Have the chickens, now I need a coop. Please help!!!

[Justso]

You do but the hardware cloth is pretty simple and fast. Cover the top with metal for rain protection, shade and secure the top of the hardware cloth. The hard part is framing the ends and making the door. You can cheat and buy an extra cattle panel and cut it down for the back end.

I agree a hoop coop would work well, especially in the South. I think there may be a tendency to over protect chickens, they can bear colder weather for a little while without a building. I'm in a colder climate and and I keep the run door open in their house year-round.
Another advantage is you can move hoop coop easier, allowing you to rotate to new areas and fresh soil.

 

[3KillerBs]

I agree a hoop coop would work well, especially in the South. I think there may be a tendency to over protect chickens, they can bear colder weather for a little while without a building. I'm in a colder climate and and I keep the run door open in their house year-round.
Another advantage is you can move hoop coop easier, allowing you to rotate to new areas and fresh soil.

Yes, have a look at my coop this past January: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/open-air-coop-in-the-snow.1508695/

 

[rosemarythyme]

So what you are saying is I'd build a ditch a few feet back from the coop and run around the entire area of the coop/run and use the dirt to raise the level of the coop/run area, and then fill the ditches with rocks? I could run the ditch down to my berm area, but it doesn't really go anywhere after that, the water pretty much sits in the berm ditch until it absorbs through the ground in a few days (after a large storm). Trying to picture this in my head and having some trouble.

Pretty much this. Raise the ground where the coop and run (at the very least, the coop) will sit, and add drainage around the perimeter to move the water further away. Goal is to try and keep the coop dry as possible, and minimize water in the run/keep it surface dry.

My lot is pretty darn flat, and we do get some flooding. Over time the deep litter in the run has built up enough that a lot of flood water goes around the run - note how much water there is outside the fence vs inside. If there's enough flooding, yes the entire run will flood, but our coop is raised about 6" off the ground to allow water to run under it so the chickens at least still have a dry coop to use.

 

[FunClucks]

How do you guys think this idea will hold up for the chicken run frame?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08LGMZVVN/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2KDBGPI4VU5M7&psc=1

Some awesome person in Florida(?) made a mobile coop out of the 7'x7'x12' version of this:

I plan to make a permanent coop by covering the 20 Ft version of this completely in 19 gauge hot dip galvanized 1/2" hardware cloth, surround it with a 2 ft apron of hardware cloth, anchor using Shelter Logic anchors at each pole ( https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...auger-30-in-earth-anchors-4-pack?cm_vc=-10005 ) and connect the hardware cloth together with hog rings. I would frame out a door on one end and have the coop at the other, hoop coop but with a greenhouse frame. I plan to put french drains around the backside of the coop area so the rain water that likes to stand after a rain can drain to my ditch instead of flooding the run area, and use the excavated dirt from the french drains to raise the coop and possibly run area an inch or so.

For a coop, I'm still figuring that out. It will have large roof overhangs, three nesting boxes, and hold a few more than 8 chickens (current number). Predator protection would be solely from the hardware cloth covering the greenhouse frame, and the strength of the greenhouse frame, as I plan to leave the coop open pretty much year round (except for freezing temps, of which we get a few weeks around 20F in the winter). The coop will be inside a fenced back yard, so we don't get neighborhood dogs (so far), but we do get cats, hawks, etc. like I mentioned earlier. I wish I could say I will get up at the crack of dawn every day to go care for the chickens, but that's not realistically going to happen. My son swears he will, but he's pretty young. I think he'll have excellent follow-through but don't want to bet our chickens' life on it, so I figured with a large run and open coop they'd have plenty of space until I make it out there in the morning.

Thoughts?

 

[3KillerBs]

How do you guys think this idea will hold up for the chicken run frame?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08LGMZVVN/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2KDBGPI4VU5M7&psc=1

Some awesome person in Florida(?) made a mobile coop out of the 7'x7'x12' version of this:

View attachment 3058026

I plan to make a permanent coop by covering the 20 Ft version of this completely in 19 gauge hot dip galvanized 1/2" hardware cloth, surround it with a 2 ft apron of hardware cloth, anchor using Shelter Logic anchors at each pole ( https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...auger-30-in-earth-anchors-4-pack?cm_vc=-10005 ) and connect the hardware cloth together with hog rings. I would frame out a door on one end and have the coop at the other, hoop coop but with a greenhouse frame. I plan to put french drains around the backside of the coop area so the rain water that likes to stand after a rain can drain to my ditch instead of flooding the run area, and use the excavated dirt from the french drains to raise the coop and possibly run area an inch or so.

For a coop, I'm still figuring that out. It will have large roof overhangs, three nesting boxes, and hold a few more than 8 chickens (current number). Predator protection would be solely from the hardware cloth covering the greenhouse frame, and the strength of the greenhouse frame, as I plan to leave the coop open pretty much year round (except for freezing temps, of which we get a few weeks around 20F in the winter). The coop will be inside a fenced back yard, so we don't get neighborhood dogs (so far), but we do get cats, hawks, etc. like I mentioned earlier. I wish I could say I will get up at the crack of dawn every day to go care for the chickens, but that's not realistically going to happen. My son swears he will, but he's pretty young. I think he'll have excellent follow-through but don't want to bet our chickens' life on it, so I figured with a large run and open coop they'd have plenty of space until I make it out there in the morning.

