First Coop - Design & Build

[ailurophile23]

Nest boxes - number of chickens is irrelevant - they all want to use one or two of the boxes and not the others - until one day they decide it is box #6 that is most appealing - or that bush next to your house or...... I had 12 hens at one time and they typically all laid eggs in one box or, if someone just couldn't hold it and there were already three hens in the preferred nest, maybe two boxes.

Perches - the links and recommendations above are good. Given the various sizes of chickens you mentioned, you may want a lower perch or a step up to the perch. Otherwise, 12-18' high seems good. My hens prefer natural limbs as roosts - roundish, about 2-3' in diameter. Lots of folks use 2x4s. You might also want to place some extra roosts in the open section (in corners or along walls) for they to use during the day.

The plan looks terrific so far.

 

[CarolJ]

Six nest boxes will be more than you need. Someone mentioned using Sweet PDZ for the poop board. I agree with that. When I used pine shavings, the coop would frequently smell bad. Now I put sand on the poop boards and put Sweet PDZ on top of the sand. I have 34 chickens in my large coop, and I spend less than 5 minutes each morning raking the poop off the poop board into a bucket - taking it outside and dumping it in a compost pile. I use a child-size plastic garden rake - and a 5-gallon bucket. Simple and quick. My coop never smells bad anymore. And if I skip a day occasionally, it's no big deal. I use pine shavings on the floor of the coop.

The biggest issue in regards to the roosting pole is that it should be higher than the nesting boxes. Otherwise you'll have chickens trying to roost in the nest boxes.

I'm impressed with your plans!

 

[Tweakster]

Here is a Texas opinion since you shouldn't be too far from them geograpically, and they have more alphabet soup after their name than I do (I don't, BTW). The web site can be difficult to access at times:
http://gallus.tamu.edu/library/extpublications/ps-5250.pdf

And this pdf file can be found on the TAMU site (lots of good pubs there BTW) at:
http://gallus.tamu.edu/extensionprograms/publications/index_publications.htm

Quote: There should be one nest per four layers. Nests
should be 24 inches above the litter. Roost width
requirement is 8 inches per bird. Poles should be 14
inches apart and 18 to 36 inches above the litter.
The dropping pit beneath the roost should be
screened to keep the layers out and minimize internal
parasite problems. The manure must be kept dry to​

prevent fly problems.

My roosting poles are not 14 inches apart, or that high above the droppings board, and the hens don't seem to mind. And as others have stated above, they seem to prefer just a few nest boxes. Not sure why the tamu.edu site is so quirky to access, the vt.edu site seems quite a bit easier to access, at least for me.

HTH!

 

[thebutress]

I have no idea why we didn't take our usual stroll through a&m's resources. We've referenced their horse articles countless times, but didn't even think of it for the chickens.

we have trees out the wah-zoo that need trimming or removing after last year's drought, so we'll definitely be using natural roost material. If I can find the right branch, that should work very well.

definitely have a few things to work out as we start to finish up the "coop" portion of the structure.

 

[wvgal61]

And always remember "chicken math" count on getting way more than you plan, chickens are as contagious as chicken pox

 

[thebutress]

Ok, I am going to update some of our progress on our coop. I have hijacked my husbands BYC account and I uploading these pics. Some of them are from my cell phone and instagram, so the sizes and quality may be a little off. Also, in a few of the pics there is a bunch of junk in the coop, please disregard, we have a aussie that eats anything left out, so the tools are being stored in the coop for now



This is the location the coop is going and the aussie that chews/destroys everything.



Here is the framing going in. You can see why I wanted it to have a certain theme/appearance, because I will be seeing it from my house. We are going to fill in some dirt around it to level the ground out some. I wanted a natural flooring, because I feel like that is what is right for the chickens.



Here is the husband framing it up. You can see that I am little help!

 

[thebutress]

So here is a few more. The camera made this photo look a little "fish eyed" The roof isn't actually warped! You can see that I am still documenting and babysitting. The husband is still building my dream chicken house! Actually to give myself a little credit, I am the one that uses the airless to paint. So I currently have brown legs, shorts and shoes, because of the humidity and wind right now in Texas!



My daughter also helping with the dirt work.



Ok, so not a construction photo, but we are trying to explain to our daughter that we are building a chicken house. And that the chickens are going to go outside...in the house. We are trying to prepare her for the fact that the chickens CANNOT live in the house much longer! The silkie was enjoying itself Im sure



Now you can see where the little open air - 3 walls are going to be for the nests and roost.



A view from the back. Still lots of trim boards to go in place.

 

[thebutress]

And always remember "chicken math" count on getting way more than you plan, chickens are as contagious as chicken pox

You might should have wrote that in ENORMOUS text. Because our 4 little chicken flock, has currently grown to 12. Yea, he's going to kill me

 

[ailurophile23]

Terrific looking coop! I love the large roof overhangs - awesome for shade and weather protection. Congrats on the chicken math too.

 

[coberdor]

In Texas, you might want to consider adding shade cloth that you could roll up and velcro. I have that even here in Ohio. They love it on those hot, humid days.