Help with design.

[Smitty05]

We are building a 12 x 14 coop in Minnesota (where the weather can be cold and snowy!). The coop will then have a run outside that is enclosed which we'll need because of predators. We have gathered a ton of information from this website but have a couple questions for those of you more experienced than we are! We would love your input BEFORE we make some big mistakes

1. We are concerned about our chickens getting some sunlight and fresh air in the winter. Should we build this coop up off the ground so that the chickens can go under it in the winter when they are not as willing to go outside into the run? We get a lot of snow and have read they don't like going out in it. But, what if the chickens lay eggs under the coop? We wouldn't be able to get to them....This coop seems kind of large to build "up". How far off the ground would it need to be anyway?

2. The south side of the coop will have windows to optimize sunlight in the winter. If we put a roof over the top of part of the run so the chickens can go out there, it will shade the one side of the coop we are using for some sunshine for them. No real options of putting the run out any other way...

We'd love your thoughts on this!

 

[gg706]

Hi not really an expert but I thought of a few things and mistakes I made when I built my coop that might help. I would make the roof of the run out of the clear plastic roofing. It will keep the weather out but let all the sunshine in. Even in the winter chickens NEED ventilation they put off ALOT of moisture! If the coop is not ventilated enough the moisture will condense inside the coop on the ceiling and then drip down onto the chickens making them wet, very cold, and frostbite their exposed skin. I do not have to worry about this living in GA...but I know midwest weather. I would make several windows with hardware cloth and shutters or some way to close the window. As you want ventilation NOT wind and drafts in the winter. Then you could open windows away from the wind for ventilation and close windows to keep the wind out depending on where the wind was coming from. I built my coop up off the ground and I like that the chickens can go under there and get shade as GA is VERY hot. However they also go under there when I want to catch them, they have laid eggs under there, etc. So if I had it to do over again I would not have given them access to that part of the coop. I can get under mine but I have get all the way down and crawl under there a little bit....NOT fun in chicken poo! I think I would have closed it in and built it so I could put bins with food etc. in there for convience in refilling feeders, oyster shell and chick grit.