I'm impressed! Beautiful job and craftsmanship. I can see you took care to make it strong, long-lasting, functional, and comfortable, but pleasing to the eye as well. I'll offer what suggestions I may have to improve the things I see .......
Love the idea of secondary 'doors' to open and close for weather and ventilation. How will those be attached and open up, or will they be panels that you insert or remove as needed? Just curious if I may borrow this idea myself. Do you think you might need a third set of hinges on those cleanout doors, with the extra weight?
I'm also wondering if you'll open and close them often.... if so, with the deep litter inside, you'll want a 'curb' of sorts to keep the litter from making a mess every time you open them, and keep litter from clogging between door and jamb, or door and threshold. That makes closing them a pain in the a**. I have one coop with a removable curb just for that purpose. Pulls out easily when I want to scoop out, and slides into place when I'm done. Next time, though, instead of putting brackets on the floor to hold the curb (they get in the way while cleaning), I'd just install a couple of movable brackets to the jambs inside, so I can rotate or slide them down over the board curb to hold it in place.
Good planning. I like your vents under the edge of the roof/soffits on both sides for more ventilation but well up high. Will you seal those off with hardware cloth as well, to keep wild birds and wasps from taking up residence there? (I've had to do that on my coop - lost a young pullet to a tasty-looking but lethal wasp, and every year I had to pick nests out of the rafters.) And I wonder.... would you want to add another transom in the same space on the south wall, to let winter radiant heat in? But able to close it up, cover it, or shade it to block light in summer?
Nice! We re-used some old roofing panels, and they were rusty and absorbed heat like a frying pan. I painted them white. So much better now.
I don't see why you'd need to double it up, unless your predators are unusually relentless. As long as you secure it on both sides (front/back) with wood strips and screws, instead of staples, they should hold up against most anything except bears. You don't say where you are in the world, so I can't judge what you're dealing with.
My biggest concern is this:
Why is the pop door so high up on the wall? I suppose it would be a pain to lower the pop door now, so the ramp wouldn't have to be so long and high. It might be okay as is, just be aware your chickens might be reluctant to use it. I remember a thread recently where someone had a tall ramp like yours, and one rooster and a few hens who refused to use it. It seems they wanted to stop and check things out before committing to go inside or come out. (Mine always do.) Once he added a landing on the outside, problem solved. But the top of his ramp was at the level of the coop floor inside.
I would at least add a little landing or 'porch' on the inside, since that's a jump up to the scary outdoors. They'll want to see what's out there from a position of safety before sticking their heads out the door. (If you ever intend to let your broodies raise chicks, they'll have to have
a landing and a ramp up to it to on the inside.)
If they're still fussy about going IN, you might need to add a landing on the outside, too. (Predators inside? Mean hen? Anything scary?) I have birds who wait for certain other birds to enter, just so they can chase them back out again. They do it when the birds leave the coop, too - wait for them to come out so they can chase. I have one cockerel who'll poke his head out just enough to see where Big Goldie is before he runs down the ramp and then to safety. And he won't go in until he sees Goldie up on his roost.
Concerning the roosts:
Did you make the crossbar roost to be easily removable? It looks like it - good! That'll save your back when cleaning it out. I don't see lower roosts or a ladder for the chickens to get up there, though. The lowest roost should be no more than 18-24-inches off the floor so they can hop up on it, and 12-inches horizontally and vertically up to the next roost, then up and up to the highest bars - but don't block floor space for them to fly down from the top roosts either, else there'll be broken wings and legs. Or just add stairsteps or ladder planks from the floor up to the roosts. (Removable of course, for ease of cleaning.)
It's not usually advised to have windows extending below the level of the roosting bars, unless you're in a warm climate with an open coop design. However, since you plan to keep them closed in winter, and there's an overhang to prevent rain from blowing in, I see no problem
And a few things I see for the nesting boxes:
Is the roof of the nesting boxes permanent, or will you raise it to collect eggs? If it's permanent, I'd make sure it's sealed around the edges so rain won't leak inside. If it's movable, then I'd replace it with a bigger piece - so that there's an overhang for rain runoff.
When you lower that access door on the face of the nesting boxes (nice, BTW), some of the nesting material - or eggs! - will fall out. You'll want a short removable curb across there, too.
The access door to the nesting boxes looks heavy; is it? I'd maybe add a second latch on the other end for better security (if it's not too inconvenient to open both when collecting eggs) --- and maybe a couple of chains or slide latches so the door drops down like a shelf, and doesn't fall open to bang your knees or a toddler's head. You'll find that to be very handy to set your egg basket on while collecting eggs, or tools while cleaning.
Again, very nice job. I look forward to seeing it complete and filled with birds
