Coop Builders - What would you have changed or done differently?

[Mtn Laurel]

We built a chicken tractor for 4 chickens in June. After living with the tractor for 3 months, we're already making plans for a different coop. Much of our desire for a different coop is because of things we wish we had done differently. We had no prior experience and failed to anticipate some very basic things.

A few things we wish we had done differently include:

• Larger - Yes, we've become victims of "Chicken Math"!
• More Windows - Sometimes I don't want to stick my head or hand into a place that isn't well lit [especially after seeing pics of snakes in nesting boxes. Arggghh!] and the girls need the light, too.
• Roosts higher than nesting boxes - Oh, we figured that out and fixed it but what a mess!
• Chicken pop door situate at side of coop wall instead of in the middle - Takes away too much valuable interior space if door is in the middle of the wall, especially in a tractor.
• More large "people sized" openings - Especially for a tractor to make it easier for cleaning. The ideal would be to be able to lift up or open an entire side of the coop.
• Nesting boxes extending outside - To give more interior space and to keep them totally away from roost area.
• Shaded or Roofed Run - The heat wave hadn't hit when we were building it. We moved it to shade but still needed to use reflective tarps in areas to keep them out of the sun.
• Storage Space - I guess running to the house to get stuff is good exercise but I sure would love a small area to keep the things I need daily.

As we begin to plan for a larger, permanent coop, I'm curious as to what other coop builders would have done differently. I'm trying to anticipate our mistakes before we make them!

 

[aoxa]

We have a barn that we use for the chickens. It's continually changing. I do agree with all your input though.

• Figure out how many chickens you want to keep in coop. Multiply by 3. That's how you figure out space (in my case, multiply by 50).
• It comes in handy to have a divider in your coop to separate injured or broody hens.
• Nesting boxes should have something slanted to prevent roosting (even if they are lower than the roosts!)
• Lots and lots of ventilation.
• Something that goes in front of door to keep shavings in.

That's all I got. Here is my coop for reference..

They still roost on those darn makeshift nesting boxes. We plan on building a huge set of them eventually, but this is all we have for now. I have to kick a few off at lights out Also, tiered perches work great. I have more roosts then needed, which is also a plus. There is less fighting that way.

 

[Fishbone]

I just put my 11, five week old guineas in their coop.

What I would do differently:
Have 2 sources of water, my main water-er is 1 gallon and is near empty in about 8 to 10 hours.
As they get bigger they will drink more.
I plan on adding a 10 gallon water barrel with about 6 nipples. (In case some should clog/fail)
And use both.
Less waste/mess and assured of enough water so I can go away for the weekend.

Add low roost poles so smaller/younger birds can access them.

Have a plan to remove sick or injured birds.
My friend uses a small fishing net/pole and a large dog crate to quarantine them.

Inspect the perimeter daily for any indication of predator attempts to get in.
You may not see predators before you put your birds out, but the smell and noise will attract them.
I raked all around the coop, and spray water around the coop in the evening, in the morning I check to see any tracks left from the night before.
I've found out even the deer come to check them out!

Dump the droppings AWAY from the coop, I have a raised garden bed for droppings.
As I get more birds (chickens etc) I'll make tumbler barrel composters.
It will keep rodents from coming for a free meal.

Keep your coop/run dry, moisture breeds bacteria, the #2 killer of birds (predators are #1)
I used asphalt shingles to extend the roof/run so rain water will run off away from the coop/run.

The same with the feed.
Bird food is very dry, keep it that way.
I use a galvanized barrel, keep the grain in the plastic sack, cut the top and put it right in the barrel, roll the bag and close it with a couple of bag clips, the kind you use for chips.
Since I live in a damp climate zone, I use a pair of women's nylons and put instant rice in the stockings and put that in the feed bag.
I put one leg in the other (for extra strenght), fill it up then use a re-usable baggy tie.
The rice will collect the moisture. It last about about the time the bag is empty, I then take rice out of the stockings and dry it out in the oven...it's ready to use again.
Guys, just do like I do, put the rice and women's nylons on the counter together, then explain it to the cashier...you know how women think!!
The same thing when I bought Kotex and Tampons for my emergency medical kit...I explained, "These are for my emergency medical kit, did you know Kotex was first produced as a bandage for soldiers in World War 1"?

Maybe your coop is almost finished? Chicks on the way?
Here's what I learned in the 'brooder stage':

These birds can fly when they get feathers! Have a cover ready for that time!

The area around your brooder will be covered in a very fine 'dust'.
If kept in the house, your looking a real mess to clean up!

Have a plan to get them from the brooder to the coop, I raised them in a 20+"x34+" Rubber Maid tote, it would fit through the doorway, I just took the food and water out and slid it to the patio, since it was heavy, (amazing how heavy a tote with 11 five week old birds can be), I used my garden lawn cart to get them to the coop.

 

[EggieRowe]

My coop is 95% complete although I have moved the chickens in already. This is what I've learned so far:

• Whenever possible, design/build in increments of 2 feet! Everything is based on 2' - studs, sheets, and corrugated roof. I knew this going into building mine, but to maximize the area I had my coop ended up 9' wide and 10'-1" deep. That extra foot on the width and inch on the depth probably cost me at least an extra $100-150. (Still working on final totals.)
• Buy in bulk if possible. I have spent about $76 for (2) rolls of 2'x10' and (1) roll of 3'x25" of 1/2" hardware cloth. I could have bought a 4' x 50' roll of it online, delivered, for about $10 more and had extra for a quarantine pen, repairs, or something.

