Ideas wanted

[Jayne_ofthechickens]

I am tired of fighting rodents so I’m replacing our coop with a metal shed on a concrete slab. Does anyone have suggestions for the layout of the coop, roosting bars, laying boxes, etc? My chicken only sleep in the coop and are outside all day. We are in NW Arkansas so winters are usually not too terribly cold. I want to use a 10 x 14 metal shed to house 25 chickens at night. Any suggestions appreciated!

 

[nuthatched]

Adding more ventilation will be necessary, I'm not sure how much it will help your rodent issue though.

 

[Cattle dog Mom]

Are you planning on adding a bunch of ventilation? I would imagine it gets fairly hot there in the summer? A metal shed is like an oven if the sun shines on it.

 

[Shmemums]

Can you put pics and let us know everything you tried so fat to keep rodents away?

 

[Jayne_ofthechickens]

Adding more ventilation will be necessary, I'm not sure how much it will help your rodent issue though.

I’m hoping with the concrete floor, metal walls and the fact that I already close their feed at night surely they’ll be locked out and uninterested! We’re also moving them across the property.

 

[Jayne_ofthechickens]

Are you planning on adding a bunch of ventilation? I would imagine it gets fairly hot there in the summer? A metal shed is like an oven if the sun shines on it.

Yes! Cutting windows with hardware cloth “panes.”

 

[Jayne_ofthechickens]

Can you put pics and let us know everything you tried so fat to keep rodents away?

The food has always been in pvc tubes that are closed at night. I’ve closed all holes with hardware cloth. I’ve redone the floors with sand, then packed dirt than sand again. I’ve redone the wood floors of the nesting boxes where they had chewed through.

 

[perkolator]

Get one of those self-resetting "walk the plank"/bucket traps to help knock down the rodent population