Here's a simple coop with run design for those of you who are looking for ideas.

[chiknhurder]

This is a simple design that I've quickly drawn up for those who are brand new and looking for an effective and cheaply built coop with a covered run. When I say cheaply built, I really mean inexpensively built because if you want to protect your chickens, you don't want to go cheap. There aren't a lot of details on the drawing but anyone with basic skills using hand tools like hammers, saws, a tape measure, drills (screw guns) and some side cutters or tin snips for cutting the wire, can master this. If not, find someone who can.

I would be happy to email this to anyone who is interested.

 

[chad-o]

Please send me one
[email protected]
Thanks

 

[chiknhurder]

Please send me one
[email protected]
Thanks

Email sent. Good luck.

 

[chfite]

You will find that a roof is incredibly heavy once finished; and will be challenge to open for cleaning the coop. Making one of the sides hinged to open will be simpler and easier to fabricate and use.

It appears that the overall height of the run would be on the order of 4 feet, making the top of the coop nearly 8 feet. The nest boxes will be about 5 feet at the top. Unless they are lowered or have the front of the box open for access, it will be difficult for many to reach comfortably into the nest box to retrieve eggs and clean.

If the floor of the coop is 4 feet, as it appears, it will be difficult to reach into the coop to tend to the interior, food bowls, chickens, litter, and such. If you are an average woman at 5'-4" or man at 5'-10" the floor would be almost mid-chest.

It would be worth considering making the floor of the coop 2 feet off the ground to address these points. Most folks are just not that tall.

Chris

 

[chiknhurder]

You will find that a roof is incredibly heavy once finished; and will be challenge to open for cleaning the coop. Making one of the sides hinged to open will be simpler and easier to fabricate and use.

It appears that the overall height of the run would be on the order of 4 feet, making the top of the coop nearly 8 feet. The nest boxes will be about 5 feet at the top. Unless they are lowered or have the front of the box open for access, it will be difficult for many to reach comfortably into the nest box to retrieve eggs and clean.

If the floor of the coop is 4 feet, as it appears, it will be difficult to reach into the coop to tend to the interior, food bowls, chickens, litter, and such. If you are an average woman at 5'-4" or man at 5'-10" the floor would be almost mid-chest.

It would be worth considering making the floor of the coop 2 feet off the ground to address these points. Most folks are just not that tall.

Chris

Relax bud..... it's just a concept. Nowhere does it say the roof opens for cleaning. I would put a door on one side and I'm sure others would figure that out too. Nothing is to scale so the run could be 6 inches or 60 feet. It's wide open! Instead of critiquing my idea why don't you offer up a better solution? Be positive... not negative.

 

[revmichael]

nice idea

This is something similar to what I made. I used 2x4 for corner posts of the coop - have the floor 2 ft off the ground (yep split level) have 1/2 the floor with wire mesh and the other half contains the opening for the ramp for them to go below. The lower end of mine is surrounded my wire mesh as is the bottom to keep anything from digging up or them digging out for that matter. Will also help if I want to move them. One one wall I have a 2x2 doorway for them to go in and out of and I have a door to close if I want to keep them out of the run.

I used old wooden fence section for one side of the upper coop, an old cupboard door for a door on one side along the back for access. It wasn't big enough so I build another door to fold flat down. This gives me 2 full sides to clean out the 1x1 wire mesh floor a lot easier. On the 3'rd side I built the nesting box. I only have 4 girls so they have 1 large box and seem to love it. It's 12x24 - enough room for 2 boxes from what I've been told. I have Barred Rocks who are now 23 weeks old. The roof is made with 1x1's - I took extra pieces of wood flooring and put it all together, sealed it with some rubber roof coating that I had around and then painted the whole thing. It's a bit odd looking but works great and keeps them safe, Raised 1 end up so the whole thing is slanted. It has stood strong with the recent storms here in FL this past week. The 4'th side is actually all hardware cloth - this design helps with ventilation here in FL - I have a door that I made out of another section of fencing so when the weather is going to storm or get cold I close it up for them.

The run is made with 1x1's and is 4x8 ft with 2 4x4 lids on top. 1 lid is partly covered with petal stripping to give them some shade and added protections. It is only 2 ft high at the moment. I have the whole thing covered on 3 sides with hardware cloth to keep them safe from other wild animals that may be around. They do not free range at all at the moment, have more work to do in my yard to keep them safe from hawks, owls and a lake behind me with gators. Gators can't get in my yard with the fencing that I have so not a problem there.

I plan to raise the run up another 2 to 3 ft and add a door on one side so that I can access it better. Right now I have to kneel down to lift the lid and put their feed or water in there or to clean it up. I throw pine shavings into the run as well as under the coop and the girls love it. They scratch around looking for bugs and such. In the coop I also throw grass clippings in as well as veggie food scraps for them. It keeps them busy always scratching things around looking for bugs and such and in a few months I'll be able to clean it all out and either use it in the garden or put it in the composter to further break it all down.

I do have a DIY composter made out of a plastic trash can that I put the coop cleanings in as well as what is under the coop when it needs cleaning out every few months. I sprinkle DE all over the place for them to help keep things dry and control mites and such. Have not noticed any smells at all and they have been in here since the end of October and we have had some days in the 80's.

Just thought I'd add my comments on here.

