Coop location question

[goldenfingers]

We are new to raising chickens. One week ago we bought our first 3 chicks and they appear to be doing just fine. Now we need to get some outdoor accommodations set up for them. We live in a subdivision and don't have lots of space. Previous to getting the chicks we bought an assemble-at-home coop kit that was on clearance sale. While we don't believe the kit coop will suit our long-term needs, it will have to do for now. Our immediate question concerns where to locate the coop in our yard.

In the six years we've lived here, these are our observations:
1. The wind blows a lot, almost always from the south
2. Winters are cold, long, snowy (multiple feet deep), windy, and not much sunshine
3. Winter temps commonly get into the single digits (either side of 0 degrees F) overnight, and maybe into the teens or occasionally into the lower 20s during the day. Sometimes we'll have stretches of negative teens temperature.
4. Summers, still windy, can reach up to the high 90s F sometimes, but always cool down to the 40s or 50s every night
5. we have a pretty small back yard with neighbors very close to the back fence
6. our house faces south

I've tried to attach (I hope I did it right) some photos of the back of our house. Our thinking is that we will place the kit coop between the windows, remove all the junk from under the 8x10 deck, enclose the underside of the deck with chicken wire or equivalent, and enclose a pathway between the kit coop and the space under the deck.

Pros:
1. House will block much of the wind, especially during the cold winter
2. Will fit into our budget because we won't have to construct much
3. Proximity to the house will diminish the amount of snow falling on the coop
4. Close access to electrical outlet, if needed

Cons:
1. Being on the north side, this area does not get a full day of direct sunshine, even in the summer, but gets basically no direct sunlight in the winter
2. Difficulty of keeping the area under the deck clean because of how low it is to the ground

So there you have it! I'm really hoping you experienced folks will be able to help us get this figured out.

Thanks!

 

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

This picture is terrible! What I would do is have a coop on the back side of your deck and fence in t under your deck and also have a fenced in area to the side of the deck by the window so the girls can get some sun, the pic I drew is very rough, but I hope you kind of get the picture

 

[Ridgerunner]

My main criteria when positioning a coop or run is to look at drainage. If it drains then you can make it work. If water stands there or drains to it you are probably going to have problems. How is your drainage?

Chicken wire will keep chickens in and stop many smaller predators. But big dogs and some other larger predators like a full grown boar raccoon can tear their way in. Hardware cloth is better but the same predators can tear the lighter gauge stuff. My personal preference is a heavy gauge wire like 2" x 4" welded wire but some smaller things can get through the openings. There are pros and cons for all different wires but a light gauge chicken wire does present some potential issues. Some people use chicken wire and it works for them but others of us have other preferences.

The limited light doesn't normally bother me that much though my preference would be for more. Wire around the deck will let in a lot of secondary light but it will never be that bright with that deck roof. Your kit probably doesn't allow for a lot of light either in the coop. All things considered the northern position isn't a deal killer but the way it's coming together it is not optimum.

Using the area under the deck for the run has some benefits and some issues. You cannot stand up, are you ready to crawl around in chicken poop when you need to get under there? You may need to get under there more than you expect. A hen may decide to make a nest under there. You may need to clean up chicken poop if it builds up much. The deck is probably not water proof so water will drip through but it should stop snow from covering it. If they can get to it from the coop, it should provide extra room for them in the winter. That can be a big plus in your climate but not having good access would stop me from using the area under the deck.

I don't like a coop or run that close to the house. If it gets wet for a period or if the poop builds up too much it can stink. If you limit it to three hens they are not going to poop that much but the poop can still build up. If you keep it dry enough and manage the poop it doesn't have to stink but the potential is there.

Another issue is that the feed tends to attract vermin, especially mice and maybe rats or other critters. Some people try to manage that by locking the feeders up at night but sometimes the vermin might feed during the day. Or the feed that the chickens spill during the day can attract them. Still locking the fee up works for some people.

As far as the chickens you can probably make that area work. You can probably save some money by fencing it in. But I'm not sure long term you will be very happy with that area.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Another thing to make sure to check in advance, are you allowed to have a chicken coop that close to your house?

If my house was set up for it I'd consider having a chicken area under a deck (some houses have fantastic large decks with good head clearance), but moisture and pests are also big considerations, along with accessibility and legality.

