Chicken Coop Design Mistakes - Read Before Building

[patandchickens]

Quote:
a) you might want to make them a bit higher, it depends on your management style but a lot of people would use more depth of bedding, esp. in a northern location like yours. My popdoors are, I think, 12-18" above the actual floor, usually with 6"+ of bedding (and that's in an inherently fairly warm coop, I'd bed deeper in a smaller non-slab-floored coop). I'd suggest aiming to have the sills 6" or so above wherever you think the maximum level of bedding will be. You can always install a "step" if needed during times when bedding levels are a lot lower, although frankly chickens hop very well and mine have no trouble with that height doorways even with relatively little bedding in there.

b) if it were me, I'd skip the floor insulation. IMHO it is fairly pointless labor and expense, given that you can achieve exactly the same effect (only better, b/c cheaper and fairly verminproof) by just putting in an extra coupla inches of bedding. A deep bed of shavings is really VERY good insulation on the floor, and you can make it as deep as you want, for very cheap

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[lighthawk]

At least the only thing I have to change at this stage is the drawing. Thanks.
Back to the drawing board

 

[SunnyDawn]

Thanks for sharing, it must be a Miller thing (from one Miller to another). When my hubby and I built our coop (my fault, since it's my design) I made the same mistake. I designed it for a 4" sill because I was putting in 4" of litter to start with. Well after adding more dry stall a few times guess what? Yep we learned our lesson too. We also need to put in a taller sill.
As for the height thing, I gotta disagree with you there. The gals love their tall roosts (built ramp so they can reach it easily) and my back doesn't suffer when I do have to go inside. I don't go inside often since I did the same thing with the nest bump outs, etc. but there is no reason to stoop when I do have to go in!

 

[gsim]

Citychook, Pat, and Sunnydawn all hit it. You will NEVER regret the height. For one thing, you can have tons of ventilation up there and zero drafts on the chooks. And then there are all the unscheduled times you WILL go in there for who knows what. I have aroud 4 to 6" litter and no sills. I have 24 pullets in an 8 x 16 coop. Part of my morning routine is to take the old broom I keep in the coop off it's peg and sweep the litter away from the door and pop doors about 18" or so. Then I sweep the people stoop outside, about a 4 x 4 affair. It takes two minutes tops. I have not needed a stop sill yet. By next AM the litter is up against the door and the two pop doors again and I start over. A two minute chore and no litter sill to trip over. Could always do a drop-in if needed as Citychook said.