Coop/run upgrade help

[Esrun]

About 4' at door side, shorter in the back. Here's a link to my article with photos:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/chickens-of-the-woods.78874/

Thanks! Took a quick look at the pictures. Your set up is very close to our needs and current run. We are in CT, uneven ground. I’ll show this to DH who is building. Our egg box would have to go on the front inside the run though. That’s one thing confusing me on how to do it. We also have an auto door (an omlet). The egg box being bc the run is already built w all the hardware cloth.

 

[LER23]

Hi everyone,

We built our run as complete newbies a couple years ago, so please be kind. IT’s functional but not bougie Our run is secure but our coop is teeeeeny. I would really like to get more hens but will need a larger coop. Can anyone give me tips on what to build in our current run? Eventually the shed (which this run is attached to) can be turned into a coop but not for at least a year or two. I was thinking of building up one half of this run (where the coop is now) so they still had underneath to walk around but could house more. We have three bantams (Pickles is making an appeal to you in this picture ) and our coop is ~4x4 the run is ~12x12 but I will be expanding that out on the door side as well.

Compared to my coop, which is one half of an old shed, yours is the taj mahal. Mine looks like a tweeker built it l o l. In regard to your query. I feel like my real mistake was that I just use the shed floor as the floor of the co-op. And didn't raise it up. So I get a little concerned about rats trying to get into the food, and predators, and all the things that come along with that shed floor that sits right above the ground. I hope this helps in your decision-making.

 

[RedwoodCoastChick]

My prefab coop looked great...to a complete chicken newbie raising her first chicks.

But I hadn't learned to THINK POOP whenever considering coop designs. (Sadly, I hadn't yet discovered BYC...)

Among the big problems with actually keeping laying hens in there, is the roosting bar (at a diagonal across the coop) ensures a path through the night's fresh poop for them to enter the nest boxes and to enter/exit the coop's pop door. Result, of course, is dirty feet lead to dirty eggs.

DH built a second roost along the back wall, which helps, but 5 of the 8 girls prefer the diagonal so there's still a lot of poop for them to walk through on the way to lay. We can't relocate the diagonal due to space limitations/access door placement, etc.

And there's not nearly enough vertical space to put in poop trays under the roosts, alas.

The chickens get up & about WAAY earlier than I do, so rushing out at dawn to clean up before they start to lay isn't an option.

Switching over from pine shavings to sand+PDZ on the coop floor is helping - quicker, easier and drier for cleaning, but they still can't help but poop in their path to lay.

They all insist on sharing 2 of the 6 nest boxes, so I use one bank of nests (3 on one side) for supply storage. So many prefab coop designs have too many nest boxes, too little ventilation and poorly-placed roosting bars that will result in this poop problem.

My next coop will definitely have poop trays!!!

[And here I thought I was past having to focus on poop management strategies when my kids were fully potty trained...]

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

An 8x10' run would give 8 birds 10sq ft of space each, and that's the bare minimum.
That coop would be good for 8 birds.

I think it would be a good idea to add more space, you won't regret it! Plus more space the better.

No, if its raised off the ground the space underneath counts.

Adding fake eggs or golf balls to the nesting boxes should help too.

I use ping pong balls, lol

 

[Tookie]

I use ping pong balls, lol

I didn't think of that, good idea! Really anything with a round shape will work.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Is it better to do one long 8’ roosting bar or two 4’ but one taller than the other? If I understand the requirements for space this would be the right size?

My 6 hens had two roosting bars near one another and the same height. I'd watch these hens jump back and forth back and forth until finally settling in for the night. A year went by before i had 1 hen with an injured leg. Week later, another hen with a limp......they each got hurt with the roost drama. The 2 roosts are 6ft long and only about 4inches apart. (Were). I removed 1 whole roost bar and havnt had any leg injuries since. Roost time antics are real! Good luck.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

I didn't think of that, good idea! Really anything with a round shape will work.

I only use one and it makes me laugh when they relocate the ping pong ball. They kick it out of the nest. everyday the ping pong ball is somewhere different. Pretty sure there are some paddles hidden somewhere!

 

[BDutch]

I didn't think of that, good idea! Really anything with a round shape will work.

Ping pong balls are very lightweight. I used them too. But the hens often ping ponged them out of the nestbox.
I rather use rubber or chalk eggs. The toy shops sell chalk eggs for painting and rubber play eggs now (easter eggs). These are great to use as fake eggs.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Ping pong balls are very lightweight. I used them too. But the hens often ping ponged them out of the nestbox.
I rather use rubber or chalk eggs. The toy shops sell chalk eggs for painting and rubber play eggs now (easter eggs). These are great to use as fake eggs.

Yea the ping pong balls were used after my old gals molted for what seemed like a year and I used the ping pongs as a gentle reminder of where to lay seeing that they all decided the nests make better evening beds. Of course they are all laying in that one makeshift nest I made that I cant get to without climbing into the henhouse on my knees and reaching around........well you get my drift. These hens are always 1 step ahead of me, lol.

 

[BDutch]

. Of course they are all laying in that one makeshift nest I made that I cant get to without climbing into the henhouse on my knees and reaching around........well you get my drift.

I would take a next step too. Take it out/block it, make a tiny door from the outside. Do whatever you need to do so your hens use one of the other nests or you can reach for the eggs without crawling.