We didn't really know what we were doing 3 years ago and my husband did a FANTASTIC job of constructing it. We got very lucky in terms of how well it is placed for drainage when it rains, and for allowing sunshine into the run during the cold winter months while blocking the sun with the tin roof of the run during the summer when the sun is high in the sky. The coop and run are so well-built and secure from predators that we call the complex Fort Cluckz.
I fought hard for a full-height run that I could easily walk into, clean, sit in a chair, etc. Having seen only the "coop/run" setups at Tractor Supply, my husband thought that half-height would have been perfectly fine for chickens but finally gave in to my wishes. He's been really glad now that he's seen how much I enjoy sitting with them and how the chickens enjoy flying up to the successively higher roosts in there for a good vantage point on the world.
What I would change, as great as I think the coop he built is, would be to also have a full-height coop that I could easily enter -- for example to place the new flock on roosts that the older hens aren't using (which varies from night to night). There are three ways into the coop and it's fairly easy to clean out but I long to be able to walk in there.
How about you?
(I'll post a December view of the set-up. My husband and his son sketched out the layout on their own and constructed it with no formal plans. The chickens also get to free range with supervision -- one of us outside or our 100-pound dog. We are surrounded by woods full of foxes, coyotes, bears, you name it!)
I fought hard for a full-height run that I could easily walk into, clean, sit in a chair, etc. Having seen only the "coop/run" setups at Tractor Supply, my husband thought that half-height would have been perfectly fine for chickens but finally gave in to my wishes. He's been really glad now that he's seen how much I enjoy sitting with them and how the chickens enjoy flying up to the successively higher roosts in there for a good vantage point on the world.
What I would change, as great as I think the coop he built is, would be to also have a full-height coop that I could easily enter -- for example to place the new flock on roosts that the older hens aren't using (which varies from night to night). There are three ways into the coop and it's fairly easy to clean out but I long to be able to walk in there.
How about you?
(I'll post a December view of the set-up. My husband and his son sketched out the layout on their own and constructed it with no formal plans. The chickens also get to free range with supervision -- one of us outside or our 100-pound dog. We are surrounded by woods full of foxes, coyotes, bears, you name it!)