I'm about to begin building my very first coop and wanted to see if the great minds here could offer some insight into the particulars and if my ideas will turn out to not be good ones.
I'm going to have 10 hens, and I plan to make 'the egg shaped hoop coop' as the run and the coop proper is going to be a TARDIS (our hens will be named after Dr. Who companions)
Our local Habitat for Humanity re-Store has paneled exterior doors on sale that are 8' tall by 3' wide so the coop will be 6'x6'x8' and the run will be an easily expandable 8'x~6'.
Doors:
One of the lower inset panels will be a raiseable door out into the run.
The people door with be the same as in the show except mine will open out and have a fairly tall (I'm thinking 12"-18") kick plate to keep litter from falling out and chickens from rushing out when I open the door.
The run will also have a full size screen door on the end to allow easy access.
Ventilation:
The windows at the top of the police box will be hardware cloth covered open windows that we'll add wind proof cloth (I don't know what it's called, but it keeps out the rain and wind but still allows some air flow and people around here use it to enclose their covered porches)
The roof of the tardis is tiered so I'm going to make one of the tiers a vent all the way around to maintain plenty of airflow even when the weather makes the brood want to stay inside.
The run is cattle panel covered in hardware cloth and shaded by a heavy duty tarp over half but otherwise open.
Feed and water:
One poultry nipple inside the coop, two outside (is this enough?) fed by a five gallon bucket that's cooled in the summer by frozen two-liter bottle inside and kept liquid in the winter by an aquarium heater.
The feeder will be a 4" PVC pipe cut out to make a feeding trough (same as in the egg shaped hoop coop)
Nest boxes, roosts, etc:
the bottom foot of the back wall will be hinged to fold outward to allow access to the nest boxes (2 or 3?)
The roosts I'm still unsure about. I know I need a minimum of 1' per bird but I don't know how high or wide to make them. My only previous bird experience was a particularly asinine parrot and they need perches they can wrap their feet around with varying diameters and I've seen on here to just use 2x4s for chickens.
The floor will be wood with laminate tiles on it (also available for super cheap at the re-Store)
So that's all I can think of at the moment. Any ideas or critiques are welcomed ^_^
I'm going to have 10 hens, and I plan to make 'the egg shaped hoop coop' as the run and the coop proper is going to be a TARDIS (our hens will be named after Dr. Who companions)
Our local Habitat for Humanity re-Store has paneled exterior doors on sale that are 8' tall by 3' wide so the coop will be 6'x6'x8' and the run will be an easily expandable 8'x~6'.
Doors:
One of the lower inset panels will be a raiseable door out into the run.
The people door with be the same as in the show except mine will open out and have a fairly tall (I'm thinking 12"-18") kick plate to keep litter from falling out and chickens from rushing out when I open the door.
The run will also have a full size screen door on the end to allow easy access.
Ventilation:
The windows at the top of the police box will be hardware cloth covered open windows that we'll add wind proof cloth (I don't know what it's called, but it keeps out the rain and wind but still allows some air flow and people around here use it to enclose their covered porches)
The roof of the tardis is tiered so I'm going to make one of the tiers a vent all the way around to maintain plenty of airflow even when the weather makes the brood want to stay inside.
The run is cattle panel covered in hardware cloth and shaded by a heavy duty tarp over half but otherwise open.
Feed and water:
One poultry nipple inside the coop, two outside (is this enough?) fed by a five gallon bucket that's cooled in the summer by frozen two-liter bottle inside and kept liquid in the winter by an aquarium heater.
The feeder will be a 4" PVC pipe cut out to make a feeding trough (same as in the egg shaped hoop coop)
Nest boxes, roosts, etc:
the bottom foot of the back wall will be hinged to fold outward to allow access to the nest boxes (2 or 3?)
The roosts I'm still unsure about. I know I need a minimum of 1' per bird but I don't know how high or wide to make them. My only previous bird experience was a particularly asinine parrot and they need perches they can wrap their feet around with varying diameters and I've seen on here to just use 2x4s for chickens.
The floor will be wood with laminate tiles on it (also available for super cheap at the re-Store)
So that's all I can think of at the moment. Any ideas or critiques are welcomed ^_^
