Designing the “ideal” coop....

[we3ernes]

We will be starting our homestead this summer and are planning our chicken coop in conjunction with various outbuildings, gardens, etc. The location is 11 acres in central Texas so our main concerns are heat and critters. Our plan is to start small with just hens, but we would like to eventually have a single rooster and about a dozen hens.

We have a 8’x24’ section of a pole barn (as yet unbuilt) to devote to a coop and covered run. The covered run will be for foul weather and those times when we will be gone for a few days and will be as critter proof as possible. The main run, a minimum of 1,500 square feet that they will have access to during daylight hours only, will keep the chickens confined and protect against aerial attacks.

So, if you had to build the “ideal” coop in that 8’x24' section how would you divvy it ups? How much space for storage? How much space for the coop? How much space for the run? Bonus points for layouts!

Thanks for your advice.

 

[Peter.J]

Well for starters they say 4 sq ft per bird in the coop, 10 sq feet per bird in the run, and about 10” of linear roost space per bird. So it sounds to me like you already have plenty of room for way more than just 12 birds. Might be good to start small but eventually i bet you end up getting a much larger flock.
You can sell eggs, and eventually have a rotating flock where you eat the older ones and possibly have a self sustaining breeding flock... Thats my goal anyways.

At our old place i had spent a lot of time making a nice coop and then a simple fenced in run with some bars to roost on in the day. Well it turned out they didn’t want to sleep on the roosts in the coop and they always just roosted outside on the roosts under a covered part of the run.
So at our new place I just made a huge run, and on one part of it with roosting bars; i covered the roof and 3 sides for weather protection and call that the ‘coop’.
I wouldn’t overthink it, especially in Texas, you guys don’t get too bad of winters. A lot of these breeds are bred to withstand Minnesota winters. If anything i think you’ll find the heat to be more of an issue.
One other point is to make it out of some stout external wire, not chicken wire. Coons, dogs, coyotes will get right through chicken wire. I used woven wire horse fencing all around (and buried) and on top of my coop/run. Nothing is getting in or out of there.
Good luck, and don’t wait till the spring, get the ball rolling now! Once you get chics or pullets it feels like an eternity before you get your first eggs so you’ll be happy you got started asap.

 

[we3ernes]

So at our new place I just made a huge run, and on one part of it with roosting bars; i covered the roof and 3 sides for weather protection and call that the ‘coop’.

One other point is to make it out of some stout external wire, not chicken wire. Coons, dogs, coyotes will get right through chicken wire. I used woven wire horse fencing all around (and buried) and on top of my coop/run. Nothing is getting in or out of there.

Good luck, and don’t wait till the spring, get the ball rolling now! Once you get chics or pullets it feels like an eternity before you get your first eggs so you’ll be happy you got started asap.

Thanks Peter!

So you essentially have an open air coop? Do you have any problems with critters (mice, rats, birds) getting into your food supply? How much space do you have for storage vs. your coop?

When I said planning stages I really mean planning!
The house is being built this spring. The summer will be dedicated to homestead projects - putting in the fencing, building the barn, starting the trellis for the vineyard, and building the beds for our gardens. Next fall/winter I'll be able to tackle the chicken coop, the goat barn, and planting the orchard. So these chicks won’t be ordered for another year!

We also need that time to figure out the micro climate on the farm, figure out the prevailing winds, check for drainage issues, etc. so we can better locate the various pieces.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

It makes sense to have an aviary type "coop" in warm climates. three 8 foot walls around the section where the roosts are for wind protection in your "winters". Trick there will be to predator proof the caged area of about 32 linear feet if there is a back wall to barn. Look into aprons for fencing and size your wire gauge according to predator size. For instance here we have to protect from weasels, an enclosed coop with no hole 1 inch or larger does that for nights and use 14 gauge 2x4 welded wire for fencing. You may not have weasels so could use a 2x4 or more costly 2x2 welded wire for walls. 14 gauge is thick enough to stop raccoons or dogs from chewing through it. Can also be used for the apron to stop predators from digging in.

As for rats and mice look into using tamper proof bait boxes with chunx bait. I keep one right in the run and one in the shed feed is stored in. No rat or mice problem since we've started using the bait boxes. Before that were eventually invaded by rats that even got into the house. Ugly situation that is easily avoided by using the tamper proof exterior bait boxes from the beginning.

