Could use guidance from experts

[Equilibrium]

I read many very long threads here. They helped a lot but in many ways.... they left me somewhat overwhelmed. To boot.... my computer had a problem and I've lost all my notes from reading hours and hours of threads over the last coupla months. I'm sorta frustrated to say the least.
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Adding insult to injury.... I had 3 chickens in a small hand me down coop that collapsed in the last snow storm. We thought it would last two years but it barely made it 8 months. The snow from that last storm was just too heavy. I dug out my birds and a neighbor who has chickens took them in until I can get the new coop up. I had planned on building my chicken coop slowly... very slowly. Taking my time to figure things out on my own as we built would have been ideal but I'd like my chickens back.... I'm sort of attached to them so it's time to speed up the process.
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All the materials have been delivered and are here at my home for an 8x12' chicken coop on skids that will be 2x6 construction with insulation and a shingle roof. I've got 4 double hung windows with screens, 2 skylights, a solid core half light door, ridge vents, 2 gable vents, Tyvek, siding, and sheets of plywood to finish off the interior space and sheets of white FRP panels.
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I'm in a cold climate. I'd like to have a total of 10 layers some day so 3 nest boxes would be nice. What I need help with is the design of the interior space. I need to know what I need to buy and where it goes, especially a cage for a sick/injured chicken. I remember reading that was important in threads here. I'd like the front door to be centered facing south on a 12' length of the coop with a window on either side. The coop hasn't been built yet so I can change that if necessary. The coop is going to be to the east of my very small fruit tree orchard and since it's my intent to give the chickens access to the entire orchard by fencing it in, I think a small chicken door on the west side of the coop would be a good idea.
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I also need help picking a floor covering so they're not on bare plywood. A floor covering would be easier to clean for me anyway.
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Thanks in advance to anyone with time to help me make decisions.

 

[Judy]

I'm not a coop expert by any means but can help with some of this, I hope.

I have an 11x17 coop with a corner, about 5x6, fenced off with chicken wire. It's a good spot for an injured chicken or a broody, but if you anticipate actual isolation for disease, that would need to be a good distance from the coop and downwind to be effective. For a roost and 10 chickens, an 8' 2x4 or 2x6 would be ideal, installed flat side up so they can keep their toes warm with their bodies. You could simply install it across the 8' side and have the ventilation on the opposite side. To me, the easiest way to ventilate is build it with a roof slanting only one direction and have the ventilation on the high end. You can cover it with hardware cloth for predator protection, and make a simple wooden awning if you wish for cold weather -- although very cold weather is when ventilation is most critical, to prevent frostbite.

For floor covering, probably the most common on here are linoleum, sometimes run a few inches up the side of the wall, and simple painted plywood -- using a primer and a couple of coats of something like semi gloss or even gloss.

One of our members has written up some excellent material on cold weather coops and ventilation. She is in Canada so she does mean cold weather! Here is a link to her ventilation page, with links to her other material:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-VENTILATION

 

[EggyErin]

For somebody who wanted to go slowly, you sure have amassed a lot of materials quickly! I have a coop with similar basics as yours. Mine is 8 x 10. I have the person door on the south side (10'), one window on that side and two windows on the east side. The chicken door is on the west. I put the human door to the right of center. That way, perches, food, and chicken door are all on the bigger side and nest boxes are along the wall on the right. Water is at the back of the coop straight across from the door and the back, right corner is available for new chicks that are ready to begin acclimating to the coop. The middle section is open enough so that I can move around and not trip over anything when I'm topping up feed or carrying in the waterer. I also have a shed roof that slants front-to-back and the floor is roll vinyl over planks. I got the vinyl cheap as a remnant at Home Depot.