 

[goldenfingers]

Thanks for the replies!

crazy4ChikensNducks, I definitely get the idea from your drawing. Thanks for opening up another option we can add to our mix!

rosemarythyme, The rules for our neighborhood are that you can have up to five smaller animals (no cows, for example). I'm not aware of any rules regarding how close they can be kept to the house. One of the reasons I forgot to mention earlier for keeping things close to the house is that the sprinkling system does not reach those areas. Am I right in thinking that getting sprinkled every couple of days would not be good?

Ridgerunner, I think the drainage is ok. My biggest worry about this proposal is the smell. Originally I dismissed the idea of using the deck in any way and decided to put everything along the back fence, but after much head scratching it kind of turned out to seem like the best, least disruptive solution in this case (I won't have to re-engineer the sprinkler system, for one thing). But the thought of crawling around in poop under the deck does not excite me in the least. We were hoping to be able to make it so that we could easily move at least one "wall" out of the way and reach under the deck with a rake or something to clean things out. Is that a reasonable hope, or just crazy talk? We have not noticed vermin or predators by us, but we've never had anything out in the yard that would bring them to us, either, so that remains an unknown.

Your responses have spurred other thoughts. We wondered if we could lay a tarp down on the top surface of the deck floor to eliminate dripping through the spaces, particularly during winter when it's just covered with snow anyway. What do you think? Oh, and it would probably be good to let you know that our backyard is completely fenced so the chickens could do some winter roaming to find some sun.

We realize that what we're trying to do is in no way ideal and we are hoping to be able to get into a house in a more rural section of town with more outside space as soon as we can, but who knows how long that will be. For now, we will simply have to do the best we can with what we have.

Thanks again for the great advice!

 

[Ridgerunner]

We were hoping to be able to make it so that we could easily move at least one "wall" out of the way and reach under the deck with a rake or something to clean things out. Is that a reasonable hope, or just crazy talk?

I'm not sure of the height of that deck or the size. Could you split the area under the deck and only use part of it for chickens and still have enough room for your three? Limit it to as far as you think you can reach with a rake. I use a rake to clean out from under my small elevated grow-out coop.

We wondered if we could lay a tarp down on the top surface of the deck floor to eliminate dripping through the spaces, particularly during winter when it's just covered with snow anyway. What do you think?

On a flat deck the water will not go anywhere, just sit there and freeze in winter. In summer a tarp would probably make your deck not usable. Not sure how happy you would be with that.

For now, we will simply have to do the best we can with what we have.

That's all we can do.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I'm not aware of any rules regarding how close they can be kept to the house. One of the reasons I forgot to mention earlier for keeping things close to the house is that the sprinkling system does not reach those areas. Am I right in thinking that getting sprinkled every couple of days would not be good?

Those types of rules would typically be in the town's zoning ordinances (or county, if you don't have a town). So I'd check with your town's ordinances first, because putting in time and money into altering the deck only to find that it can't be used, isn't ideal. At least your coop should be easy to move if that becomes necessary.

Sprinklers aren't ideal in a chicken set up but isn't necessarily a flat out "no" either. As long as the interior of the coop stays dry, a little artificial "rain" won't really hurt anything. For the same reason I don't think I'd tarp over the deck, if you do end up using that area... a little rain falling through the deck slats won't kill the chickens.

Chickens can be smelly and/or attract pests though if you keep their area clean and manage poop and feed waste properly you really can negate a lot of that, so having them under a deck wouldn't necessarily be a problem. That said, I am concerned that it might be really hard to get under there to clean up, because it does seem rather low, and crawling or hunching over to clean will get tiresome really fast.

 

[goldenfingers]

The deck is about 8x10 feet with a ground clearance of about 3 feet. The idea of trying to limit the space to what we can reach easily (that's most likely a funny joke) with a rake would hopefully lessen the pain. Boy, I wish we had a better situation here.

 

[goldenfingers]

This first year might end up being a test run to learn what does and doesn't work.

 

[rosemarythyme]

This first year might end up being a test run to learn what does and doesn't work.

Not a bad idea! You already acknowledged the coop you got probably won't work long term, so if you treat the first year as a learning period, by the time you're ready to move (or simply upgrade to a bigger set up with more birds) you'll have a lot better idea of what will work for you and your family and your area.

And 8x10 is a good space for 3 birds, so if you do go with the deck idea that would be an adequate run space for them.