop, is to make sure you achieve that still cushion of air on the north end of the hoop. That's important if you're going to eliminate the wooden coop, and will create a very pleasant North end, in your hoop coop.
8'x12' gives you a rectangle, instead of the square you'd get with an 8'x8' foot hoop coop. The 8x12 rectangle, will form a larger still air cushion than the 8'x8'. If you have the inclination, an 8'x 16' is even better, more space is always better.
Going this way takes you from the miniaturized world of tiny cramped little coops, into what really resembles an aviary, with lots of light, air, and space. A huge step up for your birds.
The whole structure will be wire except the north end, which could be wire with just a door frame, or could be salt treated plywood and the door frame.
Plywood would also give you a place to hang your nesting box, and to attach framing for a roosting bar down one side of the coop, front to back, the length of the coop. If the coop is 12 feet or more long I'd use a 2x6, turned short side up, with the sharp edges sanded smooth. I put a deck board on top of mine, but I see my birds like the 2x4s I have in some other areas of my coop just as well, so I wouldn't bother with the wider roost bars.
Put the roosting bars 12 inches off your sidewalls, and you'll avoid poop on the sidewalls.
I think you're also going to find the chickens huddle up mostly at the north end of the roosting bar, at least mine do, in the depths of that cushion of still air, at the north end of the coop. Naturally that's where the most poop will always be, under the north end of the roosting bar.
Put the roosting bar at an elevation of 30 inches, which will avoid any foot injuries from jumping down from the bar. Keep the perch bar for the nesting box at 24 inches, which is lower than the roosting bar, so they won't roost in the nesting box, but will keep the nesting box high enough for the chickens to use the space under it.
I hung my waterer, feeder, and nesting box in the center of my hoop, but the hardware is costly, and I think it's actually better to place all those things along the wall opposite the roosting bar.
That concentrates all the open space in the center of the hoop, giving you maximum headroom to service the roosting bar on one side, and the feeder, waterer, and dust box on the other side.
This setup puts the roosting bar that generates well over half the poop on one side (the dirty side because of the poop), and keeps the center and the feeder and waterer out of the poopy area. You throw scratch in the hoop to reward them for coming back in promptly, when you call them in from free ranging. Only throw the scratch on the clean side.
It also gives the chickens a big dance floor in the center of the hoop, making flying up and down from the roosting bars easier, and allows you to enter at the north end door of the hoop, and easily go all the way down to the south (open end), where you have a perch bar across the whole open end.
I've got posts on how to build the door, what to put in the dust box, and the advantages of a community nest box. For goodness sake, use a roll out nesting box, you can buy or build one, mines 24 inches wide and handles up to 20 hens (I've only got 12) and came from HenGear.com A big bank of nest boxes is a huge waste of resources, it's much better to have a single great roll out nest box, giving you clean eggs and no more poopy straw to fool with.
You're off to a great start!
If you build a good predator proof hoop coop, it completely eliminates the need for a wooden coop at all, allowing you to put all your time and money into the hoop coop instead.
Separate coops only exist as a place to lock up the chickens because you don't have a secure run, or you don't have a run at all because you only free range.
Coops were created by humans as a way to protect our birds, they're a very unnatural environment for the birds. So long as they're protected, the birds will live much happier lives in a secure run, rather than locked up in a tiny house half the day or more.
Your birds will be much happier if they live in the large, well ventilated hoop coop. Happy birds also lay more eggs, my 12 hens in my hoop tractor, never dropped below 8 eggs a day, and usually produce 9 to 11, even in the dead of winter. I have some friends whose hens don't lay at all in the winter. I also free range, which I'm sure helps too.
A hoop coop is a total solution, nothing to add to it, but roosting perches, one community nesting box, food, water, and a dust box. If you make the nesting box a roll out, you'll never have poopy eggs, or have to mess with poopy straw.
If you're going to eliminate the wooden coop (I would), make the hoop structure at least 3 cattle panels long (12.5 feet), more of course, if you want more chickens.
That would give you a structure 8 feet by 12.5 feet, 100 square feet, and at 10 square feet per bird, that would give you a maximum of 10 birds in the hoop coop. That's more than the six you indicated earlier in the thread, but there's nothing wrong with extra space.
