Building our first coop!

[GabriellaLove]

I have been reading the different forums for months now here at BYC, and am so very appreciative of all the information you all have given! Such great advice in so many different aspects of raising chickens!
We are soo excited in building our coop and plan on getting our chicks in the spring when it is warmer. We have watched so many videos last summer on how to build your own coop. We especially loved the videos we found about building a coop out of pallets. I am a huge believer in recycling items instead of letting them go to waste. So for about two weeks my husband and I went to several businesses and collected many pallets. We found out the hard way though they are not so easy to disassemble, lol. However, my husband has finally figured out how to handle that issue as well using his sawzall and just cutting through the nails themselves.
Our coop's walls are assembled. We are planning on putting up a tin roof with a decline towards the back of the coop to prevent rainfall making puddles in the run itself. I have a few questions and was hoping for some insight.

1. Our coop is 10 feet by 10 feet, I was hoping to keep about 20 chickens. My hope is to have 10 good laying chickens, and 10 for eating. Should I separate the run?

2. We are getting two ducks this weekend and are wanting to put them in the coop, how should the set up be different to house them with our chickens?

3. Will our coop be big enough to house 20 chickens and about 5 ducks since we are hoping that our grown female duck will brood in the spring?

4. Our run will be about 16 feet by 12 feet, however no grass, will that be ok?

Thank you all for any input!! Love this site and am very thankful for it!!

Have a wonderful blessed day!!!
Gabriella

 

[SwedishDude99]

For question #2, you will want to figure out how to keep your coop as dry as possible being that chickens can't stand living in the muddy and watery mess the ducks create. I would use sand as bedding, because with anything else you would have to completely change the bedding every few days. I don't know what water system you have for them, but the ducks need to be able to fully submerse their beaks in water.

For question #4, a run with no grass is fine, but if you put ducks in there, you will want to find a way to allow good drainage because the ducks will otherwise turn it into a giant mud pit. In my duck run, I have a layer of sand on the ground and then smoothed gravel on top of that. There is then a layer of mulch on top of that so it doesn't hurt their feet, but they would be fine without the mulch layer too. It works really well for me, the only drawback is it isn't cheap. Hope this helps!

 

[GabriellaLove]

Thank you very much SwedishDude,
after reading your post my husband and I have decided to convert one of our older goat pens into a duck house and fence them their own run. The area we are planning on putting their run will be shaded and have grass, lucky ducks

 

[SwedishDude99]

No problem! I think it will DEFINATELY be easier to have the ducks and chickens seperated. And I'm sure the ducks will love having grass instead of gravel and mulch.