Coop Interior Help/Thoughts, Please: Sketched ideas on page 2

[NightingaleJen]

Well, as it turns out, we had a pretty difficult year health-wise and with deaths in our little family, so coop work stalled a quite a bit. We do have the 8x16 structure's exterior (mostly) finished; Hubby was working on the frames for the windows this past week.

Since we do have a blank-slate structure, it seemed wise to post Hubby's sketch here and ask for opinions about how we should arrange the inside. BYCers really do have excellent advice thanks to all the experience around here and we thought it was best to get as good a start as possible by taking advantage of everyone else's wisdom before we get to work inside the coop!

My guess is we will begin with 6-8 chicks, but I have been reading BYC for long enough and known a few other chicken folks enough to be VERY aware of Chicken Math. Very aware.

So, attached is an exciting scale drawing looking inside the coop from above. I'd love to hear what you think so far as what the interior arrangement should be.

I would like/need an area on the human-door side for storing feed, tools, and the like, including an avian infirmary if necessary. All windows will be securely covered with hardware cloth and a hopper-style cover for our lovely inclement/freezing weather.

Obviously we need a roost and nesting boxes—as well as a spot for the pop door for the birds—we plan to put that on the far side of the coop (thank you Gary Larsen). (When I said "blank slate", I meant it!) The only human door is the one you see on the left side of the building; we will build a wall with a door between the "working" area and the "avian overlord" area. We wish for the nestboxes to be fitted onto the interior wall of the coop.

A spot for feed—I've seen some of the PVC pipe feeders that look workable—would also obviously be good (it seems in the midst of our difficult year I misplaced my wish list...!) as would a spot for water in our midwestern wintertime.

It would also be nice to have a brooder inside the coop, though I suppose inside the working area would be okay, too—my hope is to, eventually, have hens hatching their own broods, and suspect it's better for that to happen within the flock, but that the chicks would still need protection after a fashion. Perhaps I'm wrong. Feel free to let me know (preferably kindly...!). Our current house is quite small, so brooding indoors is not something we're too keen on—plus I just tend to think that for the most part, chickens are better off outdoors.

Hubby would like to use the deep litter method, and doesn't think we particularly need a poop board, but we are definitely open to your opinions, or I wouldn't be here asking for suggestions!

The windows are all roughly 22" tall. The coop will be open (w/hardware cloth covering) from the top of the wall to the roof on three sides, about 5-5.5" front and back and variable along the side, since the roof is rather like that of a lean-to. I'm big on ventilation, but Hubby's a bit concerned the critters will get cold, so for now, what is there is our compromise—though we can always add more, even pigeon-cote style holes covered in HC.

We were thinking of painting the inside with just a plain gloss/semigloss white or other very light colour, for simplicity's and cleanliness' (Hahahahahahaha!) sake. Is that okay? Would an old-fashioned whitewash be better?

The coop will have electric run out to it, so we can use a fan if necessary in summer and a water heater of some sort come winter.

I think that is most of what you need to know but will try to answer any clarifying questions swiftly. I really appreciate everyone's help. Thanks! Happy New Year, all.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Well with that space you can do almost anything, really. Not sure how much space you want for the storage side, but for the sake of argument let's assume it's half chicken, half storage, which would give you space for 10-14 birds, depending on layout and your winter conditions. So consider your chicken math and decide if that will be enough for your needs: how many eggs are you hoping for, are you willing to sell/eat retired layers, etc.

Is there going to be a run? If so, pop door goes wherever the run is going to be placed.

Nest boxes ideally should be a bit of distance from the pop door, the reason being it helps the birds "wipe off" their feet on the bedding when coming in from outside, so you'll tend to maintain a cleaner nest box. Mine sit on the ground, so they eat up some floor space, but if brooding is in your plans that may be a better set up. Or you can save some floor space and elevate the boxes a bit (something like 18" should be enough for that), or higher if you want to make it easier on your back. There is no "right" answer so place them where it makes sense to you.

Same with roost and feeder/waterer placement, you might need to sort of map it out on graph paper a few times to figure out what works for you. I mapped everything out and still ended up moving the nest box at the last minute.

Brooder inside the coop (which can also double as an infirmary, no need for 2 separate items when they won't be in use every day) is a great idea. There's a few recent threads showing coop brooders and run brooders. Some people even have ones that are panels that can be disassembled when not in use to open up more space.

