Day 1 - Redesigning the Roost

[4hooves&featheredfriends]

Today, I put together some of the supplies to start work on updating the coop for when the babies are ready to go outside. So I decided to start a before and after series.

So here goes, the area under the corn crib will be screened in and there will be a small outside area on the opposite side of the shed. The laying boxes will not be on milk crates when I am done - more likely about 6-8 inches off of the ground. The roosts are 1x3" boards. The area in the coop is 5 x 12 x 6 and the under side will be the entire footprint of the building about 12 x 20. Everything will be painted when it is warm enough that the paint won't freeze.

Please offer any suggestions - 18 hens will be sharing the condo

http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z279/3HorseGal/The New Roost/?albumview=slideshow

I'll update the progress with another slide show...

 

[Mrs MIA]

Looks like a good start... I was going to suggest 2x4s over the 1x3s, but it looks like you have them supported really well. Will 6 birds fit comfortably on each level do you think? Are you planning on increasing the flock at all?

 

[Omran]

keep us updated.

 

[Chicken of the Sea]

I originally built a ladder type roost like you are planning. Seemed all the chickens wanted to be at the highest level, so they fought everynight over who was going to be up there. I have since redesigned and have two 2x4s mounted in parallel across the width of the coop (8 foot), seems they are much happier with this arrangement. An added bonus to this design is the ease of installing dropping boards underneath the roosts.

 

[4hooves&featheredfriends]

Thanks for responding. I will be getting 18 birds from Ideal on Feb 27th - no more birds for me - HA HA

.

The roost is 4 feet wide, so you are so right - it would be a bit snug for 6 a level? I will have to rethink the roost set up....I'll get back with ya.

I will also be putting play sand down on the floor and then pine shavings for additional warmth.

How about the upper walls - it was 16 degrees in the coop yesterday as I was building at 4:30 - Would it make sense to put a temporary ceiling over the end with the roost, where the 8 x 8 timbers are about 4 feet up?

That way I could mount the heat lamp in the ceiling and that end of the coop would be toasty for the babes that will be about 6-8 weeks when they go in the coop the first week of April?

The end with the door will have a feeder, oyster shell feeder and waterer for easy access. Good plan?

Any other thoughts- I really appreciate everyone's input.

 

[cmom]

Looks good. Eagerly awaiting updates.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Actually that's a good idea... a drop-ceiling works really well. We did something like that... an awning made of that reflective silver bubblewrap insulation stuff. Just stapled it to a 1x2" wood frame and screwed it to the ceiling and put a heat lamp under it. It traps the heat lower so the birds don't have to huddle so much. 16°F is not bad inside the coop, as long as the birds have a chance to acclimate to that slowly over the Fall. Mine were good down to about 8°F inside the coop... after that I started seeing a bit of frostbite, so I added some heat lamps to get the coop back up into the teens.