I'm a newbie and I drew out some plans for our chicken coop. I was wondering if some of you might be willing to weigh in with your thoughts on my coop design. I'm specifically looking for feedback on potential problems, changes that should be made or suggestions to improve it.
Here are a couple of notes to consider:
-We live in Michigan (Summers are typically 80-90 degrees during the hottest parts and humid. Winters are typically 35-0 degrees at the coldest) There are exceptions but this is our typical weather.
-We have possums, skunks, owls, rats, mice and coons. Raccoons are probably our biggest concern with chickens, but I really don't want to deal with mice or rats either.
-We are getting 15 egg laying hens. They will be 1 day old chicks on Monday, so it will be awhile before they actually go into the coop.
-We plan to raise our chickens for eggs and meat.
-We will have no rooster and a variety of brown egg breeds.
-We have 7 children, ranging in age from 19 mos. to 13 years. Our 10 year old son paid for the chickens so he will primarily be in charge of the care, with help from all of us.
-We plan to have an 8' x 20' covered run attached to the coop. So the hens will be completely enclosed at all times, even when they free range. We plan to use chicken wire on the run. We plan to put a compost pile inside of our run for the chickens to turn.
-We are making the coop out of two 8' x 4' shipping crates that are 2' high. We plan to secure them together, open ends facing, to make one large box measuring 8' x 4' and 4' high. Both crates have about 6" of pallet attached to the bottom. We also will add in another shipping container that measures 2' x 3' and 2' high. It also has a pallet attached to the bottom. We will use this as the nesting area.
Thanks so much for any advice. Pictures are below I think that you can click them to make them larger. The cutaway is a poor
drawing, but you get the idea.
Here are a couple of notes to consider:
-We live in Michigan (Summers are typically 80-90 degrees during the hottest parts and humid. Winters are typically 35-0 degrees at the coldest) There are exceptions but this is our typical weather.
-We have possums, skunks, owls, rats, mice and coons. Raccoons are probably our biggest concern with chickens, but I really don't want to deal with mice or rats either.
-We are getting 15 egg laying hens. They will be 1 day old chicks on Monday, so it will be awhile before they actually go into the coop.
-We plan to raise our chickens for eggs and meat.
-We will have no rooster and a variety of brown egg breeds.
-We have 7 children, ranging in age from 19 mos. to 13 years. Our 10 year old son paid for the chickens so he will primarily be in charge of the care, with help from all of us.
-We plan to have an 8' x 20' covered run attached to the coop. So the hens will be completely enclosed at all times, even when they free range. We plan to use chicken wire on the run. We plan to put a compost pile inside of our run for the chickens to turn.
-We are making the coop out of two 8' x 4' shipping crates that are 2' high. We plan to secure them together, open ends facing, to make one large box measuring 8' x 4' and 4' high. Both crates have about 6" of pallet attached to the bottom. We also will add in another shipping container that measures 2' x 3' and 2' high. It also has a pallet attached to the bottom. We will use this as the nesting area.
Thanks so much for any advice. Pictures are below I think that you can click them to make them larger. The cutaway is a poor
drawing, but you get the idea.
