We used what we had on hand to build our original coops and mostly they are ok. However, if money had been no object my dream coop would have...
A solid walkway from my house to the coop area. Easy to shovel the snow.
A long building, large enough to have separate coop areas inside. The walkway would lead to a 'real' door on the backside that I could open and walk in, without walking through snow, mud, slush or chicken you know what. All of my feed containers would be easy to open and reach. I'd have enough coop areas that if some chickens didn't get along, I'd have other options for housing.
There would be automatic doors to the outside free-range area that opened an hour or so after sun up and sun down. Heat and/or lights if needed.
Plenty of windows for winter light that could be opened as screens in the summer for air.
What do I have???
First keep in mind that due to an accident years ago I don't have much agility and have to depend on others to help me. So, I don't have the option to just switch or rebuild things to better suit me.
I have...
A slippery backyard to navigate to the coop area (4 separate coops). My feed is kept in 50 gallon drums under a leanto. Dh does the morning chores and since I can't reach more than 1/2 down into the drum that includes making sure that I can reach the feed for the nighttime chores.
Gates to the three yards that get stuck on the heaved ground when it freezes. With an armload of feed buckets, chickens can run out from their yard to see if they can find some food I might have dropped along the way.
One gate is behind a potting shed - the snow there turns to ice and it is an experience to get the gate opened and me into the yard still standing.
Dh and I must have been brain dead when the next coop run was built. I knew he was building the coop across the yard from where I had told him but I was so shocked to find him outside building the coop on his own that the negatives involved slipped my mind. Of course, after the coop was completed the first negative popped in - the front of the coop faced west - the sun would never hit the window. I asked if perhaps he could turn it , I didn't want to sound ungrateful but it was a dark, cold coop. A few weeks later, I realized that it was ALL wrong. The coop is across the yard from the gate. I have to walk through all that mud and poo to just get to the coop. The coop is always damp - when I suggested that it be turned, he forgot to finish the roof - I noticed yesterday that it has a leak. This summer, I'm going to suggest that he dismantle it and move it. I think he'll see the reasoning behind it when the ground starts to thaw and the area floods - there is a low area between the gate and the coop - a French drain area to help keep the house from flooding during irrigation. I don't think he thought about that.
Lastly, the double coop. The first one was built on a wooden floor unit we found when we moved in. Someone must have dismantled a shed. We built a leanto coop out of extra doors we also found and the back wall is an old cement brick wall. As a 'make it out of what you have'-type coop it has one main drawback, a slanting ceiling that I knock my head on if I'm not careful. Other than that, I would dearly love some real roosts built in. I've asked for them for years but Dh has had his mind elsewhere (finishing a masters). He did build a second coop off to the side of the first. However, he didn't put the window in the position I had requested so it is a bit dark. The ceiling is so low I've almost torn off the top of my head a few time when trying to catch a chicken.
ONE LAST GOOD THING ABOUT MY CHICKEN YARD
I asked Dh last summer to add a third coop onto the other side of the first. Instead he ordered those starplates to build one of those. Hey, my idea was for another leanto built with wood we had onhand, but if building a "dome" shaped coop would get it done, all the better. The frame is still sitting out in the chicken yard. He did get a roof on it but couldn't figure out how to do the door so that I could easily get in and out.
He put it on the opposite side of the yard - but I pointed out that when the snow melted, there would be amoat of water around it so he moved it closer to the original two coops.
What I like about it - even though it was never finished. We wrapped it in 6 mil plastic and moved the feeding stations out there from the chicken coop areas. No more mice in the chicken coops scrounging for food. In bad weather, the chickens have a nice area to mill around. We've put a 'bathing station' in there and I intend to add some roosts and nesting boxes. I'm debating ever closing it in with wood - but intead, perhaps with wire. It is close enough to the original coops that if some law came down that Chickens must be enclosed it would be easy to run wood supports to it and give our girls plenty of room to run and play.
I've babbled far too long. It's time to go out and slip and slide in the snow to give the girls some grain before they get locked up for the night.
