U_Stormcrow
Crossing the Road
That says more about the internet than the practicality of a raised coop design. and if you read how many birds thos raised coops were supposed to be suitable for, you'd have reason to pause before swallowing the rest of what they are dishing out.I'm sorry I'm confused. People on this tread seem to be criticizing 2 things. #1 they are critical of the fact the coop is raised off the ground. 90% of all the coops I've looked at on the internet are raised. #2 They are critical of the fact that a grown human cannot stand up in the coop that is designed for 15" tall birds. Again 90% of the coops I see on the internet are less than 5 feet tall on the inside.
If I have to crawl around on my hands and knees every once and a while to retrieve an egg or sick bird then so be it.
As far as the raised coop, my birds are confined to a run only because of excess predators so that small space under the coop is a bonus for the ladies to hang out and get away from the hot sun.
These are just my opinions, please don't attack.
762 I love your plans keep building exactly as you have drawn in your plans I look forward to seeing the completed project.
Fact is, most of what you see on the internet, and to some extent, on the side of the road at those portable building places, is sheds built by shed builders based on what they think a chicken needs, and based on what people who have never owned chickens think is attractive. Even the "amish-style" coops have obvious flaws to those of us who have had chickens for a while. Those flaws (for modern man) weren't necessarily flaws then - we have access to hinges that make certain designs much more practical, while they would simply use a removable lid - and thus the modern "amish" coops with a hinge where the nesting box meets the wall, rather than on the face of the nesting box itself.
As well, many of the older coop designs were intended for a compoletely different style of management than that practiced by modern keepers. The Amish, the PA Dutch, and others using similar off the ground coops used them solely as a place birds could escape the weather - otherwise, they ranged. For many modern keepers, their birds must be contained at all times, and the deficiencies in the coop (particularly ventilation) become much more obvious. Same with nesting boxes the same height as the floor or the roosting bars - reveals an ignorance of chicken behaviors. Or with very attractive, aesthetically pleasing windows which direct drafts onto roosting birds and (less commonly) light into nesting boxes...
But hey, if what you see most on the internet is how you judge knowledge... There's some very creative "math" on Facebook masquerading as economics. Let us know how that works out for you.
/edit and for very small coops with access all around them, getting under a coop for cleaning etc is pretty easy with a rake or other long tool. As the coop grows in size, or sides get blocked off by the walls on enclosed runs, etc, that access tends to become increasing difficult to manage.
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