Forum and Chicken newbie seeking coop design feedback...

[Eilsel]

Hello! I just joined after reading through several threads with lots of good information! I'm planning on getting a few chicks in the spring (4-6 MAX!) and so I"m currently planning my coop and wanted a bit of feedback on some ideas I have.

Basic info: My current plan is to have a "footprint" of 4' x 6' for the coop, with the door in the center of the 6' side. Looking in from the open door, the nest boxes would be on the left and roosts on the right. I have a 6' x 10' dog run I plan to attach as a chicken run.

Questions:
1. is there any reason I should not put my pop door underneath the roosts?
2. 4' x 6' is an appealing size because I'd like to make a gravel footing and then use a rubber stall mat from Tractor Supply for the floor. Would that be an OK floor?
3. Does anyone use pelleted wood bedding as litter? It's highly absorbent and easy to store which is very appealing.
4. What are your "must" for nest boxes? (i.e. must be plastic, must be removable, must be X dimensions...)
4. If using a chain-link dog kennel as a run, how high up do I need to have a smaller mesh to deter intruders? I'm in Kansas- so we have opossums, raccoons, foxes, you name it! However my dogs do a pretty good job of barking at anything that moves, so I've never seen varmints around my house yet! (the dogs have been around my parents chickens before so I'm not concerned about the dogs going after the chickens)
5. Food and water inside the coop or outside?!

That's all I can think of for now. I'm excited even though I know my chickens won't be here for months, I'm constantly sketching and re-arranging and coming up with ideas.

 

[ChickenGeek_101]

Welcome to BYC! We are glad you joined!

I don't have any suggestions for you, but I'm sure there is someone else who can give you some great information

 

[Hamiam]

Hello! Education is the first step to becoming a successful chicken owner. There are so many coop ideas on the forum. By using the search button, you can find many discussions on the item your searching. Like "pelleted wood", deep litter, etc. We just finished a winter coop (our chicken tractor seemed so drafty) & I wanted to try the deep litter method but my husband was against it. So, I put down linoleum floor & will sweep or wash daily. I found the heavy livestock mat difficult to clean & dry. It was already installed in the floor of the goat trailer that we modified into a chicken tractor. So, I bought a cheap piece of linoleum at the hardware store & put it on top of the mat. I keep water in the coop but not food. I was getting mice in the coop when I had the food inside. My chickens have 1/4 acre to free range during the day when I'm home. The fence is 3 & 1/2 feet tall small animal fence. It's in a wooded area with lots of cover, however, there is still danger from Hawks. I've never lost a hen but have had one attack. Some people have their runs covered. Some people have their runs electrified. I have a 6 foot high chain link dog run around my coop that I close at night & when I plan to be away for most of the day. The most important thing is to lock the birds up from dusk till dawn in a predator proof coop that is well ventilated. Never use "chicken wire" instead use the stronger hardware cloth/wire & attach it well. You'd be surprised how strong racoons are & they climb most fences. Dogs are the number one predator of chickens. Be certain about the dogs before leaving them alone together. This is my first flock since we adopted our current blue heeler mix. Most people would not agree with my method, but I used a shock collar on her after unsuccessful training. 2 good shocks & she is now very trustworthy around chickens. When we have visiting dogs, I keep the chickens inside the dog kennel & the dogs outside of the chickens 1/4 acre area around the kennel. Chickens can get very stressed with a predator stalking just outside their coop/run.
It's so cool that you found this resource. You will find very helpful & experienced members here. Wishing you the very best!
Vera

 

[Hope Hughes]

Hello
Welcome to BYC!!
So glad to have you here!!
Thanks for sharing your story!!
There are maany people on here that are ready to help in anyway they can!
The learning center also has alot of great information on it as well!
Enjoy!​

 

[Ridgerunner]

is there any reason I should not put my pop door underneath the roosts?

Will it be closed at night, especially in winter? If not it could cause a draft on the roosts. Will you be opening and closing it from inside the coop or outside? Outside no problem but roosts could get in the way of opening and closing it if it is inside.


4' x 6' is an appealing size because I'd like to make a gravel footing and then use a rubber stall mat from Tractor Supply for the floor. Would that be an OK floor?

A 4’ x 6’ is a decent size for 6 hens but I always like them bigger. You can follow the link in my signature for some of the reasons. But plenty of people have a 4x6 for six hens and it works great. A 4x6 is fairly economical to build. Most building materials come in standard sizes of 4’ and 8’ so you will have some cut-off and waste, but maybe you can use that cut-off for nests or something else so it is not wasted.