 

[Tacswa3]

I had this design when I started out. It is NOT practical IMO. I ended putting a hatch door on the top of the run to be able to gain access to "some" of the inside for maintenance and such. Unless you build it to have total access to the run through the top, I don't see many being pleased with it. Mine came pre-built and I quickly realized how much a PITA it was. I only used it for a week before making a run from a large dog kennel.

 

[chiknhurder]

I had this design when I started out. It is NOT practical IMO. I ended putting a hatch door on the top of the run to be able to gain access to "some" of the inside for maintenance and such. Unless you build it to have total access to the run through the top, I don't see many being pleased with it. Mine came pre-built and I quickly realized how much a PITA it was. I only used it for a week before making a run from a large dog kennel.

Tacswa3..... you're welcome to make it anyway you want to. You could have the entire top hinged to have access to the run but how many chicken tractors have you seen that have open tops. Most are of a hoop design and have no access. Operating instructions are the same as with any other chicken tractor. This one just happens to have a small coop so they can be left in it overnight.

Again, this is a concept, not a cut and dried set of blueprints and it's being offered freely to help give people a basic concept to work with. It gets them thinking on their own. One thing I've noticed about people is that they have the ability to think things out when faced with a problem. The success of anything is in the details. If people want to build it, they're welcome to discuss it with me. That's why a place like this where we can come and discuss things is called a discussion forum. I saw a lot of people on here asking for ideas for a chicken tractor or portable coop so I sat down and took some of my time to draw up a simple design for people to use as a model. What have you contributed?

 

[chiknhurder]

nice idea

This is something similar to what I made. I used 2x4 for corner posts of the coop - have the floor 2 ft off the ground (yep split level) have 1/2 the floor with wire mesh and the other half contains the opening for the ramp for them to go below. The lower end of mine is surrounded my wire mesh as is the bottom to keep anything from digging up or them digging out for that matter. Will also help if I want to move them. One one wall I have a 2x2 doorway for them to go in and out of and I have a door to close if I want to keep them out of the run.

I used old wooden fence section for one side of the upper coop, an old cupboard door for a door on one side along the back for access. It wasn't big enough so I build another door to fold flat down. This gives me 2 full sides to clean out the 1x1 wire mesh floor a lot easier. On the 3'rd side I built the nesting box. I only have 4 girls so they have 1 large box and seem to love it. It's 12x24 - enough room for 2 boxes from what I've been told. I have Barred Rocks who are now 23 weeks old. The roof is made with 1x1's - I took extra pieces of wood flooring and put it all together, sealed it with some rubber roof coating that I had around and then painted the whole thing. It's a bit odd looking but works great and keeps them safe, Raised 1 end up so the whole thing is slanted. It has stood strong with the recent storms here in FL this past week. The 4'th side is actually all hardware cloth - this design helps with ventilation here in FL - I have a door that I made out of another section of fencing so when the weather is going to storm or get cold I close it up for them.

The run is made with 1x1's and is 4x8 ft with 2 4x4 lids on top. 1 lid is partly covered with petal stripping to give them some shade and added protections. It is only 2 ft high at the moment. I have the whole thing covered on 3 sides with hardware cloth to keep them safe from other wild animals that may be around. They do not free range at all at the moment, have more work to do in my yard to keep them safe from hawks, owls and a lake behind me with gators. Gators can't get in my yard with the fencing that I have so not a problem there.

I plan to raise the run up another 2 to 3 ft and add a door on one side so that I can access it better. Right now I have to kneel down to lift the lid and put their feed or water in there or to clean it up. I throw pine shavings into the run as well as under the coop and the girls love it. They scratch around looking for bugs and such. In the coop I also throw grass clippings in as well as veggie food scraps for them. It keeps them busy always scratching things around looking for bugs and such and in a few months I'll be able to clean it all out and either use it in the garden or put it in the composter to further break it all down.

I do have a DIY composter made out of a plastic trash can that I put the coop cleanings in as well as what is under the coop when it needs cleaning out every few months. I sprinkle DE all over the place for them to help keep things dry and control mites and such. Have not noticed any smells at all and they have been in here since the end of October and we have had some days in the 80's.

Just thought I'd add my comments on here.

Thanks revmichael.... It's nice to see someone with a positive comment on it. It seems like forums are full of people that want to harp on someone's effort to offer a bit of advice. I'm glad yours is working for you. I'm curious about your composter. I've got a small barrel composter that I bought and it's hard to make compost in it. It's always too wet or too dry. When it rains, the base it sets in collects water so that the barrel is always in contact with the water that gets inside. I do a lot better with just a hoop made from 5 foot high welded wire. Enjoy your weekend.

 

[revmichael]

My composter is a DIY out of a black heavy duty rubbermaid trash can with a lid of course - drilled holes all around and use a few bungy cords to help hold the lid on better. Haven't had compost out of it yet. I'm new to BYC have only had my girls since September. The run has been in use since the end of October and the composter since November. I don't get to turning it all the time and I think I have more brown in it than green now so it threw things off - I just put in a 5 gallon bucket of manure in it so we'll see what happens. I'm looking at one of those double barrel types of composters will be easier to turn than the trash can.

Good luck on your composting and again thanks for more ideas on coop and run designs --- and if people want to criticize about them - then that's their issue - evidently they can afford to buy a premade extra fancy one