floor coverings

[SueT]

The wooden part of our coop is western red cedar, made from fence pickets....it hasn't seemed to harm anyone in the 2 years we've used it. And we have put Eastern red cedar shavings in as bedding when we were cutting up cedar trees. And that didn't seem to harm them either, but it's a fairly big coop with lots of ventilation.





.

 

[donaltman3]

I'd like to have 3 to 4 hens. The coop was advertised as up to 8 so I'm thinking half is what is probably comfortable for them.

 

[lazy gardener]

The general rule of thumb is 4 s.f. in coop and 10 s.f. in run per bird. Most pre fab coops are grossly misrepresented by the manufacturers regarding the number of birds they will comfortably house. Where you are in a warmer climate, you may be able to house them a little tighter than I can here in Maine. (we have frozen ground about 6 months of the year, so the birds don't spend as much time outside in the winter.) On the other side of the coin, you have more heat, so your birds will be more heat stressed if crowded in a little coop at night, or while laying. Generally, birds need to be shut in at night to keep them safe from predators. Unless you have a run that is predator proof (made of 1/2" hardware cloth, as a weasel can get through any hole you could push a quarter through.

 

[donaltman3]

This is the coop I purchased and will be assembling in the next few days.
http://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/pr...luxe-farm-house-chicken-coop-up-to-8-chickens

I got it with another 25 percent off the sale price.. I know I could have built cheaper and potentially a little better but my wife really likes this aesthetic... it was on display and we could see it built which helped. We live in a small neighborhood and didn't want it to look too out of place. It does have really small wire and I plan let them free range some during the day and will use a predator sprinkler outside the cage and put up bird neeting on the bottom outside to hender snakes. The coop itself will be in the corner of a fence area that will allow it to be shaded during the afternoon summer sun.
.
We are hoping for 3-4 hens.