Coop design help

[VioletsMom]

Hello! My family and I would like to turn an old dog fenced kennel area into a chicken coop. I’m wondering if you must have a fully enclosed area. We live in Orlando Florida so it’s always hot. I was hoping to put in some nesting boxes and make a roost. What else is a necessity? Is chicken wire over the chain link safe? Should I put a roof on the top or just partial? It’s 17’ x 6’ Any tips and feedback is very much appreciated since this is all new.

 

[Sally PB]

Hi Violetsmom! Welcome to BYC. Look around, read some articles and some of the threads about coops. Can you give some more info about what you want to do? Like...

How many chickens are you planning to have?

Is the picture of the dog run where the coop will be, or do you plan to put it somewhere else, and if so, another picture would be great.

Are you planning to build a coop inside that run?

What kind of materials, budget, and building skills do you have? Don't worry if you are a beginner; BYC has lots of people who can help you plan. You Tube can teach you some basic skills if you need to learn.

Here are some thoughts to get you started. Chain link is a great foundation to work with, but a lot of predators can get through it, like rats, weasels, snakes. Not sure what kinds of critters you might have to deal with.

Chicken wire is great for keeping chickens IN. It's next to useless at keeping predators OUT. Raccoons can tear it apart.

You will want some kind of roof over at least part of that to keep the rain out. You will also want something to keep hawks or other birds of prey out. Raccoons could climb up and over too.

If you're thinking of a prefab coop.... most of them aren't very good, and the good ones are $$$$. It's better to build your own. Look at some of the coop articles for ideas. You can do a lot with just a little bit of skill, money and ingenuity.

Again, let us know more about what you're planning. And

 

[3KillerBs]

In Florida an open air coop -- a roofed wire box -- would be perfect.

You might want to add just a little bit of side panel to block the prevailing winter winds -- more to keep blowing rain out than for anything else (and maybe to give you some kind of solid structure to hang the nest boxes from).

@U_Stormcrow is in Florida and can give you excellent advice.

 

[jthornton]

I would put a roof with big overhangs and not put too many chickens in there as it's pretty small area. Chain link fence will keep bigger predators out but smaller ones can fit through, I've seen an opossum go through my chain link fence once... they stay out now as they don't like getting shocked by the hot wires.

JT

 

[U_Stormcrow]

17 x 6? I'd do the whole thing as a combined open air coop and run.

You've space for maybe 10 birds there, I'd keep it to 8. Your heaviest rainfall are June, July, August, falling off in September. Winds during that period are primarily out of the south, south east, or south west. Hopefully, your dog kennel runs North/South. If so, I'd throw up a wall on the south side, plus a short portion of the east and west sides to form an enclosed "c" shape.

Whether you want to do a raised coop (and thus, only half walls) or run the walls all the way to the ground is up to you. There are tradeoffs to either design. Unfortunately, you are going to have to walk into the coop to gather eggs - chain link isn't the easiest material to cut good holes in w/o specialized tools and extra materials. For that reason, I'd lean towards a raised coop, to get things up to a comfortable height for you to gather from.

Material is also up to you - the chain fence provides much of the structure, but isn't exactly conducive to attachment via nails or screws. I'd have to stare at the hardware aisle for a while to have a recommend there - and how I'd attach a polycarbonate panel is obviously different than how I might attach plywood or even sheet metal - but if you du use metal or polycarb, 2 sheets at 2' (nominal width) and 12' length, two cuts later, and you've got 3' for the left side, 6' across the back, and 3' for the right side - which encloses plenty of space for 8 birds. Hang two or three nest boxes (plastic "milk crates" might be good for this), a perch rod or two above that, and you've got a very practical hen house for all but hurricane conditions.

Then using 2x8s, 24" oc and secured to the top of the kennel by two hole straps (size these based on the diameter of the pipe at the top of your run) and probably 6' of roofing in width, leaving the rest open. Span is short enough, you could lay them on the flats and pretend they are purlins. Will sag in time, but not much.

You can do that with either 2 pieces of 39" x 8' roof steel, or 3 pieces of 26" x 8' roof steel. Whether or not to cover the rest is budget and predators. Optionally, cover about 7' of the cage by running the steel parallel with the long axis of the cage, leaving about a 1' overhang in three dimensions.

Vaguely (yes, I used a mickey mouse paint program instead of doing it on CAD. I'm being a lazy ass tonight)

 

[aart]

I would put a roof with big overhangs and not put too many chickens in there as it's pretty small area.

Yes ...a BIG roof.

 

[Talavar]

Shade, rain shelter, and enough room for each chicken to have a 2x2' space. 17x6 allows 25 chickens at the most (comfortably). Make sure they can all get out of the baking sun. It's the most dangerous. other than that.. all preference I'd say. Also, depending on the breed, if day ranging isn't an option, might not want to put more than 1 rooster in there. Things could get fighting-arena-like.. lol .. I like to give each rooster at-least 100 sq ft to himself (agressive breeds). It helps keep things calm.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

as I think on this, one further comment. Orlando area is one of the worst places in the country to have chickens. Hot plus Humid - even worse than the Florida coasts in some ways. When you choose your chickens, I'd recommend favoring breeds with large, prominent combs, clean legs, small to moderate size. Maybe even consider light colors, like buff or even golden.

Not that you can't raise other birds -I have similar (if slightly cooler, ~ 5-7 degrees on average) conditions here, and am raising Dark Brahma, but easier if you select birds better suited to the climate.

You -

Me -

 

[jthornton]

While chicken math says 6' x 17' can hold x number of chickens the 6' part is an issue because the bottom of the rung chickens won't be able to get away from the top chickens. I have 12 Cinnamon Queens that have an 8' x 12' coop and a 10' x 16' run and it's just too crowded... 8 would have much more room in my Coop Deux and have less picking and plucking going on. I was supposed to have a much larger yard for them but it fell through for the time being.

JT