A lot of posts were made while I was composing my reply earlier this morning, so I'm very pleased to see you're going with a 4x8.
That gives you a tremendous opportunity to go up about 10 notches in how comfortable and efficient your new coop can be.
The rectangle you're proposing offers you the opportunity to take advantage of the same principles that make the Woods Open Air Coop so desirable. Do a search on that phrase, and you'll see how good that design is.
There's a beautiful physics principle in that design regarding creating a still cushion of air at the back side (north side) of the coop. This principle allows you to leave the south side (one of the 4' sides) of the coop open wire, which gives you great ventilation, and allows in the low winter sunlight.
If you elect to do this, I feel it's important to provide a three foot eave over the south side of the coop. This will prevent any blowing rain from entering the open south face of the coop.
This eave will not block winter sun because the sun is so low in the southern sky, your coop will be flooded with winter sun, but the eave will entirely block the summer sun, since the summer sun is so high in the sky.
Do not be concerned with cold winter temperatures, in the photo below, you're looking at the open south face of my tractor. It works very well, even in cold temperatures, we got down to minus 5 degrees this winter, and had many days the high temps were below freezing .
The point has often been made, low temperatures do not bother chickens, they're enemies are rain and wind.
Here's what you do, orient one of the 4' sides of the coop to the south, southeast. That side should be open half inch hardware cloth. Ideally if you have hot summers, have 18 inches of open wire on the bottom of the east and west walls as well. The open wire on the east and west walls should be covered with a clear plastic roofing panel in winter, to seal your east and west walls during winter. They'll be open the other three seasons for more ventilation and cooling. As mentioned, the south wall is always open.
As you can see, in the winter, only the south wall is open, and the other three sides are sealed. With the eave, rain and snow can't blow into the open end. Also wind can't blow to the rear (north end) of the coop, because it's a dead end for the air, there's no where for it to go, this condition creates that still cushion of air at the back of your coop, which is where your roosting bars will be located.
Here's how I'm envisioning the internal setup of the coop.
The south wall is open wire with with one 2x4 (2 side up and sanded) perch about 12 inches off the wire at 30 inches of height, with a twin below it at a height of 6 inches, my birds love to sit on these perches in the mornings before going out, in the evenings after returning, and on days they stay in the tractor, they love the open air and watching everything going on outside. 30 inches is a very nice height, as they can easily fly up onto the perch, and hop down off of it, without the risk of a bumble foot injury.
If you really want to make this front perch special, get a 24"x36" plastic mortar mixing tub from Home Depot, it has a nice lip around its edges. Run a 2x4 across the front of the open wire front, next to the wire, and another one parallel to it 24 inches back from the wire, and set the mortar tub between the two 2x4's, in the center of the open wall. Then add a 2x4 on each end of the tub to further support the tub (sand is heavy) and you've got a great elevated dust box, that increases your perch area on the open south end of the coop, my chickens love their hanging dust box pictured below, which you can see is in a 2x4 frame. You'd be putting it in the center of your open wall at a height of 30 inches.
You can see how much my girls like their dust box.
View from the other direction. In the background, you can see an elevated tub I have on my open wire wall, hung in a 2x4 frame as I've suggested to you. I use it for water if it's too cold for my chicken nipple bucket.
My tractor is 8 feet wide, so the scale's a bit different, but you'll be centering the 36 inch tub on your 48 inch wall, giving excellent perching on three sides of the tub, and in the dust box itself as well, that'll accommodate a lot of birds, who'll enjoy the open south facing view. The three foot eave over the south wall, will keep rain out of the dust box.
The birds kill lice and mites by dusting, so don't underestimate the value of the dust box. A simple mix of play sand is very dusty and easy to obtain, I also add a few cups of diatomaceous earth, and a few cups of sulfur to the sand. Diatomaceous earth (only buy food grade) has been shown to also kill parasites, even internal ones, in chickens. Sulfur is even more effective, and has been shown to effectively kill mites and lice on chickens, when it's placed in their dust bath. Here's the study from University of Southern California Riverside proving the value of adding sulfur to the dust bath:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22458590/
Here's a photo of the sand, sulfur, and diatomaceous earth I use in my dust box. ONLY BUY FOOD GRADE DIATOMACEOUS EARTH!
You could even hang a waterer and feeder beneath the dust box if you wanted.
I would also place the pop door for the chickens on the south wall, so as to preserve the still air cushion of air at the north end of the coop, by not breaking the seal on the other three sides by putting in a pop door that'll allow drafts when it's open, if the pop door isn't on the south wall.