You can get all kinds of different opinions as to what is “best” for a floor. To me that sounds great. If you build the floor up a bit with rock it raises it so it will stay dry. That stall mat just might make it really easy to clean.


Does anyone use pelleted wood bedding as litter? It's highly absorbent and easy to store which is very appealing.

I don’t but some people on the forum do and really like them. They break down into sawdust and are rabsorbent. You want your bedding to be really absorbent to soak up any moisture in the poop. Those pellets should work great.


What are your "must" for nest boxes? (i.e. must be plastic, must be removable, must be X dimensions...)

Again you will get all kinds of opinions. A lot of it is personal preference, like many of these other things. I really like wood because of the great insulating values. Metal or plastic can get hot in summer and cold in winter. In Kansas that could be important. Some people like them removable for cleaning, I don’t clean mine that often and it’s a simple matter to clean them out anyway when I do so that’s not one of my criteria. Some people set bins inside the nests so all they have to do is take the bin out to dump it. It’s generally recommended that you use a minimum of 12” x 12” x 12” for a nest. I made mine 16” x 16” x 16”. That matched my stud spacing and when I cut a 4’ wide piece of plywood or an 8’ long 2x4 into 16” pieces there is no waste. I’d suggest you only need two nests for 4 to 6 hens.

The only must for me is that the roosts need to be noticeably higher than the nests. Chickens usually like to sleep at the highest point available. You don’t want the nests to be that high point since you probably don’t want poopy eggs.


If using a chain-link dog kennel as a run, how high up do I need to have a smaller mesh to deter intruders? I'm in Kansas- so we have opossums, raccoons, foxes, you name it! However my dogs do a pretty good job of barking at anything that moves, so I've never seen varmints around my house yet! (the dogs have been around my parents chickens before so I'm not concerned about the dogs going after the chickens)

You might Google “fox climbing fence” and look at a few u-tubes. You might change your mind about a fine mesh deterring climbing predators. It won’t even slow raccoons or possums down, let alone foxes. There are a few ways to handle climbing predators. One is to put a roof on it. Whether you go solid or wire mesh don’t forget snow or ice load. You can use electric wiring to stop them. It is really challenging to stop all predators.

Any predator can hunt day or night, don’t believe that stuff about coyotes, foxes, raccoons, stray dogs, bobcats or other animals not hunting during the day. Night-time is when your danger is higher though. You generally don’t have human activity to scare them away at night. I use the philosophy of a predator-resistant run for the day and locking them in a predator proof coop at night.


Food and water inside the coop or outside?!

Do whatever you want. Some people feed and water only in the coop, some only in the run, and some do both. People can come up with all kinds of reasons to do any of those. I do both for my own reasons. In most of this stuff make it convenient for you. People tend to have strong opinions about any of this stuff, different opinions, it just depends on who you talk to.

That coop layout sounds pretty good. The most important thing is that you be able to reach everywhere inside without too much trouble. Nothing ever works out exactly as planned. You’ll be back in there tweaking things, cleaning, or doing maintenance. With a little planning you can make access easy or hard.

 

[Dayrel]

Hello! I just joined after reading through several threads with lots of good information! I'm planning on getting a few chicks in the spring (4-6 MAX!) and so I"m currently planning my coop and wanted a bit of feedback on some ideas I have.

Basic info: My current plan is to have a "footprint" of 4' x 6' for the coop, with the door in the center of the 6' side. Looking in from the open door, the nest boxes would be on the left and roosts on the right. I have a 6' x 10' dog run I plan to attach as a chicken run.
The basic sizing sounds good, much better than the commercial coop I started with.

Questions:
1. is there any reason I should not put my pop door underneath the roosts?
Poop- The chickens will be walking out in the morning through a bunch of waste and will spread it around more. It will be somewhat harder to clean up. Depending on your setup, you might be able to put the roost high enough to also put a poop board under it and above the pop-door. Either way, you need to make sure you can get in there to clean things up easily.
2. 4' x 6' is an appealing size because I'd like to make a gravel footing and then use a rubber stall mat from Tractor Supply for the floor. Would that be an OK floor?
3. Does anyone use pelleted wood bedding as litter? It's highly absorbent and easy to store which is very appealing.
I'd be concerned about them slipping on pellets which are designed to roll, but have no experience to say if it is a real problem.
4. What are your "must" for nest boxes? (i.e. must be plastic, must be removable, must be X dimensions...)
I've had no problem with wood. Just provide enough bedding (I use straw/hay), make them easily accessible and have a board along the front as they will tend to kick some of the bedding out.
4. If using a chain-link dog kennel as a run, how high up do I need to have a smaller mesh to deter intruders? I'm in Kansas- so we have opossums, raccoons, foxes, you name it! However my dogs do a pretty good job of barking at anything that moves, so I've never seen varmints around my house yet! (the dogs have been around my parents chickens before so I'm not concerned about the dogs going after the chickens)
Except for roosts, I don't see any reason to see to go beyond 3-4' (standard hardware cloth width). If the critter climbs, they can't reach down to chickens running around on the ground. Roosts are the exception as they are higher and bring the chickens up to where they might be grabbed. Make sure you have a good top for the dog kennel as well and some form of skirt around the bottom.
5. Food and water inside the coop or outside?!

