Critique my coop design please.

[detz]

Updates.

* Cleaned up the roof. Added plywood under the metal roof and rafters.
* Added human door
* Added window and lock/hinges to coop access door
* Resized windows

Questions:
* Should I bother filling the gap between the wall and roof? See the space, I'm guessing something could get there?
* Do my doors need more locks? I'm worried that something could easily pry the human door open and sneak in .

 

[detz]

Redid the nest box and cleaned up a lot of the sizing.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

The wall roof gap is great for ventilation but I'd cover it with hardware cloth. Weasels and mink can get into 1" openings.

My family and I have been raising chickens around here for over 100 years. Always normal predators afoot, but for the first time this year - mink.
A Wal-Mart store is being built about 600 yards away as the crow flies. They cut down about 80 acres of old forest along the creek at the bottom of the hill from me. Voila, mink.
They killed all but one flock of chickens in a few days. $4,000 worth of chickens.

It all looks good. Most people would be proud to have such a nice place for their birds.

If the opening above the cleanout door will be ventilation, that's good. But if you're covering it with wood or Plexiglas then make the window in the run area bigger.
It's covered so no snow or rain can get in.

As for door security, try it yourself. If you can take a pry bar and open an edge an inch or two then you need to beef it up. It may be as simple as putting latches at the top and bottom or use heavier lumber for frames and doors.

 

[SixChickFlock]

As ChickenCanoe says... Two latches, one near the top and one near the bottom would be good.

I don't want to make you do lots more work... But if you had space and budget, I would double the size of the run and add some roost bars out there. For 6 hens, my run is 5' X 10'. Plenty big enough... But I'll be adding anothe 3X5 space below a roof overhang. I'll probably use it as a "dining room" over another covered hideaway similar to that under your hen house.

 

[detz]

Here is what I'm thinking for food and water.

The back of the coop(part you can't see) will have access to poor water and food down the pvc. There is a section in the coop and below it outside.

Ideally I attach a bucket to each of these for when I go on vacation but that's phase two. I'd also love to put in a gutter system and collect the rain water to re-use it.

Thoughts on this layout for food/water? I'll probably end up wrapping the water line in heat tape for the winter too.

Should I put a drip tray?

 

[aart]

Good to be able to close vents/windows in case of extraordinary storms.....depends on prevalent wind, good to be able to adjust to changes in weather.
Lots of vents and windows with hinged covers, you can't go wrong.

Nipples will not flow in frigid weather without heating and/or circulating water...do some research on that.
There are lots of heated nipple waterer designs out there for both vertical and horizontal(superior IMO) nipples.

Nice model....what software? I use Acad Inventor.

 

[detz]

Yeah, keeping the water flowing during the winter is my biggest hurdle right now. I wont have to deal with it immediately since I'm building this next sprint but I want to get it sorted out so I can build for it to begin with.

I'm using SketchUp for these models, works really well.

 

[yellowchicks]

Here is what I'm thinking for food and water.

The back of the coop(part you can't see) will have access to poor water and food down the pvc. There is a section in the coop and below it outside.

Ideally I attach a bucket to each of these for when I go on vacation but that's phase two. I'd also love to put in a gutter system and collect the rain water to re-use it.

Thoughts on this layout for food/water? I'll probably end up wrapping the water line in heat tape for the winter too.

Should I put a drip tray?

Nice CAD drawings! Here are my suggestions:

1. For the watering pipe inside the coop, flip the wye connection, so water flows downward to the horizontal pipe.
2. Lower the height of the filling pipes so that they will be at your chest level instead of over your head, easier for access. If you are concern with the storage volume, increase the pipe size, but be careful that the diameter of the food feeder is not so big that a chicken can crawl into it and get stuck.
3. Consider a feeder design that multiple chickens can eat at the same time without resort to the pecking order.
4. Make sure that there is enough headroom underneath the coop for the chickens to stand up straight (at least 24").
5. Have a way to access the area beneath the coop so you can clean and service the feeders, turn the bedding. I personally preferred to put the feeders inside the run and put the dirt bath tray beneath the coop, leaving more free floor space inside the coop.
6. Add another 12" of perimeter on the bottom to hold back the deep litter bedding and block the snow on the ground.
7. Carefully assess the coop and run framing relative to where you can nail the roosting bars.
8. Extend the roof overhang to cover the hinges of the nest box cover so that water will not flow into the next box. Increase the slope of the nest box cover for snow removal. Extend the roof to cover the front/top vent so that rain and snow won't drift into it.
9. Design a removable poop tray beneath the roosting bar.
10. Maybe consider reversing the coop door opening so that it is easier get to the poop tray.
11. If possible, make one long roosting bar for all six hens instead of 2 levels so they don't have to fight over the pecking order as much.
12. Check the window location that is next to the roosting bar to minimize draft. If the window can be closed tightly, then it is fine for them to look out to the run.
13. Size your run as big as possible, and think about how you would attach the 1/2" hardware cloth. The hardware cloth comes in certain width and length, and need to be attached to the framing but minimize waste. That could dictate how you want to frame the run.
14. Depending on your neighborhood, the coop and the run do not need a lock, but you should think about how to close the run door from inside and how to get out of the run should you get locked-in.
15. If you were to use rainwater to replenish the water feeder, pre-filter the water first, add an overflow, and incorporate a way to clean out the sediment on the bottom of the water pipe.

Look forward seeing the progression of your chicken coop design!

 

[vehve]

Your design looks pretty similar to the coop that I built. You can find a link to it under my avatar or in my signature. Here are the things that bother me in my own design.

The run is too small. You should make your run bigger than what you've been planning. This is the biggest flaw in my coop.

For my climate, the amount of ventilation I've got seems to be sufficient, but depending on your climate, you might need some more.

Parts of the inside of the coop are a bit hard to reach. This is mainly a problem because our two Sussexes have taken to sleeping on the floor, next to the pop door.

I've insulated mine, I don't see any adverse effects, but I'm also not sure how necessary it really was. We haven't had colder weather than about 30F yet though, but the chickens have been sleeping out in the run still (I've covered it with corrugated plastic to protect from the elements during winter.) The insulation did keep the coop cooler in the summer though. We had pretty hot weather, and it stayed almost 10F cooler than the outside air.

Otherwise, the layout I've got has been pretty functional. The amount of roosts you've planned is overkill in my opinion. My coop holds about 6-8 chickens, but that is the absolute maximum. The next time I'm building a coop, I'm going to make it a walk in version and a lot larger.

You can read through my coop article, I've written down some thoughts on it's function and tried to motivate why I went with certain solutions, I'm sure I've forgotten to mention many points here.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Yeah, keeping the water flowing during the winter is my biggest hurdle right now. I wont have to deal with it immediately since I'm building this next sprint but I want to get it sorted out so I can build for it to begin with.

I'm using SketchUp for these models, works really well.

Even though you're not building till spring, I recommend you build a mockup of your water system now to see how it works this winter. Then you won't have to modify next year after it's already installed.