Improving the coop- adding brooder and grow out pen. Opinions?

[furbabymum]

My poultry are kept in our barn. It's very large and there is some unused space right now. I'm using it for storage and have a few moveable brooder/injury pens in it right now. They aren't very effective. For one the ground is dirt and rather uneven. The other chickens love to come over and lay in the dirt (to drive me nuts I'm convinced). So I'd like to cement the floor of this section. I'd also like to build better pens and get rid of the moveable ones. I just want it to be a lot more organized, open and manageable. So here is the plan:


Opinions and ideas please.

 

[furbabymum]

I thought I could make a few dividers for the brooder so I could brood several different kinds of poultry at once. I'm planning on making the pens at least 2' high. Basic boxes.

One thing I've been pondering is expanding the grow out pen on the other side of the divider wall. I could cut a door into the wall and have a fenced area in the main part of the barn. This way they'll get to see and interact with the other poultry a lot more safely. It would also enable me to increase the size of the grow out pen which I cannot do in the limited space currently available to me in the "coop".

 

[furbabymum]

Bumping for opinions.

 

[Kitty990]

the floor plans look good.

hwo big will the area be?
what sizes will the brooder and growup pin be?
what mats will you use?
do you have an area where you store the feed?
do you different types of feed for the different ages?

 

[aart]

If you can use that whole building...you've got a lot of options!
What are your long range plans?
Concreting the rest of the barn is a great idea.
Anything you build now, if you don't have specific long range plans, make it so you can take it apart to change later.

 

[furbabymum]

If you can use that whole building...you've got a lot of options!
What are your long range plans?
Concreting the rest of the barn is a great idea.
Anything you build now, if you don't have specific long range plans, make it so you can take it apart to change later.

I don't know that I could use the whole building. The opening to the barn means that the one side is very exposed to the elements. I would consider closing the large opening in but it provides all the ventilation to the rest of the barn so I'm not sure what that would do in the coop area.

As for long range plans I'm not sure. I have several different poultry types right now. We have 40 acres so if I wanted to add something and couldn't put it in with my mixed flock I could just build something. I did build a duck hut on the side of the barn and put a pond in.

 

[furbabymum]

the floor plans look good.

hwo big will the area be?
what sizes will the brooder and growup pin be?
what mats will you use?
do you have an area where you store the feed?
do you different types of feed for the different ages?

I feed in the large area of the barn outside of the "coop" area. I have plastic totes with the feed in it. The only real feed storage in that area right now is a Japanese rice chest we bought a long time ago and that I keep chicken scratch in. Otherwise nothing in that area is necessary to the functioning of the coop. I have enough unused space, both floor and ceiling/rafter space, that I could easily store whatever is needed.

The area is 10'x14'.
The door on the one wall will prohibit me going the entire length of that back wall. Otherwise I plan on making the pens run the entire length of the walls. They could easily be 2-3' wide as well. The brooder will be no more than 2' tall but I'm thinking of doing the grow out pen larger so I can put some roosts up high. maybe 4' high for the grow out pen.

I use hay as a bedding and would probably just continue doing that. It's what is in the entire coop right now.

 

[Kitty990]

this is what we did. we place our pin under the nesting boxes. we paln to add a poop broad on the other side of the coop with another pin under it

mats:
old baby gate - we removed the two sliding pieces
zip-ties - to hold the baby gate to the support beam it the middle, the other ends are not zip-tied so we can open both ends.
lathes- to hold the doors closed when we don't want them open
hard wire cloth - to cap the end of the box

i don't like DL so i sweep the floor daily, but there is hay in the grow-up pin.




we move the heat lamp down. that is where they said the night before the pin was done.

the little ones found out they can reach through the gate and drink from the adults water dish.

 

[aart]

I don't know that I could use the whole building. The opening to the barn means that the one side is very exposed to the elements. I would consider closing the large opening in but it provides all the ventilation to the rest of the barn so I'm not sure what that would do in the coop area.

As for long range plans I'm not sure. I have several different poultry types right now. We have 40 acres so if I wanted to add something and couldn't put it in with my mixed flock I could just build something. I did build a duck hut on the side of the barn and put a pond in.

Add windows/openings for ventilation.

 

[dchurch]

I too am in the same boat, looking for opinions for the most practical coop layouts. I have lots of barn space as well, and at first I built my pen, 16' x 12' with 2 large community nesting boxes... 5' x 2' each. I'm now at the point where I need to expand, or actually just include more in the space. I'm going to build a room on the side, likely 12' x 12 fully enclosed to be used as a grow up room, and inside that room maybe a brooder closet or something to start the day olds. When I'm not using the grow up pen, I may use this room as a breeding room, with a few hens and roos....

I'm looking for opinions on what size things should be built, I believe I'm going kind of overkill with these sizes now....want to make the right size room to be practical use of the space.

Right now I have 14 commerical layers in the big pen, 2 red layers in a quarantine pen ( dog run I'm using to quarantine), I have 2 misc chicks in an aquarium in the house, using it as a brooder, and my 40 barred rock day olds will be in next week. Was thinking of using a 150 gallon stock tank for the 40 barred rocks, atleast to start, and then see what I have built by then..