How level does the ground need to be?

[Penpal]

There is a gap under the door. You can put a piece of hardware cloth there, on the door. Or, you can put a piece of lumber to form a step over.

As long as the coop is level, you should be okay. You can put a little leg on each low corner, but you'll need to fill the gaps.

Having a slight slope in the run is not a bad thing. It means the water can drain. With that in mind, put a French drain on the low side, outside of the run. Put iris in the drain. The water then needs to have a place to go to once the drain fills up, so have a plan for that.

 

[LaFleche]

Your coop needs a proper roof with much more overhang on each side to avoid rain and snow getting in through windows, door and ventilation gaps.

As long as the lower side of the slope is on the far side of the run it can even be an advantage and prevent flooding.

 

[SueAndHerZoo]

My son is a contractor so thanks for the modification suggestions..... I'm starting a list for him.
Sue

 

[BigBlueHen53]

My son is a contractor so thanks for the modification suggestions..... I'm starting a list for him.
Sue

When your son is done building your excellent coop, would he consider a one-week working vacation in SE Missouri to bring mine up to code? I'll bake cookies.

 

[Krugerrand]

My son is a contractor so thanks for the modification suggestions..... I'm starting a list for him.
Sue

I'd suggest taking a look at @Rancid Crbtree 's build.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/my-coop-design-and-build-blog.1612130/page-5

You'll find a similar style run as what you have that got completely overhauled into a more solid structure. That's more than most people would try to take on, but perhaps with your son's help this may give him some ideas.

I bring this up because ventilation is really important. And, if that run were more solid, you could open up the front high side of that coop to greatly improve the ventilation.

 

[2ndTink]

Here's the coop and run, I'll get pictures of the area in a few minutes. The ground is crazy hard to dig in.... rocks and TREE ROOTS!

I'm in central CT so hot summers, cold winters, average rainfall. We have woods behind the chainlink fence so there's wildlife back there. It's not a lot of wooded area but enough that we've heard coyotes/fox and saw a coyote walking down the street in front of the house last week, so they're around. I have 3 dogs which will keep them away during the day, but once we're all in bed I'm afraid the animals will be making their rounds.View attachment 3847310

I have this same coop, it has pros and cons of course. I have the coop and run pretty level and as I said we filled in the gaps with wood. Our predator issues have been with hawks and eagles so we haven't had to reinforce the actual coop in any way. You will most likely get water that makes it from the back of the roof into the nesting boxes, the bottom of the leftmost besting box rotted out so we had to replace that. I don't use the feed storage so I wish I had not put that bottom partition in, it would have left them a bigger shade and wind break area. I made an addition on it with an opening to the bottom so it acts as more ventilation as well.

Here is mine with the expansion, I made it myself, and I'm not a carpenter

 

[SueAndHerZoo]

When your son is done building your excellent coop, would he consider a one-week working vacation in SE Missouri to bring mine up to code? I'll bake cookies.

He keeps himself in EXCELLENT physical shape (gym rat) and only eats healthy so switch that to organic foods and I'll send him over.
Sue

 

[Sefirothe]

I feel like your husband and my father would get along great!

My father fired up his bulldozer that hadnt run in at least 5 years to level and tamp down the spot we were putting the coop and the run.

It definitely helped with both drainage and making the over all construction easier. Our coop and run are also less likely to settle and shift in the future.

 

[2ndTink]

He keeps himself in EXCELLENT physical shape (gym rat) and only eats healthy so switch that to organic foods and I'll send him over.
Sue

Hey, I have all the stuff for organic cookies and even use einkhorn flour oh, and they would be dairy free.

We have "enough" coops but could still use another one, I'd like to have a coop set up for our bantams!

 

[PrettyBirdRocky]

I never thought of adding that to my article. Our coop/hen house is level but the pen/run is sloped and helps with the rain. We added dirt along edge and dug where needed just for run bottom. But we also don't have a lot of predators (our coop is next to house)