Chicken Deck?

Well, I got paid on Wed and I am ready to start on my new coop! I guess the first thing I need to do is to run the water line over to where the new run will be located and put in the hose bib. However, nothing ever runs smoothly I suppose. After doing some measuring it turns out that the easiest place to run it to will be right where the chicken's ramp from there pop door will be. I can't move the door and ramp to the other side of the run because that is where I will be coming in and out of. If I run the water line over to that side, I will have to move the door also and it will mess up my plans for where to put the food and so on. So, do you think it would be ok to make a chicken deck for them to come out onto and then the ramp? I am probably not explaining this very well. I want to put their water and hose bib under the deck, so to speak. That way it won't take up much floor space in the run and it will be easier to install the new water line as it would be a straight shot over from my current water line. I could also hang their forage station containers off the run wall right above the deck so they could use it to eat their goodies on as well. I would make it fairly wide, maybe 2 ft. I was going to make a forage station anyway. This way I would have the forage station, the deck to the ramp and the water all in one space as the water would be under the deck next to the hose bib. Does this make sense? I live in a very small cottage and so I have been trying to transfer some of my small space living ideas to the coop to make the best use of the limited amount of space I am going to have to work with. Sure wish I had some acreage, but I don't so I have to do the best I can with what I have. I am going to talk to the boys at my work about installing the water line today and see what they will charge me. Hope they are reasonable.

 

Oh great! I am glad to hear your chickens like their deck. I think that is what I will plan to do. It will be in a covered run and I will probably paint it to match the coop and for easy cleaning. I will be using a slab of pine to do this as I can get it for free from my work. I will leave the bark on the edge that will show and put the smooth edge up against the run wall. That will work perfectly. I am off to tweek my design. Thanks for the input.