Enrich my coop

[Quirkyhouse]

I am building a 8 by 8 by 9 foot coop. How would you enrich it for the chicks!?

 

[rosemarythyme]

For the most part enrichment doesn't need to be in the coop. I clutter up my run to keep them busy: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-cluttered-run.1323792/page-6#post-25037140

 

[NatJ]

I am building a 8 by 8 by 9 foot coop. How would you enrich it for the chicks!?

I would put in perches for them to sit on. If you have several perches, they will probably have fun flying from one to another while they are small and light, but that will mostly stop when the grow up and get heavier.

And I would put plenty of stuff on the floor for them to scratch through.
Chickens of all ages really like to scratch around in the bedding and eat a little bit here and there if they find something tasty. What they eat can be bits of the bedding, spilled food, things you threw in for them to eat, or bugs/worms that want to live there.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't want my chickens in the coop except to sleep and lay. If they are outside during the day, that reduces the poop load in the coop so I don't have to work so hard managing poop. And you need access to all parts of the coop. That is a very nice sized coop, you should have room to work in there. You want to keep your access. And you want to maintain flexibility so you can adjust as needed. Very few of us get it right when we first build and find we need to tweak it.

However, when I'm integrating it can help to have places for them to go to get away from the bullies, especially when they wake up in the morning and they are all locked in there. I only integrate juveniles, for biosecurity reasons I don't integrate adults. But the principles are the same.

My roosts are high enough (five feet) that the chickens on the coop floor cannot peck the birds on the roosts. It is common when I go down in the morning to let them out to find the juveniles on the roost where they can separate themselves from the older ones. Their safe haven is on the roosts.

Some of my nests are low enough that the juveniles can hide under them. I use wood shavings on the coop floor and have a feeder in the coop. The chickens are constantly scratching around the feeder. They scratch down to the dirt and pile the shavings around the perimeter, including under the nests. It's more by accident than planning that under the nests becomes another safe haven if it's been a while since I raked it out.

Again for integration, I placed a "juvenile roost" lower than the main roosts, higher than the nests, and horizontally separated from the main roosts to give the juveniles a place to sleep that is not my nests when the adults won't let them use the main roosts.

I built a 3' x 6' brooder in the coop. My chicks go in that brooder straight from the incubator or post office no matter the weather. I find that by raising them in the coop integration is a lot easier. It's under the main roosts and the top acts as a droppings board so it doesn't take up any extra room. It is elevated and I made the floor out of 1/2" hardware cloth. It can serve as a broody buster if I don't have chicks in it. When I use it as a brooder I have a piece of plywood I slip in there to give them a solid floor in a small area. That helps with heating and draft prevention in cold weather. To clean it I just tilt the plywood. Their poop fall straight through. The brooder stays very dry and clean. I can also isolate an injured chicken in there if I need to.

I made some of my nests so I can lock a chicken in there if I want to. That has come in handy for different things.

Make your pop door high enough off of the floor so they can't scratch bedding out through it. Decide if you are going to open it and lock it from inside the coop or outside and give yourself access. Since I let my broody hens raise chicks with the flock I built some steps using pavers I already had both inside and out so the chicks can follow the broody in and out more easily.

Figure out how you are going to manage the poop and design for that. Poop management can be a chore for you. Make it as easy as you can.

Yours is obviously a walk-in coop. Decide where your doors go. How are you going to get to the run from the coop? Do you need to walk around or can you go directly? Don't put a door under a sloped roof where water will run off on you in a rain.

You may notice that many of these "enrichments" don't have a lot to do with chicken enrichment. They are for your comfort and convenience. I consider that more important than enriching the chickens. The easier it is for you to take care of them the better you will take care of them. To me you are the most important part of this.