 

[Equilibrium]

Does anyone happen to know the ideal height to install a roost and if a roost can be in front of a window? I'm reading all kinds of things about ideal roost heights with 2' off the ground being best to 2/3rds of our wall height being best so they can fly up.
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ddawn>
-Isolation was the term I was looking for. I first read about an isolation cage here and it made sense. More so for injuries than disease since mine will be contained within the coop. I do have a greenhouse I could stick a chicken or two depending on the circumstances but.... it might not be the wise thing to do. I guess for disease I'll have to wait and see what comes my way in the years ahead.
-"For a roost and 10 chickens, an 8' 2x4 or 2x6 would be ideal, installed flat side up so they can keep their toes warm with their bodies." Excellent "expert" advice, thank you. I had actually been looking at the poles used for clothes closets but what you suggested sounds considerably more practical.
-Oddly enough linoleum/vinyl was the route I wanted to go but the folk at the building centers keep telling me it won't last in an unheated structure in this region.
-Ventilation I might just have under control with two 60" ridge vents thanks to.... reading the exact thread you linked me to last year just before I registered here. If the ventilation I have with the ridge and gable vents is insufficient, I could add a passive vent similar to that which was described in the article.
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EggyErin>
-I've been planning on building a chicken coop for over 2 years.... saving to buy materials for over a year. The collapsed hand me down coop motivated me to do something and well.... the cost of building materials went up shockingly so from when I priced them last August that I figured I'd better do something quick fast before the prices took another huge jump. Lumber is a commodity like corn and sugar.... I didn't feel it would be going down in price any time soon in this horrible economy and really felt an 8x12 chicken coop best met my needs. I had the materials paid for and delivered because another price jump like what I saw in the past 8 months and all I'd have money to build would be an 8x8 with the way things seem to be going.
-Your person door is located on the same side I want to put mine. I'm limited to where I can put the chicken door because of where I've got to site the coop to be able to let them out into the orchard. The chicken door pretty much has to be on the west side of my coop. I like your set up as you described it.... I'm older and don't want to do any face plants in pine shavings and poop so the open space to move around without tripping sounds nice. One odd question.... why 2 windows on the east side of your coop instead of 1 on the east and 1 on the west side to take advantage of cross breezes in summer?

 

[elmo]

Quote:
The reason, I think, that there is so much variation in advice about roost placement is because there are so many different breeds of chickens, from tiny bantams that are excellent fliers to Silkies (who can hop but not fly) to the big, heavy breeds like Australorps. What breeds of chickens will you have?

In general, I think it's good to have about 12 inches of roost width per chicken. I personally like to have all of the roosts at the same height because chickens tend to squabble over who gets the higher roost if you have a ladder style arrangement.

A roost can be in front of a window, but you wouldn't want to have that window be your only source of ventilation in winter. In summer, an open window letting cool breezes blow over the chickens as they roost is a good thing, but not when it's cold.

The only thing about using the long side of a 2" by 6" as a roost is that it will catch more droppings on it than a 2" by 4". Any roost is going to catch some droppings, though. Because of the nature of a chicken's foot, a flatter, wider roost is preferable to a perfectly round roost like a closet pole or dowel.

I just painted the floor of my coop then installed bedding on top of that. Very easy, and works perfectly well.

Have you calculated the square footage of ventilation your roof vents provide? Aim for about 1 square foot of ventilation per chicken for winter use. That should put you in safe territory.

 

[henney penny]

Some pictures of the inside of my coop

 

[henney penny]

Nesting boxes and feeder box

 

[EggyErin]

I did the window arrangement to best capture morning sun in the winter. The sun takes a long time to get over the mountain in the winter so that south/east section can light up well during the day. The chicken door is on the west side and is open all day. I may make a screen door for it so it can stay open at night during the summer for added ventiliation. I may end up drilling some vent holes if necessary but I really hate that western sun in the summer. My girls seem to like have the perches by the windows to look out of before I let them out in the a.m. and after they go in for the evening. In winter I plug the cracks at chicken level but air moves through the upper cracks.

 

[duluthmom]

You sound very competent - even though you don't feel it right now! I have arranged things in my coop so that we don't actually have to step into it to feed, water, and collect eggs. Our floor system - in Northern Minnesota - is wood joist framed with 2" rigid insulation, plywood over that and a scrap piece of rubber roofing stapled and flashed up the wall about 6". Check out my concrete block coop/water heater (search duluthmom water/coop heater) - costed $5 and works like a charm. Your roosts and nest boxes can be any height as long as the girls can climb to them. We have a perimeter roost with a ramp to get them up. The ramp is hinged on one roost so we can lift it off the floor and lean it against the wall for mucking out. I suggest hanging food underneath a row of nest boxes. Our concrete block heater is also under the boxes to keep the water free of poop.