4 lbs pail of chunx bait and key locked boxes can be picked up at local Tractor Supply. I use Tomcat bait with great success.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My first thought since you mention “homestead” and a “rooster and 12 hens” is that you will be hatching chicks so you will have a lot more than a dozen chickens at times. Plan for what you will have. And think of making it convenient for you. Don’t worry about making it nice for the chickens, if it is convenient for you they will be OK. You might follow the link in my signature to get some of my ideas about this.

One of the issues with chickens is that they can create a lot of dust. If you have the coop as part of that pole barn what will you be storing in the other parts of that barn? Will a thick layer of dust bother it? That could have a lot to do with how I’d build the coop. If dust is not a problem I’d consider a lot of wire for the interior walls, not something solid, to help with ventilation.

You don’t need to devote that much room for chickens in the pole barn, that space in there will be too valuable for other things. Especially in your climate I’d put the run outside the barn. I don’t know what you envision for that 1500 square feet run but maybe carve off a smaller section that is highly predator proof next to the coop and have that 1500 more predator-resistant than predator-proof.

As far as the coop itself it needs to be walk-in and you need enough room to move around in there. Since a lot of cheaper building materials come in 4’ or 8’ standard dimensions I’d build an 8x8 or 8x12 coop. That should give you plenty of room for roosts, nests, a broody buster or cage to isolate a chicken if you need to, food and water, and enough clear space for them to fly down from the roosts.

I’d have a human door on the inside of that coop so I could enter it from the pole barn. Store the feed in a metal garbage can outside the coop, the metal cans protect them from mice chewing through the storage containers like they will do with plastic. I’d put some shelves up outside the coop but in that immediate area, no telling what you will store there.

I’d have another human door leading from in the coop to the run. I’d also have a pop door, maybe 12” x 12”, for the chickens to use to go between the coop and run. That way you don’t have to lock the human door open to keep it from slamming shut on a chicken and it will keep weather out. Make both of those doors big enough so you can get a wheelbarrow through them.

I’d put the nests on that interior wall. That way they don’t become ovens in your heat from the sun. The roosts would go on the wall furthest from the doors so they are out of your way as much as possible.

I’d make a gate in the larger run I could get my mower or a wheelbarrow through. And I’d build a compost bin in that larger run. You will probably want as much compost as you can get. Let the chickens fertilize it and keep it stirred for you. I’d put a droppings board under the roosts so you can collect pure manure for the compost. I’d just use a flat piece of plywood and no bedding up there at all. Some people use PDZ, sand, wood shavings, or something else on the droppings board. In suburbia they may need that but for what you are doing you do not.

That’s enough to get started. Give yourself as much flexibility as you can and make it convenient for you. Your chickens will benefit if you treat yourself well.

 

[we3ernes]

Trick there will be to predator proof the caged area of about 32 linear feet if there is a back wall to barn. Look into aprons for fencing and size your wire gauge according to predator size.

As for rats and mice look into using tamper proof bait boxes with chunx bait. I keep one right in the run and one in the shed feed is stored in.

Thank you Egghead_Jr!

We will have dwarf goats as well, so most everything will be built with 2x4 woven wire fencing. The plan is to have the lowest portion of any open areas wrapped with 3’ of ½” hardware cloth. We will also use the 2x4 for a buried perimeter and apron.

I appreciate the suggestion for bait boxes!

 

[lazy gardener]

A weasel can squeeze through any opening that you could push a quarter through. They can kill a lot of birds in a single night.

How exciting for you! If you use part of your pole barn for your coop, I suggest that you have it walled off from the rest of the barn to prevent dust issues.

 

[we3ernes]

My first thought since you mention “homestead” and a “rooster and 12 hens” is that you will be hatching chicks so you will have a lot more than a dozen chickens at times. Plan for what you will have.

You are absolutely right, I should have said that THIS coop won’t have more than 1 rooster and a dozen hens. If/when we get to the rooster stage then I’m planning on building a second coop. It mainly depends on whether or not we can butcher our own birds (emotionally, not legally!)

And think of making it convenient for you. Don’t worry about making it nice for the chickens, if it is convenient for you they will be OK. You might follow the link in my signature to get some of my ideas about this.

I think I've read most of your links, but I’ll go back and check to see what I've missed.

