So my beau and I are moving soon and would like to keep a few chickens. Actually honestly just a few. We're pretty decent at keeping our animal levels reasonable. And I'm planning a pen and coop. I don't think we could keep more than about four without expanding the size of the pen we'd like to have... And we're going to start with two. Here's my rough sketch;
Pardon the wrinkled paper. Almost all of this coop is planned to be made from recycled materials. The coop itself is going to be two feet off the ground, supported by bricks or cinderblocks in all four corners and the middle. The walls, floors doors and roof are made from pallets. By taking apart the shelving units and dressers that people like to throw out when they move I intend to line the inside of the coop with particle board or other thin wood and paint it with outdoor paint so it does not warp or rot. The real support for the coop floors and walls comes from the pallets (they're built to hold hundreds of lbs of things after all) and the particle board is mostly there to cover the gaps that the pallets have. It also helps with weight distribution in case of accidents. Then I can use the thicker shelf wood that is normally solid wood or plywood on the outside parts of the coop, roof and nest boxes. These will be sturdier and hold up better to wind and weather. The solid wood will also keep out snooping predators. The area between the particle board insides and the hardwood outsides will be filled with newspaper as insulation. This will keep the coop extra warm in the winter when we get down to 10 degrees outside in blowing snow. The roof will remain uninsulated and will have venting gaps for air motion that will help keep it cool in the summer and ventilated in the winter by allowing the hot moist air to rise and when it reaches the (colder) roof slowly sink out the uninsulated roof gap to outdoors.
The dimensions are pretty simple. The floor space inside is 5'X5' (25sq ft) not including nestboxes. The coop design is 3' high on the low part of the roof and 4' high in the middle for a total of 6' from the ground at the highest point. I designed the coop to go into the corner of a fenced in area 6' high (because we're going to be in a city suburb) so two walls of the coop have nothing on them. There are two nest boxes on the pen side of the coop. There are two doors on the remaining wall. They open outward from the middle to allow full access to the coop from outside the pen.
The nestboxes are about six inches at the lowest point and a foot high at the tallest. Is this too short? They are a little under two feet wide each.
The ramp in is halved and hinged and lifts closed over the chicken door. Then it just latches into place. When you open it again it latches to the second half of the ramp that jut sits on (or is embedded into more likely) the ground. There are non-opening skylight windows in the roof for winter and two opening windows, one on each door.
So now comes the tricky part... The pen. And this is the part I think I really need help with. I'm trying to do this on a budget... Buying chickens does me nothing if it costs me $300 to make the pen so I'd like to cut that cost down. We have some predators in the area... In fact just about everything lives in the area but the only thing you see during the day is deer and domestics (cats and dogs) and those do tend to stay out of fenced lawns what few there are. However we have some bigass foxes around, coons and skunks at night plus the occasional hawk during the day. Most of these critters are well-fed from the massive local rabbit population but I don't put it past them to snag a chicken.
I can get chicken wire or deer netting pretty cheap. Mostly I'm trying to cut hardware cloth out of the budget picture and find alternative dig guards. I was wondering if burying wood or stones could be just as effective as burying hardware cloth. Keep in mind that this pen will already be within a 6ft wood fence (and that fence will be two of the four pen walls) so the extra 3ft up of hardware cloth isn't a big requirement to me. I could possibly find some more solid chainlink or wooden fencing I could use on the non-wooden fence walls just in case.
The total pen size is technically going to be 5X5 feet but also extends under the coop giving them an actual space of about 50sq feet outside the coop. About 10ftX5ft.
So... Coop and pen details out of the way I have some questions before I crack open my builders kit...
Do these plans seem sufficient for keeping a few non-bantam chickens in a backyard? We'd like to start by keeping two but want to have room for 3-4 in case we want to expand in the future. Is 50sqft outdoors (half of which is under the coop space) and 25sqft indoors enough for this or should we try to expand more? (We're fighting proximity to dwellings regulations so it could be hard without cutting into our potential future duck and rabbit space.)
What are some suggested alternatives for dig guards? Has anyone used something other than hardware cloth with any success? In particular if there is any sort of recyclable materials I could use.
Is there ANY way to plant the coop so I don't need to pour sand or something over the pen? I'd like to keep it planted if at all possible, but would like to avoid dog-toxic plants as well if at all possible.
Poop boards? Y/N? What to coat them with?
Nest boxes too short? How tall should they be?