That's all I can think of for now. I'm excited even though I know my chickens won't be here for months, I'm constantly sketching and re-arranging and coming up with ideas.

Sounds like you have a good start. My thoughts embedded above.

 

[Alaskan]

is there any reason I should not put my pop door underneath the roosts?

I love my poop shelves. With a poop shelf you get extra space. Underneath the poop shelf would be a good spot for the pop door...

but I prefer to be able to put in a removable wall in front of the poop shelf, so that the entire area under the poop shelf can become a cage. Thus cage is perfect for injured birds, or broodies, or chicks, or ... whatever.

Of course, if you don't like the cage idea, underneath the poop shelf could also be a great poop free area to have feed, water, and the pop door.


As to the best area to put feed and water... I would put them outside in the run, and put a roof over the run. If you live in a super cold, windy, or snowy area, I would also wall one side of the run. Hot areas would be better with no walls, for more breeze, but a roof would still be great.

I have lots of pictures on my coop pages, a link is under my avatar.

As to the wood pellets...I have heard lots,of people who love them... I have never tried them.

 

[Laodicia]

from the description I'm guessing you mean the pop door will be a part of the wall and not in the floor. my sister has her pop door on the wall behind the roosts and it works fine. she opens it from inside the run though. you won't want to have to crawl under the roosts to open it. 4x6 you'll want to make sure your birds wont be crashing into their nest boxes, feed or water when they jump down off their roost. so it might be a good idea to think about a poop board above the floor under the roosts to give extra floor space for feed and water inside if that's what you decide. if the feed and water is going outside there should be enough floor space that you don't need the poop board.

I didn't have my own chickens for long my landlord changed his mind about them being here 1 week after I got them so they went to my sisters house. but from my experience I would say that having the human entrance inside the run and the main chicken entrance so you only need the one door is actually kind of a nuisance. (my building was about the same size you are planning) consider prevailing wind directions before deciding on which way you are going to be putting any doors or vents.

for the nest boxes I think the normal size is about 1 sqft , and semi private if possible. out of the way of doors and kind of dark.

 

[Michael Propst]

Hey there. I am also from Kansas. Welcome, I just started with my chickens this July and have found this BYC forum and true blessing. I actually inherited the chickens I got from my neighbors when they moved. For the coop 4x6 for 6 chickens is what is recommended as a minimum. You need 4 square feet of coop space per chicken assuming you are getting full size girls and not bantams. If you ever think you may want a few more later you may want to plan ahead now and go with a 4x8. I currently have a 4x4 that came with the girls, with 6 hens way to small, so I am in the process of building a 4x4 expansion (just have the roof to finish). Trust me it is always easier to build it bigger in the beginning than have to add on later. They had also built a 9x9 run and only had it covered with chicken wire. First for your run I will repeat what so many others have said and make sure you have fencing or a roof over the top to keep climbing predators out and protect from the flying predators. I wanted more protection lower down as well so I just went up 36" with 1/2" hardware cloth. You may also consider installing a predator apron. I went overkill with mine a made a 2 layer apron first layer being 24" out with 1/2" hardware cloth it a top layer of PVC Coated Welded Wire Fence. I will attach some pics of what I did for the predator barrier. I personally never keep food or water inside my coop it always stays in the run. Most discussions will say that water inside the coop will create extra moisture from the evaporation which is something you don't want. I never thought of using a stale mat as a floor, I guess they only thing I would look into is what is it made of and does it generate any fumes if placed in a confined space.

It looks like others have already touched on your other questions. Once again welcome.

 

[Eilsel]

Thank you so much for all the thoughtful and welcoming replies! There is definitely a lot to plan for and I'm sure upgrades, additions, and re-considerations will be made as I go. I've already gotten sucked into reading page after page of this forum- I can tell it's going to be helpful!