One of the issues with chickens is that they can create a lot of dust. If you have the coop as part of that pole barn what will you be storing in the other parts of that barn? Will a thick layer of dust bother it? That could have a lot to do with how I’d build the coop. If dust is not a problem I’d consider a lot of wire for the interior walls, not something solid, to help with ventilation.

The coop will be at one end of the barn with the goat pen and parlor at the other end, in between will be space for the tractor, it’s attachments, and garden supplies. The plan is for the wall between the coop and tractor to be solid up to about 8' with ventilation above that.

You don’t need to devote that much room for chickens in the pole barn, that space in there will be too valuable for other things. Especially in your climate I’d put the run outside the barn. I don’t know what you envision for that 1500 square feet run but maybe carve off a smaller section that is highly predator proof next to the coop and have that 1500 more predator-resistant than predator-proof.

You've pretty much described what our plan is, except that the “highly predator proof” portion will be part of the pole barn. The run will be a 4’ wide x approximately 380' long “moat” around our vineyard and garden. It will be 2x4 woven wire no climb fencing on either side with bird netting over the top. Our pop door won’t open from the coop to the covered run but from the covered run to the 1500 sqft run. So the chickens will have access to the 1500 sqft run daily except on the rare occasions where we will be gone overnight. On those occasions they will be “confined” to their covered predator proof run.

As far as the coop itself it needs to be walk-in and you need enough room to move around in there. Since a lot of cheaper building materials come in 4’ or 8’ standard dimensions I’d build an 8x8 or 8x12 coop. That should give you plenty of room for roosts, nests, a broody buster or cage to isolate a chicken if you need to, food and water, and enough clear space for them to fly down from the roosts.

Thank you, this is exactly what I was looking for! I was thinking 4x8 for storage and gear, 8x8 for the coop, and 8x12 for the covered run, but then started debating whether I would require more space for storage, more space for coop, and less for the run (since the run is really just a shady spot for food and water.)

I’d have a human door on the inside of that coop so I could enter it from the pole barn. Store the feed in a metal garbage can outside the coop, the metal cans protect them from mice chewing through the storage containers like they will do with plastic. I’d put some shelves up outside the coop but in that immediate area, no telling what you will store there.

I’d have another human door leading from in the coop to the run. I’d also have a pop door, maybe 12” x 12”, for the chickens to use to go between the coop and run. That way you don’t have to lock the human door open to keep it from slamming shut on a chicken and it will keep weather out. Make both of those doors big enough so you can get a wheelbarrow through them.

I’d put the nests on that interior wall. Yes, great idea! That way they don’t become ovens in your heat from the sun. The roosts would go on the wall furthest from the doors so they are out of your way as much as possible.

I’d make a gate in the larger run I could get my mower or a wheelbarrow through. And I’d build a compost bin in that larger run. This is the plan. You will probably want as much compost as you can get. Let the chickens fertilize it and keep it stirred for you. I’d put a droppings board under the roosts so you can collect pure manure for the compost. I’d just use a flat piece of plywood and no bedding up there at all. This is what we are designing, the only thing we are changing is to use smooth vinyl on the poop board to make it easier to scrape. Some people use PDZ, sand, wood shavings, or something else on the droppings board. In suburbia they may need that but for what you are doing you do not.

That’s enough to get started. Give yourself as much flexibility as you can and make it convenient for you. Your chickens will benefit if you treat yourself well.

My replies are imbedded in your post above. Thanks again, this was incredibly helpful!

 

[we3ernes]

A weasel can squeeze through any opening that you could push a quarter through. They can kill a lot of birds in a single night.

How exciting for you! If you use part of your pole barn for your coop, I suggest that you have it walled off from the rest of the barn to prevent dust issues.

Thanks lazy gardener. Yep, I’ve read that the lesser weasels can actually get through even smaller openings! Luckily in our area we only get the long tail weasel (from the weasel family anyway). I know that having the hardware cloth go up only 3’ might be a risk, but am hoping that our coop will be so much better protected than all the other ones in the area that it will seem like Ft. Knox in comparison!

 

[lazy gardener]

I will confess that my run is made of chicken wire, with welded 2 x 4 over one section of the top for winter, the remainder of it gets covered with bird netting to keep the hawks out during the non-snow months. My run is not predator proof, but it keeps the hawks out, and acts as a deterrent for many predators during the day. One key to keeping your birds out of predator's clutches is to shut them in a secure coop every single night.