Lastly.... Outdoor chicken toys? Since it's a bit of a smallish pen I'd like to have some things out there to keep them entertained and stimulated. Suggestions?
Pardon the wrinkled paper. Almost all of this coop is planned to be made from recycled materials. The coop itself is going to be two feet off the ground, supported by bricks or cinderblocks in all four corners and the middle. The walls, floors doors and roof are made from pallets. By taking apart the shelving units and dressers that people like to throw out when they move I intend to line the inside of the coop with particle board or other thin wood and paint it with outdoor paint so it does not warp or rot. The real support for the coop floors and walls comes from the pallets (they're built to hold hundreds of lbs of things after all) and the particle board is mostly there to cover the gaps that the pallets have. It also helps with weight distribution in case of accidents. Then I can use the thicker shelf wood that is normally solid wood or plywood on the outside parts of the coop, roof and nest boxes. These will be sturdier and hold up better to wind and weather. The solid wood will also keep out snooping predators. The area between the particle board insides and the hardwood outsides will be filled with newspaper as insulation. This will keep the coop extra warm in the winter when we get down to 10 degrees outside in blowing snow. The roof will remain uninsulated and will have venting gaps for air motion that will help keep it cool in the summer and ventilated in the winter by allowing the hot moist air to rise and when it reaches the (colder) roof slowly sink out the uninsulated roof gap to outdoors.
The dimensions are pretty simple. The floor space inside is 5'X5' (25sq ft) not including nestboxes. The coop design is 3' high on the low part of the roof and 4' high in the middle for a total of 6' from the ground at the highest point. I designed the coop to go into the corner of a fenced in area 6' high (because we're going to be in a city suburb) so two walls of the coop have nothing on them. There are two nest boxes on the pen side of the coop. There are two doors on the remaining wall. They open outward from the middle to allow full access to the coop from outside the pen.
The nestboxes are about six inches at the lowest point and a foot high at the tallest. Is this too short? They are a little under two feet wide each.
The ramp in is halved and hinged and lifts closed over the chicken door. Then it just latches into place. When you open it again it latches to the second half of the ramp that jut sits on (or is embedded into more likely) the ground. There are non-opening skylight windows in the roof for winter and two opening windows, one on each door.
So now comes the tricky part... The pen. And this is the part I think I really need help with. I'm trying to do this on a budget... Buying chickens does me nothing if it costs me $300 to make the pen so I'd like to cut that cost down. We have some predators in the area... In fact just about everything lives in the area but the only thing you see during the day is deer and domestics (cats and dogs) and those do tend to stay out of fenced lawns what few there are. However we have some bigass foxes around, coons and skunks at night plus the occasional hawk during the day. Most of these critters are well-fed from the massive local rabbit population but I don't put it past them to snag a chicken.
I can get chicken wire or deer netting pretty cheap. Mostly I'm trying to cut hardware cloth out of the budget picture and find alternative dig guards. I was wondering if burying wood or stones could be just as effective as burying hardware cloth. Keep in mind that this pen will already be within a 6ft wood fence (and that fence will be two of the four pen walls) so the extra 3ft up of hardware cloth isn't a big requirement to me. I could possibly find some more solid chainlink or wooden fencing I could use on the non-wooden fence walls just in case.
The total pen size is technically going to be 5X5 feet but also extends under the coop giving them an actual space of about 50sq feet outside the coop. About 10ftX5ft.
So... Coop and pen details out of the way I have some questions before I crack open my builders kit...
Do these plans seem sufficient for keeping a few non-bantam chickens in a backyard? We'd like to start by keeping two but want to have room for 3-4 in case we want to expand in the future. Is 50sqft outdoors (half of which is under the coop space) and 25sqft indoors enough for this or should we try to expand more? (We're fighting proximity to dwellings regulations so it could be hard without cutting into our potential future duck and rabbit space.)
What are some suggested alternatives for dig guards? Has anyone used something other than hardware cloth with any success? In particular if there is any sort of recyclable materials I could use.
Is there ANY way to plant the coop so I don't need to pour sand or something over the pen? I'd like to keep it planted if at all possible, but would like to avoid dog-toxic plants as well if at all possible.
Poop boards? Y/N? What to coat them with?
Nest boxes too short? How tall should they be?
Lastly.... Outdoor chicken toys? Since it's a bit of a smallish pen I'd like to have some things out there to keep them entertained and stimulated. Suggestions?
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