 

[Equilibrium]

Back when I first started trying to get approval for a "garden shed", I submitted this design with a roof that slanted front-to-back http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu/extension/ExtPubs/Plans/6248.pdf along with a color photo of a front similar to this, http://www.cabanavillage.com/sheds/garden-sheds/index.asp where the door was centered with windows flanking it. My "garden shed wasn't approved by the "appearance" committee. A design similar to this complete with a dormer over the front "people" door was re-submitted and ultimately approved, http://millersstoragebuildings.com/storage_buildings/dormers.php providing I didn't add window boxes because.... our house doesn't have window boxes and I guess there's some HOA rule that detached structures have to be designed similar to our house and constructed of materials that "match". Whatever.
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One really good thing about having a gabled roof is that I've got space to add 2 little lofts on either side of the coop to store pine shavings and what not. The walls are 6' so there's plenty of space to add a 2ft shelf to each 8' wall. A little bit of extra storage is always nice and with them being so small.... they won't interfere with the ventilation.
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I took a photo of the new floor plan I drew out but don't know how to get it in a post.
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For the flooring... sealing the plywood with a primer and paint like what elmo did is a real good idea no matter what I ultimately do. The scrap linoleum mentioned before would be great but I did some checking around and so far no luck. Another idea I had was rubber horse mats. Problem with horse mats is they're so darn heavy and expensive. I got to checking around and found there's dog mats out there made of the same material that are half the thickness, half the weight, and about half the price that could work, http://www.humanemfg.com/animal.html. There's a kennel mat in a perfect 8x12 size for me. Problem with the kennel mats is we can't pick em up at farm and fleet like we can horse mats so there's shipping costs to add. I might just decide to not bother with a floor covering at all... I guess that will depend on how our money holds out.
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elmo> I have 2 orpingtons and 1 pet Asrtralorp. Thanks for reminding me to think about the size of birds I have.... no little silkies here.

Once the coop is built, I'll buy more orpingtons and for sure a few americaunas. The 12" spacing you mentioned might be more realistic for me. I read somewhere to take a basketball and use it to give myself an idea of space requirements and I did that and it's been pretty helpful believe it or not. No.... not counting on the windows for ventilation. I bought 2 18" square gable vents, 2 48" ridge vents, and have 8 4"x18" mini vents that go under the eaves that I don't know what the right name for them is plus we do plan on adding a half circle vent over the front door but... we haven't been able to find one to buy so we may have to make one ourselves. This photo isn't my house but it shows an arched vent that's the shape of what I'm looking for, http://www.buyfypon.com/images/main-category/window-pediments.jpg. I know they're out there because we have them on our house.... I've just been having difficulty locating one to buy. Anywhoo.... total square footage of vents is about 11 sf without adding in the vent we haven't bought yet. I think we'll be ok but we can always add a passive roof vent between the two 4' ridge vents. For the roosts, I'll probably try 2 8' parallel 2x4s starting 10" from the west wall in front of the window spaced 11" from each other at about 18" from the ground. I have 3 birds and only plan on getting 7 more so I hope this works.
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henney penny> I LOVE your photos. That feeder to the right of the people door is awesome. I like the look of the ladders.... seems more realistic to me and I'll try adding one if I can find a decent one cheap at a garage sale.
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EggyErin> your window placement makes perfect sense to me now that you "spelled" it out with the mountains and all.... if I had mountains... I'd do the same thing. Wish I had that "mountain" problem... (giggle). BTW.... I changed the front elevation and moved the door off center to the right with a window to the left. I moved the other window to the back wall. I think your ideas work MUCH better than my original idea of a people door smack dab in the center flanked by 2 windows. When I put it on paper.... everything started fitting in so much better eliminating a window in front and moving the door off center to the right.
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duluthmom> really innovative way to keep water free of ice!!! Here's the thread you have your photos in, https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=449436&p=2. The post where you have photos and describe what you've done is post # 20. Bad news.... my coop won't have electricity but.... I love your water heater set up. For the nest boxes I was thinking of raising them a foot off the ground but I could go higher. I'm not going to have many birds so 3 nest boxes in a row should be good enough I think.... not sure. This is sorta what I was thinking would work for me only with slanted tops like in henney penny's photos, http://www.dimensionsguide.com/chicken-nesting-box-dimensions/.