Put the people door on the east or west wall. It's super easy to make a door with a spring, that closes over the frame, making it predator proof, and because it closes over the frame, even if it sags, it won't jam, or leave a gap for a predator. Here's a thread that details making that kind of door.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/help-people-door.1222590/
On the north wall place two rows of roosting bars at 36 inches of height. Again, 2x4, short side up, and sanded to knock off the sharp edge and any splinters. First row of bars is 12 inches off the north wall, and of course parallel to it. The second bar is 18 inches from the first bar and parallel to the first bar. That gives you 8 feet of roosting bar.
A clever possibility opens up here, you could have a slide out poop board, that slides out the north wall if you want, but I know you're in a hurry, so that can be easily added later if you want.
I have a 30 inch door opening for my people door and it's very comfortable, so I'd use that width for your doorway, the door itself should be at least 34 inches, to give you a couple of inches of overlap on the doorframe, with a similar overlap on the top and bottom of the door. For predator security and to conserve space in the coop, the people door must open outward. Here's my doorway:
In the winter, this door can be sealed with a clear roofing panel, and the wire left open in the other three seasons for additional cooling and ventilation.
For the sake of discussion, let's say your people door is on your east wall.
Then on your west wall you'd place your nesting box. Here, we run into the greatest single inefficiency I see most people commit. Chickens only need ONE nesting box if it's the right size. I see people with banks of nesting boxes and scratch my head why?
So here's the thing, do you want clean eggs without poop on them, do you want to prevent egg eating from ever starting in your flock, do you want to collect the eggs without going in the coop and getting poop on your shoes when you're in a hurry, do you want to never mess with poopy straw in a nesting box, do you want to save space in your coop and not spend money on boxes you don't need, then get yourself a rollout nesting box and every single one of these problems disappear. Here's mine:
Mine came from HenGear.com, cost $120, is 24 inches wide, handles up to 20 chickens, and is reversible out of the box when it arrives, meaning you can assemble it to collect the eggs from the front under the perch, or through the wall at the rear (like mine), your choice. You can also build one of these if you're handy.
So getting back to our coop story, you've used 30 inches of your west wall accommodating the two roosting bars parallel to the north wall, but because the birds poop out to the side up to 12 inches, really you've used 42 inches on the west wall, you wouldn't want to put the nesting box closer than that to roosting bars. You've also used 24 inches of your west wall accommodating your dust box on your south wall. That leaves you about 30 inches to fit in the 24 inch rollout nesting box, so back the nesting box off the front perch 6 inches.
So to sum up, you come in the people door on the east wall, the roosting bars will be at the back of the coop on your right hand side, directly across from the door will be the rollout nesting box, to your left as you enter will be the elevated dust box on the open wire wall, with perhaps the waterer and feeder hanging below the dust box.
Your nesting box can have its perch at 24 inches above the floor, allowing the birds to move beneath it. It's important to always make your roosting bars the highest point in the coop because the chickens will always roost at the highest point. That's why the nesting box is at 24 inches and the front perch is at 30 inches. You could raise the nesting box to 30 inches if you want, it'll still be lower than the 36 inch roosting bars. If I needed to raise the dust box to 36 inches, if it were the only way to get the height to hang a feeder and waterer, if that's where I wanted them, I'd also be willing to do that, but not higher than the roosting bars in the rear, and ideally 6 inches lower than the roosting bars.
Ideally, I think it would be better to have the waterer and feeder under the nesting box, leaving the open wire on the south side open, without the impediment of the food and waterer blocking the lower area of the open south facing wire.
If you want, you can put the food and water beneath the nesting box, either ground units or waterer and feeders that use 4 inch PVC water pipe, with chicken nipples for water, and flow down feeders that also use a PVC pipe. It's common for PVC waterers and feeders to go through the wall of the coop, so you can load them from the outside.
This is a very efficient design, that will be very comfortable for your chickens, the open south end of the coop gives you great ventilation even in the winter, when the other three sides are sealed, and gives the birds light in the winter, and shade in the summer. If you install the slide out poop tray the birds will have a lot of very clean area in the coop on the ground.
I have a tractor I move every week, so I don't know anything about the deep litter method of poop management for stationary coops, so some might argue the poop tray isn't necessary, I'll leave that to others who have experience with it.
Good luck with your project, I know there's a lot to learn, but you've already put yourself at the head of the class by asking the members here, who've already made the mistakes, so you don't have to.
The design I've outlined will produce a very open, bright, well ventilated coop that won't be the terrible prison the 4x4 would have been for the chickens whenever they had to do more than sleep in it.
There's nothing expensive about this design, it just very efficiently uses natural forces to aid you, instead of you using your resources to fight the natural forces.
People struggling with ventilation problems, disease from poor light and ventilation, overcrowding and the wounds and disease that can cause, and not using passive solar energy that costs no more than knowing how to harness it. These problems are all addressed and solved with this design.
