Building our first coop- any BTDT advice for cold climate coops?

[mermaidgoat]

We're building our first coop with this design:

http://www.buildeazy.com/chicken_coop_1.html

We'll be using the deep litter flooring method.
Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[valentinebaby]

The deep litter method works even better when you sprinkle Diatomaceous Earth into it. Helps to control mites and dries the poop faster. Have fun building and plan on going way over budget! Gail

 

[ducks4you]

I copied these plans to Word a few months back. Post Lots and lots of pics. I wanna see your good work!

 

[mermaidgoat]

Ha! We've already gone over budget and these gals aren't even out of the brooder yet!

I'm in a cold climate (zone 4a) - any advice for coop setup specific to that challenge?

We're going to have an attached, covered run - we have hawks here...but the glas will range free whenever we're at home to keep an eye on them...

 

[mermaidgoat]

Quote:
Did you build this coop? Or are you planning to?

I'll definately post pics!

 

[mermaidgoat]

bump

 

[Chicken Fruit]

we deep litter with pellets. I would not ever EVER use anything else. Ever. Period. Theres no smell, even with just one layer, after a month of use. I add another bag or two every month.

Vinyl flooring is your friend! Home depot tends to have the cheapest remnants, but try craigslist too.

I'll tell you what, we made half of one wall all chicken wire, the top half. And our coop has an old stove pipe through the wall that we put wire over too. Anyway, that amount of ventilation is incredibly useful. We tack dollar store shower curtains to it in winter to keep them warm. In the summer we plan on getting one of those little solar powered car-cooling window fans to stuff in the stove pipe to keep things cool, in winter we stuff some styrafoam in it. Ventilation should never be under estimated.

We raised the chicken coop floor off the ground- it was a nessecity because our barn has a stream in it in the spring, but honestly its really useful anyway.