Help Me Design the INTERIOR of My Chicken Shed!!!

[iwiw60]

Okay, here we go! My new shed is due to arrive sometime this week (YAY!) which is 5' x 8' wide and I am now in the throes of trying to decide just where to put:

2 nesting boxes
feeder and waterer
small roosting area (with a poop board possibly?)
small niche for my 25-gallon metal can for feed storage

Here are some pics of the shed from the online site (please disregard the 'stuff' you see inside that one pic):




That left-side door will be permanently closed and will act as part of the wall. I will only be using the right-side door for entry. The pop hole will be on the right side of the shed directly under the window you see.

Okay, all you BYC forum fans...help an 'ol senior gal out that is pulling her hair out (what's left of it) trying to figure out the best configuration for the inside!!!! Please!!! And THANK YOU!!

 

[iwiw60]

Can somebody give me some ideas?????

 

[Hokum Coco]

Okay, here we go! My new shed is due to arrive sometime this week (YAY!) which is 5' x 8' wide and I am now in the throes of trying to decide just where to put:

2 nesting boxes My shelfs are roughly 2'off the floor and apart.
feeder and waterer
small roosting area (with a poop board possibly?)
small niche for my 25-gallon metal can for feed storage I would put one shelf in place to accommodate this can from the floor.

Here is my coop it is 4x8 and I have kept as many as 24 birds in it all winter with no problems and no run. My nest boxes are milk crates on a shelf (shelf are 2' apart.

Watering
For along time I used heater tape around a bucket with chicken watering nipples. It worked excellent. However me being me I neglected to change the water as often as I should. This is what it looks like and it thermostatically controlled to come on at just above the freezing temperature. You would have to wrap it to suit your particular application if it is viable for your set up. It is available at Home Depot in Canada.




Last year I switched to white rubber contains the wife found somewhere. The freeze solid every night but the ice just pops out of them in the morning and I replenish them with fresh warm water. They have black ones at the feed store that are similar but large than mine.

The chickens congregate around them like people having their morning coffee. The only draw back is my yard is pepper with small ice bergs the size of the buckets


My Coop is a salvaged 4x8 metal shed here are a few tips and a quick look at my set up.
My floor are planks with a layer of tin for rodent proofing. On top of the tin I have a piece of vinyl flooring cut one foot longer than the length and width of my coop (roughly). Six inches squares are cut out of the 4 corners of the vinyl flooring. This allows the friction fitted flooring to travel up the walls six inches around the perimeter of my 4x8 salvaged metal coop. Shovel out the heavy stuff into a wheel barrow. Pop out the vinyl flooring hose it off pop it back in.
Easy Peasy!

Bedding
I have used all types of litter for coops.

I have not tried sand (sand gets good reviews on this site).

Of all the things I tried to date wood pellets have been the best. (I tried wood pellets as a last resort when pine shavings were not available.) They are super absorbent and swell up and eventually turn to saw dust. The droppings just seem to vanish and turn to dust when it comes in contact with wood pellets .

Replace my litter and clean my coop every October after I harvest my garden.


Works for me in my deep litter method.

I do add to pellets from time to time.

I have anywhere from 10 to 24 birds housed in my 4x8 coop.

Through the winter months the pellets froze harder than concrete with -40º temperatures. The poop froze before it could be absorbed by the pellets and there was like a crusty layer of poop in certain areas where they collectively took aim (no smell, messy feet or flies @ -40º). Come April things started to look after themselves.

Nest boxes
In my nest boxes I fold a feed bag to fit (nest boxes are 1 ft³). When a bag gets soiled; fold a new one; pop out the soiled; pop in the new.

POOP BOARDS are the "BEST" addition yet. Handles well over ½ of the poop in my set up keeps ammonia smell in check 3½" below roost excellent for catching eggs laid through the night (roost are in cups for easier removal and cleaning). I recently friction fit a piece of vinyl flooring over my poop board.it makes clean up even easier; Pop out; Scrap; Hose; Pop in.

Winter months even easier flex over compost bin DONE!

Easy peasy!.

.

 

[iwiw60]

Thanks for replying...nice pics! My dilemma is that the configuration of the shed itself...between the door, the window/pop hole area and the way it's 5' x 8' I'm kinda stuck on where to put what! Aaaack!!

