Garden Loft Coop - finally completed!

[rosemarythyme]

Ventilation isn’t an issue. The entire run is hardware cloth and the top of the coop is also wide open with hardware cloth. The plastic roof is only to protect from the rain and provide some extra shade. This thing is basically completely hardware cloth all around.

You may change your mind come summer, though it looks like you have your access hatch in that wall facing into the run? If push comes to shove you can pop that open in hotter temperatures all summer, or as a temporary measure while adding in more vents.

 

[Dancingbirder]

I'll clean it up a little:

2 bantam silkies
1 cream legbar
1 green queen
1 OE
1 buff Orpington
1 lavender Orpington
1 ameraucauna
1 Blue EE
2 Blue Favaucanas
1 Golden Cuckoo Maran

All 12 are 3-4 weeks old and we will not be getting any more. Chicken math already got us and we went from 6 to another reorder of 6 a week later lol. But we are limited to 12 per city law.

I am not the OP but this thread is specific to this coop design so I didn't think he would mind. There's not a lot of customer info / reviews about this exact coop (the design is purchased here and built by us) so I thought it would be helpful for anyone else considering buying this design. It clearly says it will fit 16 adult full-size chickens, so I'm trying to see why 12 is too many now. Sorry for hijacking the thread. I'm a first time chicken owner and will be moving them to the coop in about a month, so if any changes are needed i'll need to get back to work.

Thanks

Hey there and sorry for the late response!! I think this coop could hold lots of bantams. Given that your 12 are a mixed flock, I think it’ll be tight.

Definitely hang any feeders or waterers rather than setting them on the ground. We just put a brick under ours so our bantam can climb up to eat and drink. If the big sisters get too rough, you can put a pallet or box for the bantams to hide. Because ours do pick on each other sometimes and the victim uses all available space to run away!

By the way, the coop itself is way big for our six. Four use only the crossbar facing the nest, and the other two sleep on the door-side facing each other. The entire middle space is totally unused.

One issue we did run into was chickens wanting to sleep on top of and in the upper set of nest boxes as they are very slightly higher than the roost. We don’t actually need the uppers so we repurpose them for storage. You will probably need them because you’ve got more ladies and therefore more eggs... hopefully yours will behave and not sleep there but it’s something to think about. I think this coop does support the exterior nest box mod which might be worth considering if you have the same problem.

Another note on our “special needs” bantam frizzle - We had to build an additional ramp for her up to all the outside and inside roosts as she could not fly up to them. We ended up connecting the coop ladder to the outside roost as it was too steep for her to go up straight from the floor. I’m not sure if your silkies will also have this problem. I’ll post a photo later today after I go out there again.

I hope this is helpful? I guess I would say I am cautiously optimistic for you given that they will be outside of the structure most of the day. We have an insane bobcat and raccoon problem so we can’t let ours outside unsupervised at all. I also think that you could extend the run on the coop door side to give them more space should you find that you need it....

 

[BayAreaMike408]

Thanks @Dancingbirder. It’s good to hear an opinion from another owner of this exact coop. Would love to see pics and appreciate the tips re: nesting boxes and modifying the ladders for our littles.

 

[Dancingbirder]

Here are some photos. We used siding scraps from the main build for the exterior ramp. It isn't screwed on; there's a 2x2 mounted horizontally across the bottom and it just rests on top of the roost. This makes it easy to move aside so that we can access that side of the coop to refill the feeder and do any cleaning.

For the walkway between the coop and the roost, we took the ladder in the design and added "rungs" halfway between the existing ones to accommodate the bantam's smaller stride. Then we screwed it to the top of the roost rather than having it hinge up and down.

The interior ramp we repurposed from our prefab coop. It just happened that it was the perfect height.

As you can see, the ramps are also used by our standard hens when they aren't feeling adventurous

 

[nicolekathryn]

We built this coop and run too (last summer) so I found this thread to see about any modifications. I love the extra ramps - when we had silkies these would have come in handy. I've made a few modifications to ours but not extra ramps. I recently built a brooder into the coop - I love that it is big enough to do that. I'm kind of laughing about the ventilation comment - it's basically an open air coop.

We currently have 5 hens and 6 chicks in the coop; I'm thinking 11-12 is the max I'll be comfortable with unless we increase free ranging time significantly.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I'm kind of laughing about the ventilation comment - it's basically an open air coop.

I think your photos make it much more obvious how much ventilation is available above the coop portion. Unfortunately with the OPs photos I couldn't see it as clearly, hence why I questioned if there was any ventilation at all, and then after, if it was enough.

 

[nicolekathryn]

I think your photos make it much more obvious how much ventilation is available above the coop portion. Unfortunately with the OPs photos I couldn't see it as clearly, hence why I questioned if there was any ventilation at all, and then after, if it was enough.

I understand. I don't know the guy who made the plans or anything but they are incredibly detailed and just plain great, and you can buy a hardware kit with all the metal things you need to do the build. So seeing criticism of the design from people who don't know what it really entails is something I notice.

Someone else said they don't want a coop they cant get in to clean. This coop is designed for easy cleaning - the entire front opens with 4 big doors, and 2x4s that are holding in the bedding lift up and can be used to scrape the bedding into the run or into a wheelbarrow. There are touches like that throughout - the chicken ladder is on a hinge so you can lift it and connect it to the roost when cleaning the run; the ceiling panels are far enough below the roof to allow ventilation and also drying space for flowers or other plants; the nesting boxes are completely removable and accessible from outside; the elevated coop is sturdy enough to hang waterers or swings or feeders from underneath, etc. We are really happy with it so far (started planning the build one year ago today).

 

[nicolekathryn]

Here's a tour I put together with my daughter a few weeks ago, if anyone's interested

 

[cherrynberry]

Here's a tour I put together with my daughter a few weeks ago, if anyone's interested

Just watched your video, I love the coop! It’s so pretty and airy. Love the new additions as well...right now, I am trying to look for inspiration as we are trying to build a new coop.

Has having a dirt floor been easy to use for you? Any issues with it?

 

[nicolekathryn]

Just watched your video, I love the coop! It’s so pretty and airy. Love the new additions as well...right now, I am trying to look for inspiration as we are trying to build a new coop.

Has having a dirt floor been easy to use for you? Any issues with it?

We put a couple of bales of hemp in the coop and a couple more in the run and it's really been fantastic. We have done three seasons so far with this setup so are entering our first summer and I know the heat could be a game changer, but until now we've dealt with no smell at all with the hemp and deep litter method. What I really like is being able to just scrape/brush the coop litter right into the run for cleanout day.

We just built a brooder in the coop and that's starting to smell a little during the day, I think just because there are 6 of them in a pretty small space. But I turn it over once or twice a day for the chicks and it's fine.