coop layout advice

[Cfholcomb]

Hello again, I appreciate all of the great advice I've been given about my coop and run design. Tomorrow I am going to start building the new run. When I am finished, I will have a 6x6x6 foot coop which will be completely closed in aside from vents and a 6x8 foot run which will be closed in by chicken wire. We currently have 3 chickens but I am planning on getting two more. My question now is how to layout the chicken coop itself. My initial thought is to put a nesting box on either side of the door so that we don't have to go in very far to collect eggs. the water and feed will be hanging from the rafters and I want to install a couple perches. Should the nesting boxes be elevated off the floor at all? How far off the floor should the perches be? Should I cover the entire floor with bedding or only the nesting boxes? Thanks for the help. Everyone has been really great with good solid advice so far.

 

[NightFury06]

Hey!
I find that my girls (Bantams) like their perch to be at least a foot off the ground. Really, the higher the better, as long as they can get on and off safely. If you can raise the nest boxes a bit that would be good, but make sure they are lower than their perches. Put a lip around the nest boxes or they will almost certainly kick everything out.
For the bedding, put straw in the nest boxes, enough so they can make their nest shapes. I put dust-extracted wood shavings in my coop as it makes it so much easier to clean out, and they like to kick it around in the mornings.
Hope this helps!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Nest boxes can be on the floor if you want, or elevated. Main thing is you want roosts higher than the nest boxes, to make them more appealing.

Roosts can be almost as high as you want, however keep in mind the higher it goes, the more landing space the birds need in front. My higher roost is about 40" or so up, so the birds need about the same amount of space in front to land.

Yes the entire floor should have bedding/litter, it provides padding when the birds land off the roosts and also catches poop so it doesn't all stick to the floor.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The way I determine the vertical layout of the coop is to first determine the height of the floor, including any bedding. Then I position the nests. Some people put nests on the floor, literally a milk crate or some type of box fastened so the chickens won't flip it over if they perch on an edge. Others put them high enough that they don't need to bend over to collect eggs. Useful if you have a bad back. Or you can put them anywhere in between. My main criteria for that is where is it convenient for you. The chickens will adjust.

Then I put the roosts noticeably higher than the nests. About 12" should be plenty on your relatively small coop. Your weather is so nice in Santa Cruz (thanks for providing that helpful information) that you shouldn't have to worry about this one, but in cold climates i want the winter ventilation over the heads of the chickens when they are on the roost. I don't think you will ever get so cold that becomes a consideration.

I agree you need to make the roosts as low as you reasonably can, after considering your back or other factors. The higher the roosts the more clear area they need to land. Also it is often convenient to be able to comfortably pick a bird off the roosts at night if you want to examine or treat it.

That leads me to your nest placement. They will probably have more clear landing area if you put both nests on the same side. If you wish you can stack one nest above the other or put them side by side. To me that is probably more convenient to you than having one to each side anyway. But you are feeding and watering inside, you don't want them pooping in those from the roosts. So consider clear landing area when you position those too.