Chicken Coop Mansion

[matthewprall]

My name is Matthew. I build chicken coops for a living. This is our most popular model. I am looking for feedback on how to make it better. If you are interested in buying one we are located in FL. We will deliver to FL and GA and ship everwhere else.
It contains six nest boxes, human door, chicken door, roost, and vent. $799

 

[The Sheriff]

It looks nice but I would flip that last picture around. It looks kind of freaky, like circus chickens. Love the human door and big windows. Good job!

 

[Chicken Fruit]

Maybe if the rail that makes the front of the nesting boxes was hinged and locked so it could be let down to sweep out the nesting boxes to clean them- lifting that crap out is a pain.

And it looks like the lay out doesnt allow some place to hang food and water without it being in the way of the roosting bars.

I really like it though! Its neat and compact!

 

[rainierlass]

Being new to chickens I hesitate to post -
but I agree I would revamp the roost so as to install a 'poop-board' beneath them and then you will be able to hang the feeders and place the waterer underneath - this is what I have done in mine and am hoping it works as well as I anticipate - it also free-s up the floor space - -

GREAT looking coop!

I love the windows as well - - am not seeing the dimensions but looks to be about the same size as mine - 4' X 6'??

 

[Bossroo]

It also appears that any rain hitting the front of the coop will run down and into the nest boxes. Not good.

 

[biddyboo]

Our nest boxes leaked water, and I believe yours will too. Our solution, doable by you perhaps as well, is to take a piece of rubber (ex: pool liner) a little longer than the dimensional length of the boxes and about 6 inches deep to create a water baffle flap to tack just above the juncture of the nest boxes and coop wall. Be sure to caulk under and around the rubber flap to make it water proof and to dab a bit of caulk with each tack. This flap will move up and down with opening and closing the boxes but will deflect water to run over and not into the boxes. Also, if it were mine, I'd add at least a foot of width to the whole coop for floor room. With six nest boxes, you'll be able to accomodate a small flock of hens and you'll be glad for the floor space in wet or inclement weather. One last mention, many people like deep litter management of bedding in their coops. Your human door open directly from the coop floor and bedding will always be falling outside. We solved this with ours by adding a 1 X 6 baffle board that contains litter inside the coop. You'd have to remember to step up and over, but that may be preferable to losing litter with each opening of the door. Don't mean to be critical, just helpful based on observation, because I think your coop is a work of art Congratulations and best wishes. ~G

 

[Backyard_Chicken_rancher]

good job I wouldn't change a thing.

 

[PhilErvin]

Go to my site and look at how I did the flap that prevents blowing rain from draining into the nest boxes. I used pond liner that is made of rubber. Hasn't leaked yet.

 

[matthewprall]

Thank you all for your compliments and helpfull hints . I will have to try some of your suggestions . Have a good evening .

 

[bison]

Nice craftsmanship! This is really well done. A couple of ideas:

Vinyl/Linoleum Floor - before standing the walls after you lay the decking, you could install a small piece to help with cleaning of the coop

Deep Litter Method - somebody mentioned putting a board up in front of the human door. I would also suggest raising the nest boxes off of the floor maybe 6-8"

Possible Feeder - you really don't need 6 nest boxes for that size coop. what if you took one of the nest box sections and made it into a feeder? You could check feed level and add more feed when you check for eggs (that's such a good idea, I may do it with my setup, now that I think about it

) You could even put a waterer down in another nesting box...

I agree that you'll have rain coming in the nest boxes unless there's a design change - that flap seems like it'll do the trick

This is a great coop, I believe. Make a few minor adjustments that these folks have suggested, and I'm thinking you won't be able to build them fast enough, especially with the BYC boom going on.