HELP! I need chicken run building advice!!

[gsim]

Quote:

It looks neat and nice. Do not set it too low or you will create a haven for snakes and rodents. I would not put more than 8 chickens in there, tops. Bare min run size is said to be 10 sq ft/chook. I did 80 sq ft/chook. Make a run that you can walk into and you will never regret it. Make it dig proof and electrify it with a fence charger. I used 2x4 welded wire set in cement. I have a fence-charger with 4 courses of hot wire around it to stop climbers such as coons, foxes, coyotes and some hounds. I would recommend an additional layer/course of hardware cloth mesh all around the perimeter at ground level. That will stop chooks from poking their heads thru to get snatched off and will prevent coons//foxes from reaching in to rip body parts off of your chooks. (Read predator section of this forum for a practical education on preventing preds from destroying your flock.) I wold set 4 corner posts and two gate posts, all in cement so that they are around 7 ft tall. Then use 6 ft long 'T' posts every 10 ft for line posts, set to ht of 5 ft. Put them in with a slammer that you can rent cheaply.

Regards coop, I fear you will find that poop does not drop thru as they told you it would. It will cake up on top of the wire floor and stink to high heaven. I would do a solid floor and cover with linoleum and add 6" deep litter grass clippings or wood chips or hay. No straw. Caulk around perimeter of linoleum to seal so no mites can have a breeding haven. I would raise the roost to a higher place or they will roost instead on the front board of the nests and crap in the nests nightly. Roost always should be higher than nests. You do not need all of those nests. You only need two nests for a coop that size. 3 would be overdoing it. So one side could be use for supplies. In cold weather you will want to block the lower areas of the vents to prevent drafts at that level. Ideally, coop should be draft free in winter time from floor level to roost level and all full-time ventilation should be above that height. Depending on which one you bought, you may need to add a minimum 12 x12 louvered vent at top of entrance door. Do a poop board 24" wide centered under roost pole to make litter last a whole year. Works for me, and I have 23 pullets in an 8 x 16 coop. Scrape daily for clean air that remains dry in wintertime which is vital for health and prevention of frostbite.

You should be able to make your coop what it needs to be with little effort. The run will be easy once you get into it. Set the T-posts after the corners are set and only then stretch the wire fencing into place. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE PREDATORS. Close coop nightl ly after closing run. That gives you two lines of defense in case one fails. Difference there can be a little repair time vs a lot of heartbreak and starting over with a new flock. Make pop door so that you can do that from outside of run also if that would suit you. Nest bumpout can be outside of pen to prevent walking thru poop to get eggs. Pay attention to predator and rain proofing it.

Take long breaks, short puffs, laugh a lot, and work safely.

PM or email me any time.

Gerry

 

[keeko]

Thanks so much Gerry! That was a lot of good info.

Unfortunately, I've already committed to buying 16 chicks from a hatchery (splitting an order with a friend). I thought the coop would be bigger than that, so sadly it looks like I'll be giving away/selling a few pullets this spring. That, or get another coop before I've even finished this one!

Also, I should have mentioned that I asked Donald to do a slightly different design for me. (Gerry - you and I are on the same wavelength!) I asked Donald to make a custom coop with the nest boxes lower than the roost, windows above the nestboxes for ventilation, and a solid plywood flooring that we'll be putting linoleum over. That's great advice about the caulking though, I hadn't thought about it - so thank you!

I think we've decided to go with an 8 x 16 foot run. It's the most we can get out of the space next to our house, and still allows us room to get a wheelbarrow around it. Because the run is next to our house, we'll be pitching the roof away from the house. Now, would it be better to build a slanted run? OR, does it make more sense to build a flat-topped square run, and put the roofing up separately?

I'm still stumped on how to connect it to coop itself. I'm thinking what Pat suggested might work - building the whole run and then just cutting a hole for the popdoor (thanks Pat!). If all else fails, I love the idea of finding an old swing set and putting hardware cloth around it! I love to recycle!

Thanks so much everyone - I'm back to the drawing board (where we've been all day) with new ideas

 

[keeko]

I think I might have figured out how to upload a photo...maybe this will help! It's an picture of my actual coop, just unpainted. This is the front, which might help with the problems with attaching the run...

