Ideas on Improving my Coop before its finished?!

[BabyTitan06]

Hello everyone!! I'm in the process of building my chicken coop with my husband, and I just wanted to know if anyone had any ideas to make the chicks happy. Ive included lots of photos below.

We have an assortment of 5 Bantams, and 2 Blue Laced Waydonettes that are waiting to move in.



This is the coop plan we used.





This is the side of the coop that the nesting box will be.



This is where the front/drop down doors will go.





This side will have the in/out door for the girls. right next to the wild mint/makeshift compost pile we have. We seem to be discussing how to best keep the girls under the coop until we reinforce the space they are in. My husband wants to keep them all enclosed under the coop, and ideally he wants to make a hole under it to allow the girls to go in and out as they please (I hate this idea). So I've talked him into making a sideways ramp (I originally wanted to make some sort of spiral staircase/ladder they could use).





This is tucked away in my backyard next to a back alleyway up above with garages.











These photos show the ventilation that the girls will have, too much/little??? I'm planning on laying the hardware cloth over the gaps, and filling in the seams of the coop with caulking. I also spent forever hammering the nails from the roof to keep the girls from impaling themselves. >>> We live just outside of Pittsburgh, PA (if that helps any).




And this is their escape rout haha.


So any ideas/concerns about the coop?

 

[jim c]

if you have bantams you will need some kind of cover above any run to keep them from flying out. they will so that they can forage the good news is they usually come home at night to roost unless they find somewhere else they like better. just remember the bigger the area you can let them use the better and happier they will be. ( I have 8 hens and the area for them is appox 60 x 30). lots of grass and shade under trees and bushes.

 

[01746Mike]

I built this coup for my RIR's the birds are to big to roost comfortably.
I had to pull one of the lower roof portions off and make it as high as the top roof to allow more roosting space.
once I did this they go to bed by them selves of course it's not pretty anymore.

I may actually sell this one and build a shed type coup to give my girls more space..

 

[aart]

More venting in the upper 'cupola'.

 

[BabyTitan06]

Thanks for the suggestions guys! I think we will add small round windows in the front and back ends of the coop for more ventilation then. And in the future I was thinking of creating a larger run for the girls so they have more space. I don't think my neighbors will be too pleased to see a wall of chicken wire in the yard, but I suppose thats better then chicken in their yard!! How long have you had that coop Mike?

 

[01746Mike]

3 months.

And the more I think of it I do not like the design because the girls do not always use the nesting box, so I have to fold down the side and reach across this can be a messy thing to do.
I'd going to build something like this:http://www.ana-white.com/2012/05/plans/shed-chicken-coop
and see if I can sell off mine.

 

[Jenna14Chicken]

How much did that cost to build? I saw that coop online but figured it was to much money to build for me.

 

[01746Mike]

I built it for around 250$

 

[Jenna14Chicken]

Ok thanks!

 

[BabyTitan06]

Yeah, I went to Home Depot and I spent about $300 on it. I even had them cut everything at the store, although everything turned out to be 1/4 inch short haha. The roofing was the most tedious to figure out what to get. My husband and I decided this was the cheapest option for roofing. But we couldn't find the top piece for plastic roofing. And I should add we purchased too much wood (all included in that $300 price). The directions weren't that easy for my husband and I to follow, but neither of us are real carpenters. The flooring is vinayl (cheapest we could find). We haven't finished it yet, and I'm planning on doing a check to see how much we really spent.