If you're serious about free ranging, have one rooster, if your local laws and neighborhood rules allow it. I've got a very big, aggressive rooster that loves his hens and would die fighting for them.
He was also very aggressive about demanding scratch and would run up behind me and attack my legs with his claws, usually drawing a little blood, I couldn't turn my back on him.
We finally cleared the air between us and established I'm the president, he's only the governor, and he is subject to federal law.
I had on soft crocs and shorts, and he got me from behind with his claws. I turned around, he puffed up and stood his ground. He flew up, thrusting out and slashing with his claws.
The trick is landing a kick on his chest in between those flailing claws. I was able to do that, and gave him a good swift kick, square in the chest, knocking him back about 4 feet, he came back 3 more times and got the same treatment, then he sheepishly turned away, trying to save his pride.
Since then, instead of trying to run behind me in my blind spot, and taking shots at me, he now runs alongside me about 8 feet away, and has not attacked me at all since that incident about 3 weeks ago.
I didn't like having to hit him, but he finally had to realize I out rank him, and as any who has chickens knows they're brutal creatures when it comes to establishing pecking order, and will draw blood on each other. He and I finally settled the pecking order.
You really want an aggressive rooster in free ranging, so it was worth the effort to teach him that lesson, so I could keep him in the flock, and not cull him. So think about keeping a rooster if you're going to free range.
The reason I want at least 12 feet of length for the hoop coop, is to make sure you achieve that still cushion of air on the north end of the hoop. That's important if you're going to eliminate the wooden coop, and will create a very pleasant North end, in your hoop coop.
8'x12' gives you a rectangle, instead of the square you'd get with an 8'x8' foot hoop coop. The 8x12 rectangle, will form a larger still air cushion than the 8'x8'. If you have the inclination, an 8'x 16' is even better, more space is always better.
Going this way takes you from the miniaturized world of tiny cramped little coops, into what really resembles an aviary, with lots of light, air, and space. A huge step up for your birds.
The whole structure will be wire except the north end, which could be wire with just a door frame, or could be salt treated plywood and the door frame.
Plywood would also give you a place to hang your nesting box, and to attach framing for a roosting bar down one side of the coop, front to back, the length of the coop. If the coop is 12 feet or more long I'd use a 2x6, turned short side up, with the sharp edges sanded smooth. I put a deck board on top of mine, but I see my birds like the 2x4s I have in some other areas of my coop just as well, so I wouldn't bother with the wider roost bars.
Put the roosting bars 12 inches off your sidewalls, and you'll avoid poop on the sidewalls.
I think you're also going to find the chickens huddle up mostly at the north end of the roosting bar, at least mine do, in the depths of that cushion of still air, at the north end of the coop. Naturally that's where the most poop will always be, under the north end of the roosting bar.
Put the roosting bar at an elevation of 30 inches, which will avoid any foot injuries from jumping down from the bar. Keep the perch bar for the nesting box at 24 inches, which is lower than the roosting bar, so they won't roost in the nesting box, but will keep the nesting box high enough for the chickens to use the space under it.
I hung my waterer, feeder, and nesting box in the center of my hoop, but the hardware is costly, and I think it's actually better to place all those things along the wall opposite the roosting bar.
That concentrates all the open space in the center of the hoop, giving you maximum headroom to service the roosting bar on one side, and the feeder, waterer, and dust box on the other side.
This setup puts the roosting bar that generates well over half the poop on one side (the dirty side because of the poop), and keeps the center and the feeder and waterer out of the poopy area. You throw scratch in the hoop to reward them for coming back in promptly, when you call them in from free ranging. Only throw the scratch on the clean side.
It also gives the chickens a big dance floor in the center of the hoop, making flying up and down from the roosting bars easier, and allows you to enter at the north end door of the hoop, and easily go all the way down to the south (open end), where you have a perch bar across the whole open end.
I've got posts on how to build the door, what to put in the dust box, and the advantages of a community nest box. For goodness sake, use a roll out nesting box, you can buy or build one, mines 24 inches wide and handles up to 20 hens (I've only got 12) and came from HenGear.com A big bank of nest boxes is a huge waste of resources, it's much better to have a single great roll out nest box, giving you clean eggs and no more poopy straw to fool with.
You're off to a great start!
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