Oh, and P.S. for the record - anyone interested in buying a coop from Donald at cockadoodlecoops.com don't hesitate! He was great to work with, and made this coop completely custom to my specifications

 

[tigerbarbd]

Good evening Keeko.....Here is a picture of how we did our run. We made a 28'x36' with "T" posts, and 2"x4" steel wire fence. Then we put the "coop" right up to it, cut a square out for the pop door, and stapled the fence to the coop. Later we covered the entire run with plastic bird netting, so the Hawks can't get to our "girls".

Hope this helps...........Don

 

[Ridgerunner]

Put a slant on the top of your run. If it is flat, the water will set on top and leak through instead of run off.

As far as attaching the coop to the run as Pat suggested, consider butting it against the wire and screwing boards from inside the run into the wood of the coop. Sort of sandwich the wire between the wood of the coop and the pieces you are putting on. Hopefully that makes sense.

The ramp looks like it is the way you lock the coop up to keep predators out, by raising the ramp. You may have to take it off, attach the coop to the wire on the run, then put those hinges back on your new wood. Not sure how that would work and how it is locked closed. I think that pop door is low enough to the ground that you really don't need the ramp. The chickens should have no trouble getting up or down without the ramp. It might work better for you to make a different closure for the pop door and get rid of the ramp. Just a thought.

Oh, another thought. Consider building a "tunnel" from the pop door to the run. Set the coop back from the fence a bit, giving you room between the coop and the run to get access. And fix a door, maybe guillotine type, to lock up your coop at night. I'd probably use 1/2" hardware cloth to build the "tunnel", bending the edges over a sharp edge like a 2x4, and use J-clips to attach it to the run wiring and wood over wood with the wire sandwiched in between to attach it to the coop. You could make the tunnel our of wood if you want. I feel like I'm not explaining it very well but I can see what I'm talking about.

Good luck!!!

 

[keeko]

Thanks Don and Ridgerunner!
Don, that's a great example for me to put the run right up to the coop. Also, that swinging door might be a good solution for the popdoor as Ridgerunner was talking about, since right now I have the ramp (which connects with two little hook latches on either side, btw).
The "tunnel" idea is actually a great one! If I were to build it out of wood instead of hardware cloth, do you think the chickens would be brave enough to walk through to get to the run? Maybe if they see the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak?

As for the slanted roof, is it easier to build a slanted run (with one side taller than the other), and THEN put roofing on it? Or should I make the top of the run flat and prop the roofing material on it? I can't really figure out which would be easier!

 

[gsim]

Quote:
That picture could have been taken in my workshop. I have a hydraulic car hoist too, an 11,000 # capacity unit. What a work saver! I am too old to be jacking up a car and using a wheelbarrow to haul cribbing blocks, etc.

Without seeing your layout it may be that it would be easier to just build a run completely enclosing your coop. That was what I did and a part of that was that I have a site that slopes 6:1. Really tho, one of the nest box bumpouts could be a great storage area for whatever. From the looks of it, ventilation is no issue! ha-ha! You will want to take some osb board and saw some panels to close off a lot of the ventilated area to keep drafts off of the chooks at floor and roost levels for wintertime. Might be that a roof vent would be a good thing for wintertime when so much of it would be closed off?

 

[keeko]

A roof vent is a good idea... we were going back and forth between needing one, but you make a good point about closing it up in the winter but still needing ventilation.

We were thinking of cutting a few pieces of plexiglass for those windows during the winter...that way the sun can still come in and encourage our girls to keep laying. Any suggestions on how to attach those? It seems like putting the plexiglass on hinges would be cumbersome when they're open all the time. I wonder if I shouldn't just prop up the pieces in the winter time, and pop them out in the warmer months?

 

[wildorchid053]

i would put it inside the run. with a wire floor predators will drag them out by their feet if they can.. should have a solid floor.. not a very secure coop but it could be if in the run..our run has buried hardware cloth and you can get inside easily. we had to add a bachelor pad for the boys after everything was built and it has worked out well being inside..