- Mar 21, 2010
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Recently, my lovely wife and I have been researching and discussing the idea of growing more of our own food. Chickens have of course been a topic of this life change and my wife has spent several hours researching the subject. The research and learning is something she tends to be very good at... patience, however is not.
Last Thursday, my wife came home from town with 10 chicks, food, bedding, etc. That would have been fine but the poor chicks had no home. That is where I come in. After thinking about a few ideas, I put some chicken wire over an old dresser, added a heat source and a lid and quickly had a place for the chicks that was safe from our very interested Maine Coon cats. Saturday night I came home from work to find 6 more chicks in the brooder dresser.
I don't know if you people on this forum are aware, but baby chicks do not stay babies for very long.
This is now a chicken emergency, which is how I chose my log in name.
Fortunately, work has been a little slow the last couple days and I have been able to look at many coops, plans, and ideas as to size and such for our girls.
My coop will be 8X5, with 6 nesting boxes elevated on 4x4 posts 2 feet off the ground. The nesting boxes will be accessible from the outside. The lower portion of the back wall will be hinged for easy cleaning with a larger door on the end for access into the coop. The opposite end will have the chicken door with access into an enclosed run, size yet to be determined. I plan on using corrugated plastic roofing with open rafter ends for ventilation and have no plans for windows at this time. Current plan is to have the back wall 4 feet tall with the front wall 3 feet to get a slope to the roof. I hope this discription will help some of the seasoned chichen coop builders to invision my project.
A few questions that remain;
1. My coop will be in full sun all day in western Montana. Will having the nesting boxes on the southern side get to hot for the girls? The roofing may extend far enough over the boxes to provide some shade to the boxes during the high summer sun but that would be it.
2. I have considered extending my roofing out to cover the run to keep the amount of mud down... good idea or bad? Plan to allow the free range as much as possible but will depend on the gardening situation as well as predation.
3. I have considered the poop boards as well as deep litter on the floor beneath the roosts. I have seen someone talk about using dry grass clippings for the litter. I am leaning toward the litter only because I know my lovely wife doesn't want to scrape the poopie boards everyday and I sure don't want to do it.
If this is a bad idea and I need to use poop boards, please talk me out of it.
4. Will 2 inches of ventilation the lenght of the 8 foot walls (front and back walls) be enough? (space between 2x4 rafters on top of walls)
Those are the questions I have so far. Advise on these or any other areas of concern are greatly appreciated.
Thanks everyone,
Jason
Last Thursday, my wife came home from town with 10 chicks, food, bedding, etc. That would have been fine but the poor chicks had no home. That is where I come in. After thinking about a few ideas, I put some chicken wire over an old dresser, added a heat source and a lid and quickly had a place for the chicks that was safe from our very interested Maine Coon cats. Saturday night I came home from work to find 6 more chicks in the brooder dresser.
This is now a chicken emergency, which is how I chose my log in name.
My coop will be 8X5, with 6 nesting boxes elevated on 4x4 posts 2 feet off the ground. The nesting boxes will be accessible from the outside. The lower portion of the back wall will be hinged for easy cleaning with a larger door on the end for access into the coop. The opposite end will have the chicken door with access into an enclosed run, size yet to be determined. I plan on using corrugated plastic roofing with open rafter ends for ventilation and have no plans for windows at this time. Current plan is to have the back wall 4 feet tall with the front wall 3 feet to get a slope to the roof. I hope this discription will help some of the seasoned chichen coop builders to invision my project.
A few questions that remain;
1. My coop will be in full sun all day in western Montana. Will having the nesting boxes on the southern side get to hot for the girls? The roofing may extend far enough over the boxes to provide some shade to the boxes during the high summer sun but that would be it.
2. I have considered extending my roofing out to cover the run to keep the amount of mud down... good idea or bad? Plan to allow the free range as much as possible but will depend on the gardening situation as well as predation.
3. I have considered the poop boards as well as deep litter on the floor beneath the roosts. I have seen someone talk about using dry grass clippings for the litter. I am leaning toward the litter only because I know my lovely wife doesn't want to scrape the poopie boards everyday and I sure don't want to do it.
4. Will 2 inches of ventilation the lenght of the 8 foot walls (front and back walls) be enough? (space between 2x4 rafters on top of walls)
Those are the questions I have so far. Advise on these or any other areas of concern are greatly appreciated.
Thanks everyone,
Jason
