We're building a new coop this spring for 6 chickens, and we need some ideas to make it easier to clean, and give us a little more extra room since this winter my chooks were cold. Haha. I don't want them to be uncomfortable this winter! I need some nestbox ideas too! I'll need tips on pretty much anything that you need in a coop! Thank you so much!
Insulation is a good thing if you get cold winters...either the foam stuff or the plain old fiberglass. Make sure the ceiling is insulated too (but you still need ventilation). What size coop are you building??? To make things easier to clean, a walk-in is nice. Plus dropping boards really help keep things clean - so I'd give one a shot.
Quote:Thank you!!! I've read some stuff about dropping boards, and I think I will try to put some in not quite sure about the exact floor plan yet (we're trying to put that together now) but it will be the ideal size for about 6-8 chickens thanks again!!!
I'm especially looking for places to put the water thing and the food container where they won't get messy or in the way... Yeah. BTW, The coop will be kind of a rectangle, almost a square.
My coop is smallish for a walk-in...6x8. I have 7 birds in there (one a bantam), and they do pretty well in the winter time (indoor space in spring/summer/fall is never an issue). My nestboxes are raised, and I use a dropping board, so my feeder (and waterer in the winter time) set under those. Here's my dropping board set-up:
Actually, for daily cleaning I keep a small pail and 6 in. putty knife handy. I simply hold the bucket at the edge of the board and scrape the nightly droppings into it with the putty knife. Takes about a minute for daily cleaning. About once a month or so I slide the dropping board out and hose it off for a good clean.
In Wisconsin, because they will presumably be stuck indoors part of the time in winter, I would not build smaller than 6'x8'. Actually you may find it costs little more to build 8x8 because of lumber sizes, and more space is always better (and easier to keep clean.) Easiest kind to build is a walk in with roof slanting to one side. That way you can just put the ventilation under the roof at the high end, keeping your humidity and ammonia levels down while still keeping them relatively warm. Easy enough to hang a couple of nest boxes on the wall so they can easily walk under them. I weould definitely not try external nest boxes, especially in that climate. Too many problems with weatherproofing and predatorproofing. Have you looked at patandchicken's coop writeups? She is in Canada and has good writeups both about cold weather coops and ventilation. https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-winter-coop-temperatures
For droppings I use 2 plastic storage tubs I got at walmart. They fill up & take them out & dump into the compost pile. Super clean & easy. For clean food - I had a heck of a time keeping the wood shavings out of the water. So I eventually built a bench that is 2ft x 2ft square. The water & food stay ontop of that. Keeps everything clean & they have no problems jumping up there for a drink.
