Figuring out the coop layout?

[Eggnonymous]

As I've mentioned before, we are planning our coop to be a lot like jarhead's Cluckingham Palace. Unfortunately, the picture of his roost layout is missing and I haven't been able to contact him. The coop will be 4x8' shed style - 6' peak slanted to 5'; (2) 2x4 doors to open one 4' end wall, chicken's pop door on the other end; 6' of nest boxes with 2 windows above on the short wall and long skinny vent/window high on tall wall. Will probably mount a tube feeder on the door and a bucket drip waterer through the wall on the right side corner. I am trying to figure out how to place (3) roost bars down the length of the coop - the problem is where/how to mount them near the end where the door is so that the spacing is correct (12" apart on center, tiered 9" apart vertically w/top one 6" off the tall wall and be able to remove them easily for cleaning.

Hopefully you can see all that in this scan of my sketch. Is there a way to mount them on one end from a rack suspended from the ceiling? Anyone worked around this, too? Ideas?

 

[BirdBrain]

How many hens is this for? Square footage wise, if you figure 4 square feet for each bird, that would give you 8 birds. That is an awful lot of nest space and roosting area for 8 birds. I would put your roost over the nest boxes with a poop shelf underneath. You should only need one eight foot roost pole. You could put one of those shelf brackets that is designed to hold a clothing hanging pole to support the roost pole on the side where the doors are.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My thoughts exactly. How many are you planning on putting in here? One of the reason we use 4 square feet per full sized chicken in the coop is to give room for feeder, waterers, roosts, and nest boxes. There are work-arounds that can decrease the required size per chicken, but that requires possibly feeding and/or watering outside, additional space outside always available, weather where they can be outside more, more active poop management, and management practices to not leave them locked in the coop very long.

Roost space of 8" per chicken is enough. And one nest box for every four hens is plenty. And a droppings board can be a real useful tool.

Tells us a bit of your plans and we can offer opinions. If it is something the people on this site can do it is offer opinions.

 

[Eggnonymous]

Sorry Ridgerunner & BirdBrain

- to clarify, we have 14 chicks (standard sizes) arriving in early March. The coop will have a hoop pen attached and we live in a fairly warm climate so the coop will be mainly for roosting/laying. I may only keep grit inside and plan to have one waterer inside and one out - especially in the warm months. I'm going to make the nest box with removable dividers in case we need to adjust to community nesting (and I sized it down to a 5 box width per your suggestion!). My problem is - even with one or two 8' long roosts - how to suspend them on the end where the doors will open (obviously, they can't attach to the door) and still want to be able to remove them easily for cleaning. I'm wondering about mounting a piece of notched plywood from a rafter to set those ends in? Anyone tried that?

 

[Ridgerunner]

For 14 chickens you don't need two roosts 8 feet long. Two roosts, five feet long or a little longer are plenty. You should have some wall joists, vertical 2x4's, on the long walls. Run a 2x4 across the 4' width at the heights you want and attach your roosts to them. It will be a head-knocker but with 5 to 6' height you'll be banging your head anyway. To make it removable, drill a hole in your roosts where they cross this support and drill a hole in the support. Drop a nail through the holes. These supports don't have to be at the very end of the roosts, just close enough so the chickens weight doesn't raise them up if they all get on one cantilever end. You do not have to put them at different heights. Mine have no trouble getting up to then at 4 feet height. It might be easier to attach them if they are the same height.

Another way. You should have some beams running across your ceiling to support the roof. Drop a vertical 2x4 down from the rafter and attach your roost to that. You could run a horizontal to the wall to stabilize them if you want but I don't think that would be necessary. To attach the roosts and make them removable, you might put a large nail in the support at a slant and drill a hole in the roost at the same slant. Take the head of the nail so the roost can easily go on and off.

I'd personally give strong consideration to making it taller as you will need to get in there and work. With most building materials coming in 4' and 8' lengths and widths, it probably would not cost that much more. But your choice.

Good luck!

 

[Eggnonymous]

Thanks Ridgerunner! Fortunately I'm vertically challenged (5'2") so the height's not a prob.

I just want things to be easy to get out for cleaning. I also thought that by putting the roosts to one side and the nest boxes on the other there might be less mess. Do you use poop boards under your roosts? This coop will be mobile and I plan to have a drop through floor for all but the coldest months (Jan & Feb). I like you suggestion on the vertical 2x4 support!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I do use a poop board. If you do a search on them, you might get more hits if you search for "droppings board". It's surprising how much compost material you get from 8 chickens, which is what I currently have. Most people seem to paint their droppings boards or cover them with tile or linoleum to make them easy to scrape and clean. I put a sheet of heavy plastic over mine and gather up up the corners to carry it to the compost heap. I usually use gloves to gather the corners. The chickens would move my plastic around, but I use holes in the plastric to fit over nails so they can't move it around.

With your layout, if you put the nests under the roost and use that as a droppings board, you will be bumping you head when you scrape it unless you put your roosts on the 5' side. There should be plenty of vertical room to do that.

I find when I walk I go up on tiptoes when I stride, thus increasing my effective head room needed by several inches. If you do have any litter in it during the colder months, you will increase your floor height. It's your head. Good luck!!