From the scratch

[N F C]

Hi, you've already received some great advice from the previous greeters so I'll just say make yourself at home here!

Best of luck with all your plans

 

[Chicken_Ninja]

Wait...I just went back and re-read your intro. 20-30 chickens? Do you realize you need a minimum of 120 SF of floor space in your coop for 30 chickens? That doesn't include nesting boxes, and you'll need about 5 of those. Then you'll need at least 30 feet of roosting bars. I've never seen a raised coop that big before, but I'm sure it can be done. Then, in the run, you need a minimum of 300 SF of space, and I think that will be too small to avoid problems. I go the opposite way and give my chickens 4000 SF of safe free range space during the day, which will be open to them during the day even when the new coop and run are finished. You'll need to think about obstacles, perches and ways to entertain chickens. Make sure you have 3-5 feeding stations. I have 5 or more for my 12 chickens. Depending on the season and what is happening with them, I may add but never less than 5.

Again, I didn't start here. I learned the hard way...kind of like what you want to do.

I must say that I'm really surprised by how helpful you guys are here... Of all the research I have been doing so far (2 months now), this thread have changed how I thought things will do fine. Except for converting from/to the metric system, this is so helpful

@DobieLover yes I am dropping the raised coop idea but I still think it would have looked much cooler

My planned coop area was around 96 SF, maybe I will keep that and have 25 instead of 30 chickens.. The run will be meshed from all sides (including the ground as we have mongooses that can dig from below). During a sunny day the chicken can have a much wider area to roam (around 10,000 SF) but that depends on my mom's willingness and patience to keep an eye on them

I'm sure I will have tons of questions to come as, no, I do not want to learn the hard way, appreciate you sharing your experience and knowledge

 

[ValerieJ]

I must say that I'm really surprised by how helpful you guys are here... Of all the research I have been doing so far (2 months now), this thread have changed how I thought things will do fine. Except for converting from/to the metric system, this is so helpful

@DobieLover yes I am dropping the raised coop idea but I still think it would have looked much cooler

My planned coop area was around 96 SF, maybe I will keep that and have 25 instead of 30 chickens.. The run will be meshed from all sides (including the ground as we have mongooses that can dig from below). During a sunny day the chicken can have a much wider area to roam (around 10,000 SF) but that depends on my mom's willingness and patience to keep an eye on them

I'm sure I will have tons of questions to come as, no, I do not want to learn the hard way, appreciate you sharing your experience and knowledge

Oh, I'm so glad you were willing to accept some advice! You'll be so happy you did in the long run.

The great thing about BYC is being able to get direct feedback to our plans. I sure wish I had known about this site when we built our first coop.

 

[DobieLover]

View attachment 2051593View attachment 2051593View attachment 2051593
The raised roof seems very effective for good ventilation, do you close that (partially at least) in cold days? the flowing wind seems too close to the sleeping birds.View attachment 2051593

Nope!
No draft blows open their feathers. The soffit, gable and roof vents are open year round as is the pop door.

 

[Chicken_Ninja]

I had the raised style. It worked fine for the chickens. It did NOT for me.
I converted a shed into my coop and use poop boards and would never consider going back to raised floor.
If you build your run as predator proof as your coop you can leave the pop door open 24/7.
You also need to consider how difficult it is going to be to retrieve chickens off the roost to work with them when required. For example, last night I did health checks, routine maintenance and dewormed my flock of 27 birds. This took over 2 hours. I had to do no stooping to do the work. I just walk into the coop, picked up the bird I wanted and went into the brooder room to work with it.
View attachment 2034165

The raised ceiling spacing seems very effective for good ventilation (marked in red), do you close that (partially at least) during cold days? the flowing wind seems too close to the sleeping birds.
PS: Nice decoration! Hope those butterflies are not chased

 

[Chicken_Ninja]

Nope!
No draft blows open their feathers. The soffit, gable and roof vents are open year round as is the pop door.

Have a photo from the outside? That would be helpful

 

[DobieLover]

Have a photo from the outside? That would be helpful

You can click on the My Coop link under my avatar to read the coop build. It will tell you everything I did to make the coop.

 

[Chicken_Ninja]

Hi everyone I'm still planning the coop and run construction.
It is clear that run should be over soil area, however I have an already existing open vast area of concrete that is very convenient for a run next to the coop.
This may sound very naive, but I thought I could use the expertise here:

Can a run be constructed over concrete area?
If not, why? Why do the chickens actually need the soil for?
And, is there a way to make it work? Like adding a layer of soil for example? What thickness would work?

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[TwoCrows]

Hi everyone I'm still planning the coop and run construction.
It is clear that run should be over soil area, however I have an already existing open vast area of concrete that is very convenient for a run next to the coop.
This may sound very naive, but I thought I could use the expertise here:

Can a run be constructed over concrete area?
If not, why? Why do the chickens actually need the soil for?
And, is there a way to make it work? Like adding a layer of soil for example? What thickness would work?

Thanks for the feedback!

Concrete is hard on their legs and feet to stand on. But any sort of bedding like wood mulch, grass hay, even wood shavings will keep them off the concrete. If they need a dust bathing area, you can create areas like this with an old tractor tire filled with soil, even a huge round planting container with dirt will work for dust bathing.

 

[Chicken_Ninja]

Hello guys

So I have been seeing videos and reading a lot on the deep litter method and it seems very convenient especially to someone who can use lot of compost for the plantation.

I would appreciate your personal knowledge and experience with that, how to do it, what to do, and most importantly what can go wrong with it.

My coop is planned to be 8x13 ft and the run 26x10 ft. I am planning to protect the run from the rain too (zinc plates roof and fenced walls with nylon protection from the rain). The coop and run will be constructed over concrete. The location is dry, windy with hot summers and somehow cold winters (that includes a total of 20 days of frost).

Questions are something like:

• Does this work for coop and run?
  
  
• What is the initial depth of litter? How often you add new layers of litter? When to stop?
  
  
• What material to use? ( I don't have lot of pine shaving supply but random types of wood shavings available), does green plants count as litter?
  
  
• Do you need to add some moisture especially in my hot dry summer?
  
  
• Do you keep a base from the previous bedding for the next one? I have read this would keep some of the good composting bacteria for the next bedding.
  
  
• And one last question, is deep litter different than deep bedding?

Thanks folks!