• Should have started building the coop before we got chicks or at least had a realistic plan of what would get done and when. Our 21 chicks turned 9 weeks on Friday and they just moved into the coop Sunday. Every time we were ready to start, we'd get crazy amounts of rain or it would be freakishly hot. Being rushed made us cranky and less careful.
• The classic "Measure twice, cut once." Seriously. For everything. Even if you have extra materials.

 

[Mtn Laurel]

TWO OTHER THINGS I'D DO DIFFERENT . . .

1. Better location and shelf and/or hooks for fans. With the heat this summer we had to rig up fans. Wish we'd thought of this when we built the coop so that we could have made a specific spot for the fan that would best help with air flow and have either a shelf or hooks for placement. We had to shove them wherever they'd fit when the heat hit.
2. Radio shelf. YES, our girls have a radio on at night. They listen to mostly ESPN. The idea is that the sound of human voices might deter predators. [So far - So good. Fingers crossed!] We didn't allow for this in the beginning so the radio shelf is in a not-great spot. Next coop will have a radio shelf that is easier to access.

 

[cthomson]

It gets very hot where I live so when constructing the "new, bigger chicken coop/hen house" I installed misters along the roof line. My coop is 10 x 8 feet x 8 feet tall. Enough walkin around room for me and they have high roosting poles stretching the length of the coop. They have a small house inside the pen which allows them some privacy to lay eggs but so far, they always sleep on the roost, preferring the height. It is wrapped almost completely in hardware cloth to keep out the critters. I have 'possums. It gets in the triple digits here in the summer, so I put the misters on a timer. It allows them to come on for 10 minutes at a time every hour to keep the girls cool. They love it. When they hear the water coming on, they run over and stand under them. When this first started, they would run away but soon learned the benefit of cool mist when it got really hot. Now, they are old pros. They can be out in the yard and will hear the misters power up and run to the hen house to stand in the mist. I would have also cemented the border area where the frame of my house sits. I have a mouse problem. They dig tunnels under the dirt and come up in the house. I have even run hardware cloth under the framework of the house 2 feet out from the coop and 2 feet inside the coop. They just dig further and come up in the middle of the house. This is an issue. Ongoing war with mice. On the subject of nesting boxes, my chickens free range during the day and I only have one who uses the nesting box. My biggest hen decided to use my dog's house. She looks at him in the morning and he vacates the premises. She goes in, lays an egg, and then he barks at me from the back door until I get it out of his house so he can re-enter. She does this every day. She refuses to lay in the hen house and will wait until you let her out. The other one will not lay unless she is in the hen house. I have had the door to the coop closed all day to keep out the birds and mice, and she will wait all day until the door opens and then lay her egg. They definitely have their preferences. My neighbor has a hen who lays her eggs on his work bench in his shop. Same place all the time.

 

[bucky52]

bigger coop and more venilation.and a much bigger run.

 

[Yukonchick]

Actually I was thinking on building some kind of wooden boxes under the nests to hold supplies like feed. We get some pretty wild weather in winter up here in the Yukon and I just got the feed bin outside right now.

 

[mickey328]

Congrats! Ours is still being modified a little here and there. We went small because as much as chicken math wants to get us, it can't because we're restricted to 6

After lots of research here on BYC we decided to put in 2 nest boxes and have a "flap door" on the outside so we can easily reach in and clean and gather eggs. The door is the width of the coop. On the other end, we have another flap door for cleaning. We arranged the interior so that we can put the wheelbarrow up to the door, reach in with a rake and just pull out the bedding straight into the wheel barrow for transport to the compost.

We also put the entire roof on a hinge so the whole top opens. This provides easy access for reaching the light fixture and such and also for putting new bedding down.

The chicken door was originally cut straight out of the floor (3/4" ply) but it was really heavy and we could only put cleats on it for about 2/3 of the way...and a couple of the girls were really leery of that bottom bit. We've since replaced it with a piece of 1/4" ply and configured it so that we can put cleats all the way to the bottom. It's much easier to use the pulley on now because it's not so heavy and the girls easily and willingly climb in and out all day long.

We had considered making it longer and making a storage area but we felt the extra size and weight would make it more difficult to move. Our yard isn't that big and it's pretty simple to walk to the shed where we keep the feed. We didn't put windows in other than a small shuttered one for airflow. I've never seen a snake in our yard, and the coop is about 22" off the ground on 4 x 4's so I don't foresee a problem in that regard. The birds are able to get under the coop for shade or protection from a sprinkle. We put the feeder under it for the same reason.

We built the run out of metal conduit and hardware cloth and it fits snugly against the opening under the coop. The whole thing is moved about every three days. When it's moved to the center of the yard where there's no shade, we stake a tarp over one end of it so they have both the coop itself and the tarp for shade. So far, it's working great. If we could have more chickens, we'd go with a MUCH larger, permanent coop, one we could get in and out of ourselves but I think we'd still keep the portable run so we could move them around a bit so they could have fresh "pasture"

Here's a photo of ours

 

[Mtn Laurel]

Have a plan to remove sick or injured birds.
My friend uses a small fishing net/pole and a large dog crate to quarantine them.

Excellent points and I agree with all of them. The one above is the one that really hit home for me because I found myself in that situation.

Had a hen take sick and was laying on her side in corner of tractor. My very tall husband had built tractor based on him using it but he wasn't at home. I couldn't reach the hen as my arms aren't as long as my husband's! Luckily, my also-tall son was home so I had to wake him to have him come help me. I did already have a dog crate and used it for the hen. The hen wasn't mobile so catching her wasn't a problem. We did get a fishing net afterwards "just in case".

BUILDERS: Please make sure that the smallest/shortest caretaker can reach all shelves, locks, hooks, and into every corner of coop in case they have to handle something when you're not there. We shorter chicken-lovers thank you!