First coop...1st everything actually. Opinions please!

[TinaJ718]

Agreed.

 

[Cheep N Peep]

You could board up under the house all the wire part and add a floor, take down the ramp, add another roost, and make an access door for cleaning. That would give you (I'm assuming) 2.5'x6', or 15sq.ft. that's enough for four chickens. You would need a run, but you would have a moveable coop. You could leave holes in the walls for windows, and leave the wire up to cover them, and put plexiglass there in the winter. Does that sound plausible?

 

[junebuggena]

You could board up under the house all the wire part and add a floor, take down the ramp, add another roost, and make an access door for cleaning. That would give you (I'm assuming) 2.5'x6', or 15sq.ft. that's enough for four chickens. You would need a run, but you would have a moveable coop. You could leave holes in the walls for windows, and leave the wire up to cover them, and put plexiglass there in the winter. Does that sound plausible?

4 adult hens need a minimum of 4 square feet each, so 16 sq.ft. It's still too small.

 

[TinaJ718]

Geesh... 1 sq foot huh.

 

[Blooie]

The other posters are correct about your new coop being too small to house what you wanted it to house. BUT all is not lost. You now have a fantastic brooder/sick bay/time out spot for the future!

Chicks will have trouble with the steepness of the ramp if you use it as a brooder, and an injured or sick chicken might as well. So consider closing off the bottom area right under the coop and just above that center 2x4 - making it part of the coop - and add a small opening for a pop door between the coop and run. Presto! Instant (well, almost instant) brooder or hospital! When the chicks are ready to explore the great outdoors, the ramp into the run area will be shorter and less steep. When you make the bigger run, you could actually set this one inside with new chicks, and you'd be amazed at how much smoother integration into the flock then becomes for them because they've been able to see each other the whole time.

Or move it away from the larger coop and run and it makes a dandy isolation pen for a sick or injured chicken. When the "patient" is ready to re-integrate into the flock, move the whole thing back into the run and let them all see each other for a few days before you open the door and let her get re-acquainted with the flock slowly and safely. If you have a bully chicken, you can move him/her into the isolation pen for a few days to cool off, and when the culprit is put back into the flock you generally find much better behavior while the pecking order is re-established.

Always a silver lining! What you've got there would even work well to give a broody hen some much needed privacy while she incubates, hatches, and then starts taking her chicks outside in the big world. It's looks like leaving out the straw or nesting material gives you a pretty good broody buster, too.

I see the whole thing as a win/win! You already have built what I'm still nagging hubby to make for me!

 

[TinaJ718]

Thank you for a couple positives, I am starting to lose hope.

 

[Tracyree]

You did an amazing job! That would be a fantastic grow out pen!! Once you're addicted to chickens, you find that you'll add a few chicks every year. After they outgrow a brooder, they will still be too small to hold their own with established hens. You'll need somewhere for them to live for a few months while the beef up. You have it!

 

[Blooie]

Thank you for a couple positives, I am starting to lose hope.

Oh, don't do that! I can't even tell you how many boo-boos I made when I started out, and most of them were much harder to fix than yours. Shoot, I even went crying to my friends when what I refer to as "the gang of three" started biting me every time I went near the brooder. I defy one single person reading this thread not to look back at their beginnings and remember something they did or didn't do! It's called "learning" and we all do it better when we know someone else had been there before us!

Building a bigger coop isn't difficult. It is, however, intimidating if you're like we were and had no carpentry skills whatsoever. I built a dog house once and the dog ran away. Well, not really, but did you smile? Now, for the coop. If you can't build it or if the expense is scary, look on Craig's List. Someone usually has something they are parting with that will work - an old playhouse, or a shed, or sometimes you get real lucky and someone who had chickens is getting out of it and has a coop to get rid of. Big Box stores have all kinds of sheds in all shapes and sizes on sale this time of year, and they work great! Most of those stores will even deliver and set up! Add some additional ventilation, some roosts, and a pop door and you're all set!

Keep us posted so we can follow your success!

 

[TinaJ718]

I did smile... Thank you!

 

[bigred77]

it looks like it wouldnt be too hard to add an open run to the end there and add plenty of space for them, IMO