Thoughts?

That looks like a great option -- roomy and airy. Just make sure to anchor it down so that the wind can't flip it.

 

[LizThumm]

I have 8 baby chicks, maybe a week or two old (got them from Rural King right after birth). I had a pre-fab coop with run picked out, and was planning on adding another big run to give me 80 ft of ground space, but reading on here realized that there wouldn't be enough space in the coop area for 8 chickens to roost. I am needing suggestions on what kind of coop to build/modify/cobble together. I'm a totally new chicken owner, and sort of good with building things, but it usually takes much more time than I have available while managing small children, hence the attempt to purchase a pre-fab coop. The rejected coop: https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/precision-xl-superior-construction-annex-coop-37077d

Would you recommend I try to convert a metal shed? Maybe this one?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Arrow-N...yQqEnNl8mMhL1QkcTcxoCL_0QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I am in north Alabama, where it is super humid almost all year, maybe we get a few low humidity months in the spring and fall, land of tornadoes, maybe 3 days of snow a year, but usually a month or two of below freezing temperatures. We barely have enough cold time to grow apples. I have about 1/2 acre semi-wooded fenced back yard (chain link), with a stream about 20 feet outside my fence line and vertically down 6 ft. Almost all the trees are 40-50 yr old sweet gum, with one black walnut right next to where I plan to put the coop and run. Issues with poison ivy, issues with ticks and fleas, red hawks, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, neighborhood cats, opossum, water snakes (water moccasin, cottonmounth, rattlers), king snakes, squirrels, song birds, mosquitoes. The proposed coop area gets moderate to heavy shade most of the year (when the leaves are on the trees), and on the worst months the yard is very hot and humid, and the air doesn't move much. We have mainly weeds, violets, and rye grass in the yard at the moment, due to the shade, and lots of tree roots. Heavy clay soil that dries like concrete, and some type of sad grass that looks sorta like Bermuda. Termites are bad here, and there's lots of rotting wood on the other side of my fence and stumps on my property.

For the coop I'm worried about ventilation, poop smell, and keeping the birds safe from predators, as well as having enough space for them and for me to clean it out. There will probably be a number of days they have to stay in their coop instead of their run, for various reasons (weather, etc), and I expect I won't be around during the day most days to check on them when I let them out - they'll get a morning and an evening check. I plan to possibly free range them with supervision, but may not if the run is large enough due to the constant presence of hawks.

The area I have to build the coop and run in is 24' x 48', but I I'd like to enclose 80-100 square feet, and locate a number of pallet hot compost piles nearby. I was hoping to do the deep bedding method, but not sure how successful that would be at keeping smell down in humid alabama.

For the run, should I attempt to build something with 2"x4" and 1/2" hardware cloth, or purchase one of these the chicken runs on Amazon, etc. and cover it with hardware cloth?

I have access to free pallets, but I haven't found anything else I can repurpose, so would have to buy new. Untreated wood, unsealed wood, and unpainted wood is a very bad idea here, so I'd have to do something to every wood surface, if I go that direction.

Any and all suggestions would be welcome.

I just got 6 to add to the 2 I had. So we ended up building this shed out of scrap wood the roof is a hard plastic the door is an old one we had in garage. The only money we really spent was on the floor of the shed the poles for the run and chicken wire.

 

[EliteTempleton]

How do you guys think this idea will hold up for the chicken run frame?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08LGMZVVN/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2KDBGPI4VU5M7&psc=1

Some awesome person in Florida(?) made a mobile coop out of the 7'x7'x12' version of this:

View attachment 3058026

I plan to make a permanent coop by covering the 20 Ft version of this completely in 19 gauge hot dip galvanized 1/2" hardware cloth, surround it with a 2 ft apron of hardware cloth, anchor using Shelter Logic anchors at each pole ( https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...auger-30-in-earth-anchors-4-pack?cm_vc=-10005 ) and connect the hardware cloth together with hog rings. I would frame out a door on one end and have the coop at the other, hoop coop but with a greenhouse frame. I plan to put french drains around the backside of the coop area so the rain water that likes to stand after a rain can drain to my ditch instead of flooding the run area, and use the excavated dirt from the french drains to raise the coop and possibly run area an inch or so.

For a coop, I'm still figuring that out. It will have large roof overhangs, three nesting boxes, and hold a few more than 8 chickens (current number). Predator protection would be solely from the hardware cloth covering the greenhouse frame, and the strength of the greenhouse frame, as I plan to leave the coop open pretty much year round (except for freezing temps, of which we get a few weeks around 20F in the winter). The coop will be inside a fenced back yard, so we don't get neighborhood dogs (so far), but we do get cats, hawks, etc. like I mentioned earlier. I wish I could say I will get up at the crack of dawn every day to go care for the chickens, but that's not realistically going to happen. My son swears he will, but he's pretty young. I think he'll have excellent follow-through but don't want to bet our chickens' life on it, so I figured with a large run and open coop they'd have plenty of space until I make it out there in the morning.