Spring is one the way - I know it is - a few months, but each day is a day closer.
A solid walkway from my house to the coop area. Easy to shovel the snow.
A long building, large enough to have separate coop areas inside. The walkway would lead to a 'real' door on the backside that I could open and walk in, without walking through snow, mud, slush or chicken you know what. All of my feed containers would be easy to open and reach. I'd have enough coop areas that if some chickens didn't get along, I'd have other options for housing.
There would be automatic doors to the outside free-range area that opened an hour or so after sun up and sun down. Heat and/or lights if needed.
Plenty of windows for winter light that could be opened as screens in the summer for air.
What do I have???
First keep in mind that due to an accident years ago I don't have much agility and have to depend on others to help me. So, I don't have the option to just switch or rebuild things to better suit me.
I have...
A slippery backyard to navigate to the coop area (4 separate coops). My feed is kept in 50 gallon drums under a leanto. Dh does the morning chores and since I can't reach more than 1/2 down into the drum that includes making sure that I can reach the feed for the nighttime chores.
Gates to the three yards that get stuck on the heaved ground when it freezes. With an armload of feed buckets, chickens can run out from their yard to see if they can find some food I might have dropped along the way.
One gate is behind a potting shed - the snow there turns to ice and it is an experience to get the gate opened and me into the yard still standing.
Dh and I must have been brain dead when the next coop run was built. I knew he was building the coop across the yard from where I had told him but I was so shocked to find him outside building the coop on his own that the negatives involved slipped my mind. Of course, after the coop was completed the first negative popped in - the front of the coop faced west - the sun would never hit the window. I asked if perhaps he could turn it , I didn't want to sound ungrateful but it was a dark, cold coop. A few weeks later, I realized that it was ALL wrong. The coop is across the yard from the gate. I have to walk through all that mud and poo to just get to the coop. The coop is always damp - when I suggested that it be turned, he forgot to finish the roof - I noticed yesterday that it has a leak. This summer, I'm going to suggest that he dismantle it and move it. I think he'll see the reasoning behind it when the ground starts to thaw and the area floods - there is a low area between the gate and the coop - a French drain area to help keep the house from flooding during irrigation. I don't think he thought about that.
Lastly, the double coop. The first one was built on a wooden floor unit we found when we moved in. Someone must have dismantled a shed. We built a leanto coop out of extra doors we also found and the back wall is an old cement brick wall. As a 'make it out of what you have'-type coop it has one main drawback, a slanting ceiling that I knock my head on if I'm not careful. Other than that, I would dearly love some real roosts built in. I've asked for them for years but Dh has had his mind elsewhere (finishing a masters). He did build a second coop off to the side of the first. However, he didn't put the window in the position I had requested so it is a bit dark. The ceiling is so low I've almost torn off the top of my head a few time when trying to catch a chicken.
ONE LAST GOOD THING ABOUT MY CHICKEN YARD
I asked Dh last summer to add a third coop onto the other side of the first. Instead he ordered those starplates to build one of those. Hey, my idea was for another leanto built with wood we had onhand, but if building a "dome" shaped coop would get it done, all the better. The frame is still sitting out in the chicken yard. He did get a roof on it but couldn't figure out how to do the door so that I could easily get in and out.
He put it on the opposite side of the yard - but I pointed out that when the snow melted, there would be amoat of water around it so he moved it closer to the original two coops.
What I like about it - even though it was never finished. We wrapped it in 6 mil plastic and moved the feeding stations out there from the chicken coop areas. No more mice in the chicken coops scrounging for food. In bad weather, the chickens have a nice area to mill around. We've put a 'bathing station' in there and I intend to add some roosts and nesting boxes. I'm debating ever closing it in with wood - but intead, perhaps with wire. It is close enough to the original coops that if some law came down that Chickens must be enclosed it would be easy to run wood supports to it and give our girls plenty of room to run and play.
I've babbled far too long. It's time to go out and slip and slide in the snow to give the girls some grain before they get locked up for the night.
Spring is one the way - I know it is - a few months, but each day is a day closer.