As far as deep litter, will your coop/shed be sitting directly on soil? It's more difficult to do deep litter on a floor versus the ground, as there's no moisture (which you don't want in a coop) to help with breaking down poop. Deep bedding works well inside coops with floors, though if it's a wood floor I'd recommend treating the floor with something like Black Jack 57 or paint, or covering with linoleum, etc. I do not have poop boards, but I do scoop up poop inside the coop every morning to minimize the need to clean out the coop (I do 2x a year clean outs) and to keep moisture and ammonia levels down.

Regular outdoor paint or whitewash is fine for interior, but keep in mind those pristine white walls won't stay white for long! I did not bother painting inside my coop.

As far as ventilation, math out the sq footage you have so far... ideally you want to keep open a minimum of 1 sq ft per chicken (so 14 sq ft using my earlier number) or 10% of floor space, whichever is greater. If you can go above minimum, all the better. Sounds like most your ventilation will be high so that should work well. If summers are hotter in your area, have additional ventilation that you can open/close as needed (windows are great for that).

 

[DobieLover]

Well, as it turns out, we had a pretty difficult year health-wise and with deaths in our little family, so coop work stalled a quite a bit. We do have the 8x16 structure's exterior (mostly) finished; Hubby was working on the frames for the windows this past week.

Since we do have a blank-slate structure, it seemed wise to post Hubby's sketch here and ask for opinions about how we should arrange the inside. BYCers really do have excellent advice thanks to all the experience around here and we thought it was best to get as good a start as possible by taking advantage of everyone else's wisdom before we get to work inside the coop!

My guess is we will begin with 6-8 chicks, but I have been reading BYC for long enough and known a few other chicken folks enough to be VERY aware of Chicken Math. Very aware.

So, attached is an exciting scale drawing looking inside the coop from above. I'd love to hear what you think so far as what the interior arrangement should be.

I would like/need an area on the human-door side for storing feed, tools, and the like, including an avian infirmary if necessary. All windows will be securely covered with hardware cloth and a hopper-style cover for our lovely inclement/freezing weather.

Obviously we need a roost and nesting boxes—as well as a spot for the pop door for the birds—we plan to put that on the far side of the coop (thank you Gary Larsen). (When I said "blank slate", I meant it!) The only human door is the one you see on the left side of the building; we will build a wall with a door between the "working" area and the "avian overlord" area. We wish for the nestboxes to be fitted onto the interior wall of the coop.

A spot for feed—I've seen some of the PVC pipe feeders that look workable—would also obviously be good (it seems in the midst of our difficult year I misplaced my wish list...!) as would a spot for water in our midwestern wintertime.

It would also be nice to have a brooder inside the coop, though I suppose inside the working area would be okay, too—my hope is to, eventually, have hens hatching their own broods, and suspect it's better for that to happen within the flock, but that the chicks would still need protection after a fashion. Perhaps I'm wrong. Feel free to let me know (preferably kindly...!). Our current house is quite small, so brooding indoors is not something we're too keen on—plus I just tend to think that for the most part, chickens are better off outdoors.

Hubby would like to use the deep litter method, and doesn't think we particularly need a poop board, but we are definitely open to your opinions, or I wouldn't be here asking for suggestions!

The windows are all roughly 22" tall. The coop will be open (w/hardware cloth covering) from the top of the wall to the roof on three sides, about 5-5.5" front and back and variable along the side, since the roof is rather like that of a lean-to. I'm big on ventilation, but Hubby's a bit concerned the critters will get cold, so for now, what is there is our compromise—though we can always add more, even pigeon-cote style holes covered in HC.

We were thinking of painting the inside with just a plain gloss/semigloss white or other very light colour, for simplicity's and cleanliness' (Hahahahahahaha!) sake. Is that okay? Would an old-fashioned whitewash be better?

The coop will have electric run out to it, so we can use a fan if necessary in summer and a water heater of some sort come winter.

I think that is most of what you need to know but will try to answer any clarifying questions swiftly. I really appreciate everyone's help. Thanks! Happy New Year, all.