That gives you a tremendous opportunity to go up about 10 notches in how comfortable and efficient your new coop can be.
The rectangle you're proposing offers you the opportunity to take advantage of the same principles that make the Woods Open Air Coop so desirable. Do a search on that phrase, and you'll see how good that design is.
There's a beautiful physics principle in that design regarding creating a still cushion of air at the back side (north side) of the coop. This principle allows you to leave the south side (one of the 4' sides) of the coop open wire, which gives you great ventilation, and allows in the low winter sunlight.
If you elect to do this, I feel it's important to provide a three foot eave over the south side of the coop. This will prevent any blowing rain from entering the open south face of the coop.
This eave will not block winter sun because the sun is so low in the southern sky, your coop will be flooded with winter sun, but the eave will entirely block the summer sun, since the summer sun is so high in the sky.
Do not be concerned with cold winter temperatures, in the photo below, you're looking at the open south face of my tractor. It works very well, even in cold temperatures, we got down to minus 5 degrees this winter, and had many days the high temps were below freezing .
The point has often been made, low temperatures do not bother chickens, they're enemies are rain and wind.
Here's what you do, orient one of the 4' sides of the coop to the south, southeast. That side should be open half inch hardware cloth. Ideally if you have hot summers, have 18 inches of open wire on the bottom of the east and west walls as well. The open wire on the east and west walls should be covered with a clear plastic roofing panel in winter, to seal your east and west walls during winter. They'll be open the other three seasons for more ventilation and cooling. As mentioned, the south wall is always open.
As you can see, in the winter, only the south wall is open, and the other three sides are sealed. With the eave, rain and snow can't blow into the open end. Also wind can't blow to the rear (north end) of the coop, because it's a dead end for the air, there's no where for it to go, this condition creates that still cushion of air at the back of your coop, which is where your roosting bars will be located.
Here's how I'm envisioning the internal setup of the coop.
The south wall is open wire with with one 2x4 (2 side up and sanded) perch about 12 inches off the wire at 30 inches of height, with a twin below it at a height of 6 inches, my birds love to sit on these perches in the mornings before going out, in the evenings after returning, and on days they stay in the tractor, they love the open air and watching everything going on outside. 30 inches is a very nice height, as they can easily fly up onto the perch, and hop down off of it, without the risk of a bumble foot injury.
If you really want to make this front perch special, get a 24"x36" plastic mortar mixing tub from Home Depot, it has a nice lip around its edges. Run a 2x4 across the front of the open wire front, next to the wire, and another one parallel to it 24 inches back from the wire, and set the mortar tub between the two 2x4's, in the center of the open wall. Then add a 2x4 on each end of the tub to further support the tub (sand is heavy) and you've got a great elevated dust box, that increases your perch area on the open south end of the coop, my chickens love their hanging dust box pictured below, which you can see is in a 2x4 frame. You'd be putting it in the center of your open wall at a height of 30 inches.
You can see how much my girls like their dust box.
View from the other direction. In the background, you can see an elevated tub I have on my open wire wall, hung in a 2x4 frame as I've suggested to you. I use it for water if it's too cold for my chicken nipple bucket.
My tractor is 8 feet wide, so the scale's a bit different, but you'll be centering the 36 inch tub on your 48 inch wall, giving excellent perching on three sides of the tub, and in the dust box itself as well, that'll accommodate a lot of birds, who'll enjoy the open south facing view. The three foot eave over the south wall, will keep rain out of the dust box.
The birds kill lice and mites by dusting, so don't underestimate the value of the dust box. A simple mix of play sand is very dusty and easy to obtain, I also add a few cups of diatomaceous earth, and a few cups of sulfur to the sand. Diatomaceous earth (only buy food grade) has been shown to also kill parasites, even internal ones, in chickens. Sulfur is even more effective, and has been shown to effectively kill mites and lice on chickens, when it's placed in their dust bath. Here's the study from University of Southern California Riverside proving the value of adding sulfur to the dust bath:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22458590/
Here's a photo of the sand, sulfur, and diatomaceous earth I use in my dust box. ONLY BUY FOOD GRADE DIATOMACEOUS EARTH!
You could even hang a waterer and feeder beneath the dust box if you wanted.
I would also place the pop door for the chickens on the south wall, so as to preserve the still air cushion of air at the north end of the coop, by not breaking the seal on the other three sides by putting in a pop door that'll allow drafts when it's open, if the pop door isn't on the south wall.
