Hello From California

Flooring in your run

  • Deep liter

    Votes: 5 71.4%

  • Concrete

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Sand

    Votes: 2 28.6%
  • Total voters
    7
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Kellyk126 said:
We have a prefabbed house I’ve weatherized as much as possible and the run is 8’x16’.
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Your run sounds like a great size! What are the dimensions of the coop interior part only? I think you might find it to be quite cramped for 6 chickens, unless it's one of those larger ones about 6'x3'or 6'x4' or more. Otherwise you might be better off building your own.
Just speaking from my own terrible experience with a prefab :oops:
 
Hello and welcome to BYC - thanks for joining us. Please make yourself at home.

This is a useful link of BYC guides to take a look at announcements-feedback-issues-guides.3 I’d suggest including your location using the guide in the link. You can use this link to contact members in your area - Find your State's thread.

Best wishes

Pork Pie
 
igorsMistress said:
View attachment 1725395

I like deep litter. What prefab coop did you get?
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I got this one, I caulked all the cracks and am going to change out the hardware to heavier duty stuff. I also painted it inside and out to hopefully avoid most of the warping on the cheap wood.

coop.jpg
 
FlappyFeathers said:
Your run sounds like a great size! What are the dimensions of the coop interior part only? I think you might find it to be quite cramped for 6 chickens, unless it's one of those larger ones about 6'x3'or 6'x4' or more. Otherwise you might be better off building your own.
Just speaking from my own terrible experience with a prefab :oops:
Click to expand...

I'd have to measure. I'm thinking it might be too small as well BUT, I'm not actually using the run it came attached to, I'm hardware wiring the entire bottom of the 8'c16' covered run. I looked in to other coops but I didn't want a walk in house and most of the bigger coops seem to have more boxes but not a whole lot of additional roosting space. Two boxes in theory should be plenty... so I'm left with the issue of roosting space. I am HOPING they all will be happy on their two roosting bars and we can make it work since they will have a very large space during the daytime. Fingers crossed! I'm in central valley CA and the weather here is pretty mild, so I'm not super concerned with the lack of insulation.

I guess I could just keep 4 or 5... that would probably be the smart thing to do!
 
Kellyk126 said:
I'd have to measure. I'm thinking it might be too small as well BUT, I'm not actually using the run it came attached to, I'm hardware wiring the entire bottom of the 8'c16' covered run. I looked in to other coops but I didn't want a walk in house and most of the bigger coops seem to have more boxes but not a whole lot of additional roosting space. Two boxes in theory should be plenty... so I'm left with the issue of roosting space. I am HOPING they all will be happy on their two roosting bars and we can make it work since they will have a very large space during the daytime. Fingers crossed! I'm in central valley CA and the weather here is pretty mild, so I'm not super concerned with the lack of insulation.

I guess I could just keep 4 or 5... that would probably be the smart thing to do!
Click to expand...

Lol! yes, less chickens is more smart, but more chickens is more fun! You're right about the nest boxes, and insulation isn't much concern for you at all... not in my climate either. But you'll for sure want to add some more ventilation. I have upper vents like that open all winter, and as long as drafts aren't blowing directly on birds at roost level, they'll enjoy the fresh air.

I would cut out a couple panels and replace each opening with a piece of hardware cloth to let ammonia fumes escape, as marked here in red:
coop.jpg

I think this coop could work as roosting house. If not, your chickens will let you know in about 9-12 months. That's usually the time the top birds refuse to let others enter if it's too crowded at night, or some may start roosting on the roof.

Please consider using a 24" hardware cloth apron around the outside perimeter of your run instead of lining the inside floor with it. I only say this because you know how chickens love to scratch all day, they could easily get bumblefoot on the wire. Plus my girls really do enjoy rolling in the dirt floor of the run, I'd hate to deprive them of that. I've also noticed some rust and disintegration of buried hwc over time, and an apron is much easier to inspect or replace if needed.

Hang on to those run panels... they could come in very handy later on. You never know when you need to add a separation area or something useful like that.... or maybe a bigger coop haha!
Oh, I forgot to leave these links earlier, they might be helpful:
Chicken Coop Ventilation - Go Out There And Cut More Holes In Your Coop!
How Much Room Do Chickens Need
Keeping Chickens Without Free Ranging

:frow
 

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