Thoughts?

Awesome and you can use the greenhouse material over the hardware cloth and move their brooder right in there and even temp use it as a coop while you build the other one of it's warm enough down there. It looks like it would hold out all the little predators so unless you have bears or wolverines around I like it!
Depending on the breed they might not mind 20 as much as you do, feathers are nature's best coat (ever worn a down jacket?). They live through our usual stents of -10 and colder nights around here.

FYI I have many talents but drywall and doors/gates often defeat me, so I know you can order a screen door like that from your home center if you want, obviously you have to add HW cloth but it's better than I manage. Last one I ordered was I think $80 but it's wood so that price probably moved around a lot, lumber is in a lul right now though.

 

[malagausa]

I have 8 baby chicks, maybe a week or two old (got them from Rural King right after birth). I had a pre-fab coop with run picked out, and was planning on adding another big run to give me 80 ft of ground space, but reading on here realized that there wouldn't be enough space in the coop area for 8 chickens to roost. I am needing suggestions on what kind of coop to build/modify/cobble together. I'm a totally new chicken owner, and sort of good with building things, but it usually takes much more time than I have available while managing small children, hence the attempt to purchase a pre-fab coop. The rejected coop: https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/precision-xl-superior-construction-annex-coop-37077d

Would you recommend I try to convert a metal shed? Maybe this one?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Arrow-N...yQqEnNl8mMhL1QkcTcxoCL_0QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I am in north Alabama, where it is super humid almost all year, maybe we get a few low humidity months in the spring and fall, land of tornadoes, maybe 3 days of snow a year, but usually a month or two of below freezing temperatures. We barely have enough cold time to grow apples. I have about 1/2 acre semi-wooded fenced back yard (chain link), with a stream about 20 feet outside my fence line and vertically down 6 ft. Almost all the trees are 40-50 yr old sweet gum, with one black walnut right next to where I plan to put the coop and run. Issues with poison ivy, issues with ticks and fleas, red hawks, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, neighborhood cats, opossum, water snakes (water moccasin, cottonmounth, rattlers), king snakes, squirrels, song birds, mosquitoes. The proposed coop area gets moderate to heavy shade most of the year (when the leaves are on the trees), and on the worst months the yard is very hot and humid, and the air doesn't move much. We have mainly weeds, violets, and rye grass in the yard at the moment, due to the shade, and lots of tree roots. Heavy clay soil that dries like concrete, and some type of sad grass that looks sorta like Bermuda. Termites are bad here, and there's lots of rotting wood on the other side of my fence and stumps on my property.

For the coop I'm worried about ventilation, poop smell, and keeping the birds safe from predators, as well as having enough space for them and for me to clean it out. There will probably be a number of days they have to stay in their coop instead of their run, for various reasons (weather, etc), and I expect I won't be around during the day most days to check on them when I let them out - they'll get a morning and an evening check. I plan to possibly free range them with supervision, but may not if the run is large enough due to the constant presence of hawks.

The area I have to build the coop and run in is 24' x 48', but I I'd like to enclose 80-100 square feet, and locate a number of pallet hot compost piles nearby. I was hoping to do the deep bedding method, but not sure how successful that would be at keeping smell down in humid alabama.

For the run, should I attempt to build something with 2"x4" and 1/2" hardware cloth, or purchase one of these the chicken runs on Amazon, etc. and cover it with hardware cloth?

I have access to free pallets, but I haven't found anything else I can repurpose, so would have to buy new. Untreated wood, unsealed wood, and unpainted wood is a very bad idea here, so I'd have to do something to every wood surface, if I go that direction.

Any and all suggestions would be welcome.

 

[malagausa]

I started out with 6 chicks. I found this plan online so I'm going to share it with you. My husband made that same chicken coop and the chicken run for me.

I now hav3e 22 chickens and my husband converted a medium size shed for the additonal chickens. He also installed more nesting boxes, roosts for all of them. They are very secure from outside skunks, and hawks.

So far so good. This may work for you if not you'll have to get something that will work for you.

Take care,
Christy

 

[FunClucks]

Awesome and you can use the greenhouse material over the hardware cloth and move their brooder right in there and even temp use it as a coop while you build the other one of it's warm enough down there. It looks like it would hold out all the little predators so unless you have bears or wolverines around I like it!
Depending on the breed they might not mind 20 as much as you do, feathers are nature's best coat (ever worn a down jacket?). They live through our usual stents of -10 and colder nights around here.

FYI I have many talents but drywall and doors/gates often defeat me, so I know you can order a screen door like that from your home center if you want, obviously you have to add HW cloth but it's better than I manage. Last one I ordered was I think $80 but it's wood so that price probably moved around a lot, lumber is in a lul right now though.

Thanks for the tips about the screen door. That didn't occur to me, and I was dreading having to make a door.