View attachment 1992129

The majority of the features you are looking for can be found in the coop I built. My coop is also in a 16'x8' building. I have a built in brooder, the nest box is accessible from the "chicken free zone", I have hinged top windows on all four walls and one winterizable waterer inside the coop. I put a second waterer and all the feed stations in the run to maximize space in the coop. But my run is fully predator proof so I don't close the pop door.
This is a link to My Coop build article. I think you can modify my design to suit the layout of your coop.
And I STRONGLY recommend poop boards. I did DLM in my old coop and poop boards in the new coop and would never consider doing anything other than poop boards. It is so easy to keep the coop clean that way. I spend 20 minutes on morning chores for 28 chickens which includes feeding, topping off water and scooping 41 sq ft of poop boards. I moved my flock into their new coop on Easter Sunday last year and have not cleaned out the shavings yet. No need.

 

[aart]

Will have to read it all later...but just wanted to say...
I Escaped Metro Detroit too!

Lots of ways to do things, take your time to think it thru.

Is roof up yet...does it have large overhangs with open soffits...got pics?

 

[CatWhisperer]

Agreeing with DobieLover. You definitely want poop boards. Mine are covered with 1/2-1” of sweet PDZ and scooped every morning. I also use the deep litter method. My chickens free range during the day so there isn’t much poop in the coop except what happens overnight so it never smells bad in there. The more hygienic you can make their home the healthier your birds will be/stay.

 

[RichardB-SETN]

My suggestion is to hinge the roost bars for cleaning and access. My hinge is just bolts through the top of the roost bar "stringer" and the wall studs. I added eyebolts to the base of the roost bars and chains with S-hooks to suspend the bars while I'm working under them. They've been even more useful than I had hoped. Getting the roost bars out of the way has been one of my favorite features in my coop.

 

[aart]

You definitely want poop boards. Mine are covered with 1/2-1” of sweet PDZ and scooped every morning. I also use the deep litter method.

Don't poop boards kind if defeat a composting deep litter?

Love my poop boards:

 

[NightingaleJen]

Thanks for your responses, all! We do really have 'til spring, but Hubby figured he might as well work on these things now so we're as prepared as possible.

@rosemarythyme We figure the actual coop area will be at least 8x10, perhaps even x12; I eat lots of eggs and honestly just generally like birds. We are willing to eat "retired" birds, knowing even so that we're sure to have a few so personable they may not meet that end. There will be a large secure run, plus we will free-range the birds for at least part of the day.

Thank you for the reminder that the girls need to have clean feet before hitting the nest box! Ha! So far as the initially pristine white paint...Oh, I know. I certainly don't expect it to stay anywhere near pristine but figure it will at least bounce a little more light around, and gloss will make scrubbing a bit easier too, if my kitchen walls are any indication.

The coop is raised a bit off the ground with a wood floor (we're running HC all around the bottom of the shed to discourage visitors, plus Hubby put more HC beneath the underlayment of the coop building—so it's frame, HC, flooring). I'm not sure about deep litter, but Hubby wants this to be as simple as possible for me to deal with. Still thinking that just for health/scent reasons, I may want a poop board I can clean daily. Regardless, we're going to be covering the floor with something, be it linoleum or Black Jack.

I'll double-check on the ventilation—having grown up with small parrots in the house, the importance of good fresh air for birds is well known to me. We will have windows we can open & close as necessary, because in addition to bitter winters, we also get to have hot, humid summers.

Thank you, @DobieLover! We'll take a look at your coop, I appreciate the suggestion. In your newer coop with the poop boards, do you still use deep litter as @CatWhisperer does?

@aart Ah, another Detroiter! Even my family finally moved out of the area (alas). The roof does have an overhang, 12" IIRC, and the soffits are open. I will try to get more photos tomorrow, but right now have this one (also featuring our beloved and very recently departed collie Ben... :'( You never truly realize how much you talk to your canine buddy 'til he is gone.).

@RichardB-SETN, thank you for that suggestion. We'd already been tossing that idea around!

Oh! ETA: I would like to be able to have feed and heated water inside the coop itself for the birds during winter, though not summer. No problem clearing the run but...better safe than sorry, I guess...Dad *was* a Boy Scout. And Grandpa was a Marine.

Hope those answers are good enough. I'll try to get pictures tomorrow or Saturday. I appreciate your help, all!

 

[aart]

@aart Ah, another Detroiter! Even my family finally moved out of the area (alas).

very recently departed collie Ben... :'( You never truly realize how much you talk to your canine buddy 'til he is gone.).

I left 40 years ago, my sis still lives there.


Yup, just lost my last dog in Oct.
I still talk to him anyway

 

[NightingaleJen]

Hubby just found this (pre-roof) shot on his phone after also reading through the thread.



@aart Well...hearing you still talk to your chum makes us both feel better.