Put the people door on the east or west wall. It's super easy to make a door with a spring, that closes over the frame, making it predator proof, and because it closes over the frame, even if it sags, it won't jam, or leave a gap for a predator. Here's a thread that details making that kind of door.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/help-people-door.1222590/
On the north wall place two rows of roosting bars at 36 inches of height. Again, 2x4, short side up, and sanded to knock off the sharp edge and any splinters. First row of bars is 12 inches off the north wall, and of course parallel to it. The second bar is 18 inches from the first bar and parallel to the first bar. That gives you 8 feet of roosting bar.
A clever possibility opens up here, you could have a slide out poop board, that slides out the north wall if you want, but I know you're in a hurry, so that can be easily added later if you want.
I have a 30 inch door opening for my people door and it's very comfortable, so I'd use that width for your doorway, the door itself should be at least 34 inches, to give you a couple of inches of overlap on the doorframe, with a similar overlap on the top and bottom of the door. For predator security and to conserve space in the coop, the people door must open outward. Here's my doorway:
In the winter, this door can be sealed with a clear roofing panel, and the wire left open in the other three seasons for additional cooling and ventilation.
For the sake of discussion, let's say your people door is on your east wall.
Then on your west wall you'd place your nesting box. Here, we run into the greatest single inefficiency I see most people commit. Chickens only need ONE nesting box if it's the right size. I see people with banks of nesting boxes and scratch my head why?
So here's the thing, do you want clean eggs without poop on them, do you want to prevent egg eating from ever starting in your flock, do you want to collect the eggs without going in the coop and getting poop on your shoes when you're in a hurry, do you want to never mess with poopy straw in a nesting box, do you want to save space in your coop and not spend money on boxes you don't need, then get yourself a rollout nesting box and every single one of these problems disappear. Here's mine:
Mine came from HenGear.com, cost $120, is 24 inches wide, handles up to 20 chickens, and is reversible out of the box when it arrives, meaning you can assemble it to collect the eggs from the front under the perch, or through the wall at the rear (like mine), your choice. You can also build one of these if you're handy.
So getting back to our coop story, you've used 30 inches of your west wall accommodating the two roosting bars parallel to the north wall, but because the birds poop out to the side up to 12 inches, really you've used 42 inches on the west wall, you wouldn't want to put the nesting box closer than that to roosting bars. You've also used 24 inches of your west wall accommodating your dust box on your south wall. That leaves you about 30 inches to fit in the 24 inch rollout nesting box, so back the nesting box off the front perch 6 inches.
So to sum up, you come in the people door on the east wall, the roosting bars will be at the back of the coop on your right hand side, directly across from the door will be the rollout nesting box, to your left as you enter will be the elevated dust box on the open wire wall, with perhaps the waterer and feeder hanging below the dust box.
Your nesting box can have its perch at 24 inches above the floor, allowing the birds to move beneath it. It's important to always make your roosting bars the highest point in the coop because the chickens will always roost at the highest point. That's why the nesting box is at 24 inches and the front perch is at 30 inches. You could raise the nesting box to 30 inches if you want, it'll still be lower than the 36 inch roosting bars. If I needed to raise the dust box to 36 inches, if it were the only way to get the height to hang a feeder and waterer, if that's where I wanted them, I'd also be willing to do that, but not higher than the roosting bars in the rear, and ideally 6 inches lower than the roosting bars.
Ideally, I think it would be better to have the waterer and feeder under the nesting box, leaving the open wire on the south side open, without the impediment of the food and waterer blocking the lower area of the open south facing wire.
If you want, you can put the food and water beneath the nesting box, either ground units or waterer and feeders that use 4 inch PVC water pipe, with chicken nipples for water, and flow down feeders that also use a PVC pipe. It's common for PVC waterers and feeders to go through the wall of the coop, so you can load them from the outside.
This is a very efficient design, that will be very comfortable for your chickens, the open south end of the coop gives you great ventilation even in the winter, when the other three sides are sealed, and gives the birds light in the winter, and shade in the summer. If you install the slide out poop tray the birds will have a lot of very clean area in the coop on the ground.
I have a tractor I move every week, so I don't know anything about the deep litter method of poop management for stationary coops, so some might argue the poop tray isn't necessary, I'll leave that to others who have experience with it.
Good luck with your project, I know there's a lot to learn, but you've already put yourself at the head of the class by asking the members here, who've already made the mistakes, so you don't have to.
The design I've outlined will produce a very open, bright, well ventilated coop that won't be the terrible prison the 4x4 would have been for the chickens whenever they had to do more than sleep in it.
There's nothing expensive about this design, it just very efficiently uses natural forces to aid you, instead of you using your resources to fight the natural forces.
People struggling with ventilation problems, disease from poor light and ventilation, overcrowding and the wounds and disease that can cause, and not using passive solar energy that costs no more than knowing how to harness it. These problems are all addressed and solved with this design.
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