 

[cutenmchick]

Hello! I am so jealous \:0) but really happy for you that you are getting a building for your girls. I have been trying to get my coop built for about a year now....almost there. Guess it isn't a priority yet... Well, my first suggestion was going to be to grab a nice tall ice tea, long island ice tea, or margarita. Sit down with some construction paper and scissors. I am not sure how well this might work for this situation, but, in my MANY, MANY office moves and our upcoming "remodel" I guess you can call it of our farm/ranch area around the house...moving livestock pens, re-doing water lines, etc., this is what I am doing...
Since you know the amount of space you are working with, and you know the number of things you want to put in there, you probably already know, even if you really don't know it (sorry, trying to be funny) how big some things should be. This would be, how long the roosting bars should be, how long this or that should be, how many rows of laying boxes, etc.
You will be cutting out the size (working on a 1" scale) of things. For example, Your shed will be 5' X 8', your base of drawing will be 5" x 8".
The items you cut out will help you place them onto the shed cut-out, move them around... It would give you a bird's eye view of the final... I know this sounds kinda crazy, maybe silly, maybe this isn't what you were looking for, but I hope it helps. I have saved myself lots of extra effort by using this type of planning.
If you do this, then imagine when you walk in, then on the right, what you will see, then imagine yourself doing your chores, your chicken's behavior, then how it opens up to your yard, etc... it may help you to be more creative in itself.

One thing I agree with you on. The poop board. People are so clever about this, but The best ones I have ever seen are those that slide in like a tray into an oven, then you just pull it out, dump it off, or spray down with the hose, then slide it back in. This way, evey your children or grandchildren might not be opposed.... just an idea.

Since my coop is going to be very large, I am hoping to do the same thing, but mine will be several of those pull out boards in a row, maybe 2' wide each.

Good luck.

 

[Irishhenman]

I tried to explain it in words but I failed miserably so I drew it up really quick. This is how I would lay it out. Please excuse my very sloppy drawings and they are only a guide as they are not to scale.

R= roost
F= feeder
W= water
FS= feed storage
NB= Nest boxes
PB= poo boards

 

[iwiw60]

I think that might work...might be a little tight having the nesting boxes on the right with the pop hole on that wall, but I'll tape-measure it out and see...THANKS!!

 

[iwiw60]

Hello! I am so jealous \:0) but really happy for you that you are getting a building for your girls. I have been trying to get my coop built for about a year now....almost there. Guess it isn't a priority yet... Well, my first suggestion was going to be to grab a nice tall ice tea, long island ice tea, or margarita. Sit down with some construction paper and scissors. I am not sure how well this might work for this situation, but, in my MANY, MANY office moves and our upcoming "remodel" I guess you can call it of our farm/ranch area around the house...moving livestock pens, re-doing water lines, etc., this is what I am doing...
Since you know the amount of space you are working with, and you know the number of things you want to put in there, you probably already know, even if you really don't know it (sorry, trying to be funny) how big some things should be. This would be, how long the roosting bars should be, how long this or that should be, how many rows of laying boxes, etc.
You will be cutting out the size (working on a 1" scale) of things. For example, Your shed will be 5' X 8', your base of drawing will be 5" x 8".
The items you cut out will help you place them onto the shed cut-out, move them around... It would give you a bird's eye view of the final... I know this sounds kinda crazy, maybe silly, maybe this isn't what you were looking for, but I hope it helps. I have saved myself lots of extra effort by using this type of planning.
If you do this, then imagine when you walk in, then on the right, what you will see, then imagine yourself doing your chores, your chicken's behavior, then how it opens up to your yard, etc... it may help you to be more creative in itself.

One thing I agree with you on. The poop board. People are so clever about this, but The best ones I have ever seen are those that slide in like a tray into an oven, then you just pull it out, dump it off, or spray down with the hose, then slide it back in. This way, evey your children or grandchildren might not be opposed.... just an idea.

Since my coop is going to be very large, I am hoping to do the same thing, but mine will be several of those pull out boards in a row, maybe 2' wide each.

Good luck.

EGGcellent idea! I'll cut out some pieces tonight and give it a go!! For 4 hens how much roosting space should I allot??

 

[iwiw60]

Quote: Yes, gotta have a poop board for sure! Plus I'm going to put a sheet of linoleum down on the entire floor of the coop and the poop board, too. And I'm thinking of putting up a piece of leftover plywood at a sharp angle over the 2 nesting boxes...an ounce of prevention, eh?

 

[dffr12345]

Hello people!

I discover a site that can help you so much to building your own coop.
There you can pick up and choose from 19 step-by-step chicken coop plans.

http://bit.ly/1eX2km6

See some great plans:

Comments:

The chicken coop plans I got from you were great!
They were easy to follow and the coop turned out to be the envy of all of my friends. I love my new hobby.
Thanks so much for giving me every thing you promised.

By David Hess, USA