Compact Coop for 18 Hens - Design Ideas?

[tdbrueggen]

See that! Get a good conversation going and great discoveries can happen!

Yeah I don't mind cleaning up there. Since the coop will only be 2' off the ground, if I go up 2' more on top of the nest boxes, then I'm only at 4 foot or so to have to clean the upper deck. Oh, and maybe I could make it where I could isolate the upper deck and use that as introduction space for new birds to the flock. Maybe not necessary, but I'm not sure how my 2 month old pullets will react when I offer new, younger, prettier, girls to the crew.

I wonder if I could put an upper deck on the other end too, just to add more floor space. I don't expect (or shouldn't anyway) much flight activity in the coop itself, so do they need more head space? Seems like floor space is more important in this case.

 

[Pyxis]

That might not be a bad idea, maybe with a little ramp leading up to the second area and putting the food and water up there? That way they can get out of each other's way if anyone is really cranky and in essence you'd be doubling the floor space while still having the same footprint. So you'd almost have 40 square feet of space instead of 20. Kind of like how they do it in tall rodent cages.

 

[tdbrueggen]

Haha, is that reference to a rodent cage implying something....? JK.

I was just thinking, how steep of a ramp could I do? Is 45° too steep? What aboit width. Can they walk up something say 6" wide vs 1'? Maybe I'll do something like a split level, where one platform is 16" off the bottom and the other is 24" so I can break up the ramp length. Not sure if that would effectively give me more space or not.

Trying to keep it simple but fighting my engineering desire!

 

[Pyxis]

Haha, is that reference to a rodent cage implying something....? JK.

I was just thinking, how steep of a ramp could I do? Is 45° too steep? What aboit width. Can they walk up something say 6" wide vs 1'? Maybe I'll do something like a split level, where one platform is 16" off the bottom and the other is 24" so I can break up the ramp length. Not sure if that would effectively give me more space or not.

Trying to keep it simple but fighting my engineering desire!

Lol, nope, not implying anything, I just used to keep rodents when I was a kid. Made a fair few rat cages

My ramp is 8" wide I think and they have no problem with it, and at about a 60 degree angle.

 

[RiddleMe]

I didn't follow every detail of your plan, so might be missing something. But what I am wondering is given your climate, what if you skipped building a formal coop and just covered the front part of the run then tucked your food, water, roost, nest boxes under the covered portion? Kinda like an open air coop? They could still all be along one side to leave you walk through space and it might make things a little less cramped. And if its already protected on three sides (fence, fence, garage) unless your winds come from the fourth side it should provide adequate shelter in the winter, and good ventilation in the summer. Other comments, lots of folks put their roosts over the nest boxes and just use the top of the nest boxes as poop boards. And a 6" wide ramp at 45 degrees should be fine, just give them some sort of traction. One benefit to the open idea is they will have more room getting of the roosts, which helps soften landings and reduce chance of injuries.

 

[tdbrueggen]

I never even thought of an open air coop. It just seemed that I had to have a coop of some sort. We rarely get below 40 F down here, so I think they would do just fine. But I don't think my wife would stand for it. Plus I am a little concerned about noise. My immediate neighbors are cool with the whole idea, but it is against the "rules" to have chickens in my neighborhood. I'm afraid the hens will get to chattering when they lay eggs and get me busted. Maybe if in a coop it will contain a little bit of the noise.

 

[roxysmydog]

I have no coop building advice but my hens rarely stay in their coop during crappy weather. I live in MI and my hens always seem to be outside in the rain or snow. On the horrible snow days they might stay cooped up but after a snow fall, I'll clear a path for them and they will be pecking around in it in no time. Our current coop is probably too small for the amount of hens we have but of course we have expanded the flock without thinking we would. I also live in a 'chicken banned' city and luckily have cool neighbors. But our hens get free range of the yard which is probably the reason they don't hang out in the coop. Plus they have plenty of things to hid under if they want to stay out of the weather (young child's yard structure=plenty of hen hiding space). And there still seems to be lots of space left on the roosting bars so I know they are sleeping comfortably. My husband and I will be moving to the country soon ourselves and already have a bigger coop set up there, with other chickens and guineas living in it already, so soon enough our girls will be in country heaven. Although then I'll have to worry about the real predators.

 

[aart]

Interesting conversation. Couple things popped out for me here.
You only need 1 nest per 3-4 birds.
Even a solid walled coop will not contain the noise of the raucous egg laying celebration that's sure to happen.
Second level floor space sounds good, but ramps quickly take up room, and they'll want to fly down anyway...with that tight space you may have injuries.
Would be nice to see a pic of the site.

Good Luck...keep thinking. I have an engineering background also and spent 6 months solid modeling my coop plans before building....much easier to fix design errors on the cadd instead of on the wood and screws...lol.

 

[tdbrueggen]

I'm thinking for noise control I can hang a series of baffles. I'll find some way to incorporate it into landscaping or something to hide it.

I'm still not sure of open air as I want good protection from varmints. Most of that activity takes place at night, so for now I'm closing up the coop every night. Maybe I just need to get over my fears and go for it. After all, I don't really want to be opening and closing the coop morning and night forever!

 

[aoxa]

Do you happen to have an image of exactly where you want your coop to originate?

What I am confused about is the 2' dimension you mentioned. You talked about a 3' door. Is this not part of the coop? You're building around a hallway is that correct?