does anyone keep chickens in Catawba chicken arks?

[sandiklaws]

Hi all, I am waiting on 2 things right now; a broody hen who is hatching out my foundation Salmon Faverolles LF stock and my chicken ark being built by a carpenter friend exactly like the plans. Anyone have any experience w/ these?

http://catawbacoops.com/

 

[chick4chix]

Thats what my chickens are in and I love it! My husband (a carpenter) built it for me from photos I showed him of what I wanted, so it was customized for me. The footprint is 4'x8' and since I was going to be putting standard sized girls in it - we made it a little taller than the catawba.
Here is a photo of it just as it was finished and before the girls moved in.

I don't currently have a lawn- so it's on straw now, although it shows it on pine shavings. I have it in about a 20' x10' run and the whole run is on straw.

Here they are next to the ark in the run

 

[chickenp]

Im just finishing a slightly larger version based on catabwas picture, I went with 5 foot long triangle legs rather than 4'. Actually I looked at a bunch of tractors and decided I liked the triangle because it would probably be resistant to strong winds. a lot of waste because most lumber comes in 8' lenths, 5 foot legs waste some wood but it gets used on the inside anyway . Its also heavy (1" planking on it), I put wheels 3/4" off the ground. Its my second coop, For now 5 bantams and 2 guineas are going to call it home. I built it next to the garage because thats where the table saw is, now I got to move it in a 250' arc around the house to get it in the yard, duuh! I could see it coming but the benifet of having it by the tools outweighed the hassle of moving it later. I think my crew are gonna love it, my wife will be glad to get them out of the spare room. They gotta go out before my kid designates a house banty roo.

Eventually I hope to put my 3 ee and 2 brahmas in it. My mistake was to make the ramp 5 foot long, its too long and doensnt allow a center support under the plywood. Id make it 3 foot long. Going into use tomorrow if we can get 1 day without showers.