Design your dream coop for me- 12' x 16'

[ChickBond 007]

Please help me design my new coop. My husband and bro-in-law began the framing this weekend and have the walls/roof up and the sheeting on the roof. Now it's raining. I have a preliminary interior design. If you could design your dream coop (12' by 16') with 4 windows, 4 pop doors under windows, and a door at each end, what would the interior look like? I'm open for all ideas. There will be 4 run sections -- one for each pop door. I'm raising some welsummers, some wheaten marans, some ducks, and a mutt egg laying group.

The coop is large enough to have housing-type roof vent and sofit venting. The walls are 8" high, and there will be attic space, but I will likely cover the rafters and use top for storage.
Please give me your ideas as it can all be changed at this juncture.

 

[patandchickens]

Ha, I think most peoples "dream" 12x16 coop would be 20x30' LOL

More seriously, that'll be a nice size coop, have fun. The doglegs on the aisle will be annoying to construct and 30" is an awfully narrow aisle (you will be bumping into pen walls on a regular basis and it leaves hardly any clearance for a wheelbarrow)... I suspect the additional 6-12" would be almost more useful as aisle (thus straight and wider) than as pen area, much as I am normally in favor of maximum chicken area.

How essential is the door at the far end? Because you are losing some pen space that way. If you could dispense with that door, the dead-end of the aisle could become a smaller pen, or it could be merged with one of the adjacent pens to make it bigger. Or if you want a door there for just occasional use, you could use that end of the aisle for your storage (leaving just a path barely usable to thread yourself thru to the door if necessary) which would free up the area you've designated on your plan to become pen space.

Actually, the thing that would give you MAXIMUM chicken (and/or storage) space would be if you could have just one people door and put it in the middle of the *long* side of the building, with a short dead-end aisle with a pen (or storage) at the end of that aisle as described above. This gives you minimum aisle space for the building size while still having access to all pens.

BTW, if you use the 'attic' space for storage of anything with any actual weight, make sure to overbuild the trusses so's to have enough extra strength for that load.

Good luck, have fun (I know you will

),

Pat

 

[ChickBond 007]

You bring up a valid point about the hallway bump out. It might not be worth the trouble. The two doors are already set, and unfortunately both open IN not OUT. I thought "out" swing would have been better because of shavings, but hubby says he can set the door up a couple inches.
What if the hallway "dead-ended" and the hallway only went halfway through the building? This would create 24 more square feet of space at that end.
Any other design ideas?

 

[dixygirl]

With welded wire on sides and clear corrugated plastic over the roof

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
You'll want a ramp, then, to get the wheelbarrow in and out without spilling stuff when you go bumpty-bump

What if the hallway "dead-ended" and the hallway only went halfway through the building? This would create 24 more square feet of space at that end.

So, like, just not *use* the far door? That would work. Just make sure the hallway goes far enough to allow you a door's width of access to the pens in the far corners.

Have fun,

Pat​

 

[lotzahenz]

I like the idea of making the hallway 36" all the way thru, that way you can get a muck cart/wheel barrow in there to clean easy. As far as the door opening inward, it should be fine as you won't need shavings in the isle will you? I keep mine swept clean, but some kind of kick board on my pen door would keep them better contained. I have plywood up 3.5 feet, then heavy-guage fencing up to the ceiling. I still think you need some kind of work space too though, shelves for "stuff" and an area for bags of shavings, straw, shovels and tools. A work bench for doctoring is a great idea, plus a place to set your egg basket down. If you make a loft, you could store bigger items up there, my loft is on each end of the building, with the 6 foot opening in the middle, but NO steps up there, so you must climb or ask your tall DH to get things down. It is funny, but I have been drawing plans almost exactly like yours for my NEXT coop, which will be called a breeding shed and I want it to be 18 X 28 and divided up into pens. Best of luck and keep us posted with new pics! Henz