Cantilevered Roost??? and other considerations

[Beamer's human]

Hello:

I haven't posted in a while because I thought I had all the answers.

The weather here in the Caribbean coast of southern Costa Rica is always mild. Except when it is torrential downpours and occasionally too hot.

I have to make a new coop.

The woman (GINA) who sold me the property with right of use of her old shed on vacant farmland adjacent has withdrawn that right of use after I spent three hundred dollars fixing it up for the chickens. I don't know why...maybe she just said it to get the sale. Maybe she is afraid that with the squatter's law here, I will claim ownership. In any event, I am anxious to move them away from this disagreeable person.

One inch square wire cloth and galvanized tin roofs work fine. My chickens like to roost high. I would like to have their roost hang over the yard so that I can just rake away the poop without getting into the coop. Are there any designs like that here? I also have constantly breeding chicks. And yes there are snakes, hawks, dogs, cats...etc. here.

I have seven mature chickens,
One senior Rooster,
Two juvenile chicks and two juvenile roosters,
Three young adult roosters (being removed) and two batches of new chicks.
Eleven born three weeks ago now down to eight (hawk) and five born last week.

With all the predators, the new born chicks need a couple of weeks at least under protection. The others only roost and lay or brood eggs in the coop and the rest of the time they free range and eat bugs and corn etc. I also need ideas for separating chicks from the juvenile and young adult roosters who are not the main rooster... IT gets complicated! Please send me links to any photos that might inspire me. PLEASE...

 

[patandchickens]

Beamer's human :

I haven't posted in a while because I thought I had all the answers.

LOL, usually that's when people post a *lot*! (hey, I resemble that remark...

)

One inch square wire cloth and galvanized tin roofs work fine. My chickens like to roost high. I would like to have their roost hang over the yard so that I can just rake away the poop without getting into the coop. Are there any designs like that here?

There are a good number of people in warm-weather areas (Louisiana, Texas, etc) with that sort of setup... you just need to make sure that the wire floor under the roost is far enough from the roost that something reaching through will not be able to easily grab a chicken on the roost. Since you lack raccoons I'm not sure how much of an issue that even is. Just remember that not all poo will fall through 1x1 wire and you may have to brush or hose the "sticky bits" on through periodically.

Hopefully someone else can give you some good pic links but if you want to try searching (or just browsing) for threads about it, most people would be calling it "having a wire floor on the coop". Some droppings-pit designs may also be relevant to you, if you omitted the solid floor underneath the wire part.

With all the predators, the new born chicks need a couple of weeks at least under protection.

I'd be careful with putting chicks on wire if there are rats around. You might wish to either brood them on something *solid*, or if you really want them on wire (obviously smaller than 1x1") then maybe put a double bottom on the brooder, with the second layer 4" below the layer they're walking on, so that rats cannot nibble the feet of the chicks.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[7L Farm]

Pura-Vida to you as well .I know your climate I have traveled all over Mexico,San Salvador, and Costa Rica. Where I live its hot similar to your weather. Here's a coop I'm building as I type maybe it will help. It's a three sided coop designed for our long hot summers.

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[7L Farm]

Here is the roost >

 

[elmo]

Be careful using wire under birds kept outdoors. I've read posts on the dove board we belong to about people who change setups like this after some of their birds have their poor little feet bitten off by predators (not just raccoons do this, either).

We have several indoor bird cages with this kind of setup (wire with a tray underneath), and honestly I find the set up I have for our chickens much easier to manage. I just have plastic boot trays under the roosts that I pull out of the coop to dump in the composter every morning. Quick, easy, and I have no wire to wipe sticky poops off. I get enough of that already, caring for our indoor birds.