Built new coop take a look tell me what u think?

[Paul333]

It is all aluminum except back doors, and now have Crushed shell on the bottom of the run. Someone told me I need more vents I will cut out 12" of top siodes and put mesh and someone told me no good with shell so I will put river sand On top of the shell. I put a perch above the beds about 12" higher and center of the indoor part I hope they can leep that far? This is my first time and know nothing I have 4 chicks about 5 weeks old. Any ideas and coments would be great. I live in Venice Florida so they are out there all night with heat lamp seem to be doing good it only drops to 60 deg. at night.

 

[Paul333]

Anyone live in Florida close bye ? Any swap meets or hints about how to raise chickens in this heat? I am new to all of it but looking foward to some fresh eggs and fun with the kids and hens

 

[kichohana]

First,

This is the best resource for anything "chicken". I also recommend you get a book, Chickens for Dummies, or Storeys guide to raising chickens. I have the latter and it is a wealth of information.

I'm not nearby, but I recommend much more ventilation otherwise I'm afraid you'll have a small oven in your yard for those chickens with all that aluminum siding and the summer heat that's right around the corner.
I have sand in my covered run and just bare dirt in my open run. The girls like both. My coop has 3-4 inches of pine shavings on top of linoleum-covered plywood flooring.

I have 2 roosts, the first being about 12-14 inches off the floor of the coop. They just hop up there now, but until they were full grown I had a little 2-rung ladder for them.

I can't tell what kind of wire your run is enclosed with, but know that "chicken-wire" only keeps chickens in - it will not keep predators out.

All in all you have a good little set up. What are the dimensions of your coop? Make sure your chickens have plenty of room. I found out this winter that having the BARE MINIMUM of square footage caused some "cabin fever" - in other words, the girls started featherplucking each other. Situation remedied with an addition of about 100sq ft of outside uncovered run.

Keep posting and asking questions!

 

[Judy]

I agree that you're going to run into overheating problems. A three sided coop in your climate would have been ideal. This site is full of suggestions on how to handle heat. Chickens can actually die of overheating above 100 degrees. They will need shade, plenty of water, and plenty of breeze when the heat hits. I'm sure a few searches in Managing your Flock will turn up a bunch of ideas on how to help them stay cool.

On hot weather coops:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=163417&p=1

 

[imachickenprincess]

It's BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Pidgey104]

Your coop might get a little hot in the summer. Metel collects alot of heat. but looks good though.

 

[farmer_lew]

My first question is where are you? The second question is how hot does it get there? An all metal coop will get very hot in summer. If it gets really hot where you live, you may have built a large oven for them to live in.

DEFINITELY add ventilation. Absolutely without a doubt.

 

[Paul333]

OK I went home yest. and cut 36" off the sides up top and put half inch mesh over it. And I also through all purpose sand on top of the crushed shell for the base . Inside the coop wood shavings or hay? Whats cheeper and easier to clean and how often do I clean coop out?

 

[2DogsCoop]

Looks good to me, I am in Florida also and I am also concerned about the heat! If maybe down the road you come across some T1-11 or plywood not OSB then maybe just change out the metal. I don't know though, there is ton of information on here. It will also depend on how much shade your coop is going to get throughout the day. If it is in a sunny area then I would be concerned but if it mostly shaded then you should be good.

 

[Judy]

Hay is probably a little cheaper but gets wet and smelly faster; pine shavings help control odor. How often it needs cleaning you will be able to tell by odor. If you have a poop board under the roost and scrape that off every day or two, it catches about half the day's poop or more. I keep both hay and pine. The girls like hay in the nests better. Your coop has good shade in your pic; I hope that is afternoon shade.

I have a metal coop, too, and it's not much cooler here than it is there, but like you, I have large areas of it with hardware cloth for walls. Mine is also open below the roof at the tops of the walls all the way around. There is always a breeze in there. The chickens go in there in the heat of the day, I assume for the shade. I hose off the roof on the hottest days. I have thought about putting a low flow sprinkler of some sort up there to turn on for a couple of hours on cloudless days. I also run a box fan all summer (the dust kills about two per year.)