Indispensable Features?

[MissusC]

I can't believe there is anyone who has built them that doesn't think poop boards are the best thing since sliced bread. It takes me 5 minutes to scoop and shake the poop (my board is 6 feet long and 18" wide). Most of the poop is generated while the birds are roosting. If you spend that 5 minutes a day your coop and run will stay clean. I use pine chips on the coop floor they stay quite clean because I add to the chips weekly. I also use PDZ and DE on both poop boards and in the pine chips. There is next to no smell in the coop or the run. I also have a covered run. Anytime you add water to chickens you can have problems. Coccidia is always lurking in the coop. I will be adding an automatic waterer to my old coop and including it in the design for the coop I am building. I would beware of a wire floor the poop sticks to it instead of dropping through. Love your ideas. I will love to see your final product when it is built.

I second this. I have a poop board/tray with sweet PDZ under the inside roost and it takes seconds to scoop it out and I have NEVER had a smell, even when I left it for over a week (to see if there would be a smell).

We have a sand bottom run under our raised coop and that scoops/rakes out very easily as well. There's a link to my coop in my sig.

 

[EpicBlueAcres]

I built my coop with poop boards and LOVE IT! I made things even easier I got 4 boot trays(the plastic things for your home to set your boots in) by me the dollar store had them. I set those in a row on my poop board and sprinkle some shavings. Every few day to a week just pick up the trays and dump out in the compost bin, sprinkle new shavings and your done. I started this almost 2 months ago and have not gone threw one bag (3.5 cubic feet) of horse shavings.
Also have a dutch door from the cool to the run, very handy. I also added a "screen door" for it made out of chicken wire. This way in the summer I can leave the top half open at night for a nice breeze (alone with 2 other windows) in the warm summer and not worry about predators getting to my girls.

 

[ctbagley]

Great thread! I found out the hard way (losing my favorite chickens to dogs! Fox and coons ! ARGGH) The number 1 thing we did right this time (our third coop build) is to have electricity and run two hot wires around the coop/run about 6 inches off the ground and the next wire at about 10 inches. We also dug a ditch around the perimeter and put hardware cloth into it, bent it upwards, attached it to the wire of the run/coop (livestock wire first five feet then poultry wire around the rest and doubled around the livestock wire) and then put hard red clay and gravel on top. This prevents any digging under which foxes and skunks will do night after night.

The next thing I talked DH into doing was buying me one of those carports they come set up for you. About $750 for our 18 x 22 foot one. They provide great shade and keep the rain off the run. This gave us a great area to fence in and also put the coop into so my girls just come and go in their coop whenever they like. We put down a gravel base, added LOTS of topsoil and shavings (the girls mixed them up for us nicely) and put sand in about 5 feet at one end so they can sunbathe. Everyone stays pretty dry and my d'uccles have beautiful clean feet..which is no mean feat....LOL

As far as the coop itself...my husband made ours so we can open up one whole side of it (it comes down like a ramp) and I can clean it out easily. We have a wooden floor with a rubber mat on top. Under the roosts I put large shallow rubbermaid type containers and I can pull them out, dump the poop into the wheelbarrow, sweep out anything else and within about 5 minutes everything is clean again. I don't like wire floors because poop always seems to get stuck instead of falling through. Windows are great but we also bought some of the vents you have in your heating/AC in the house and put them at the very top so we can open them up fully or if it is a really bad storm with wind, close them slightly till the morning. I second the PDZ and DE for the nestboxes. We bought a bucket with nipples and it is fantastic. The water never gets dirty, we hang it from a basket hanger and the chickens love it. It is covered and has a hole to fill from the top. No more carrying waterers that you have to flip over and get yourself wet and lose half the water and two days later they are filthy! In the dead of winter though we do have plug in dog bowls that we have to use for a time. I do not like any of the heated chicken waterers I have seen....too flimsy.

Sorry, did not mean to write a book! One day I will take photos and post them. We have 9 seramas and three d'uccle's so our coop is not as big as some. (They cannot go our free range cause we are on a busy highway on only an acre plus have roaming dogs all around us.) Good luck and have fun!

 

[makemineirish]

You guys are fantastic! Please do not apologize for being loquacious. I adore details!

I suggest new builders like myself check out the thread "Coop Builders - What would you have changed or done differently?. I thought it might be helpful to recap the suggestions thus far and am including a few brought up in my sister thread "Any Problem with Oversized Nesting Boxes? My Current Footprint?":

• Complete exterior access to everything

• Exterior nesting boxes (rollout and removable were recommended)

• Raised hen house with removable floor

• Removable hen house floor for thorough cleaning
• Removable bins in nest boxes for cleaning
• Interior doors on nest boxes to prevent entry when warranted
• Coop door wide enough to accommodate a wheelbarrow
• Automatic door on hen house triggered by light exposure
• Hanging feed and water
• Automatic feed and waterers
• Hinged coop wall
• Staggered height roosts (to offer "steps" to the highest level)
• Poop boards (although this appears subject to debate when using DLM)

• Flagstone, shrubbery, and landscaping (I found a book that seems incredibly helpful, Free-Range Chicken Gardens: How to Create a Beautiful Chicken-Friendly Yard by Jessi Bloom)
• Guttering
• Rain barrel (possible to convert it to an automatic waterer with the addition of nipples)
• Using metal joist hangers to suspend removable roosts for cleaning
• Solid and linoleumed floor (as the originally planned mesh grate was deemed a design flaw)
• Sand
• Dust bath area
• Windows
• Dutch doors
• Inner screens for windows and/or dutch doors for optional additional ventilation
• Covered run
• Hawk shelters
• Timers for any electrics
• Hutch or modular system to separate chicks or chickens when needed
• Placement within easy reach of the water hose
• Vents placed near roofline (some suggested louvered options that can be closed in cold weather)
• Fan (for use during hot summer months)
• Woodstove ashes
• Grazing beds
• Storage
• Electric fence

 

[aoxa]

May I add that good tools for clean up is very important. Not just any shovel will do. You'll need a good one that is meant for mucking out stalls. I need to take my own advice. we are using a snow shovel

If I were you, I'd add home made feeders to your list. There are some really awesome designs, and they are much cheaper, and end up lasting you longer.

 

[jlsdss1987]

Agree with roosts being all the same height.

 

[aoxa]

Agree with roosts being all the same height. 

Why? The bossy hens will make the lesser hens sleep on the ground if they are all the same height :/

 

[galefrances]

Just my two cents regarding poop boards: I wouldn't have a coop without them. And I do deep litter as well for the rest of the coop. My poop board is boxed in with a 2x4 lip. The board itself is covered with linoleum for ease of cleaning. And I use Sweet PDZ inside the box. This makes it simple to clean using a kitty litter scoop. Takes 5 min. a day. What I really like about it is I can see immediately if there are any abnormal poops. This would be lost in the deep litter IMO. I've let it go 2-3 days at times and still never noticed much of an odor. I have 12 pullets and the amount of poop I collect off that board is huge, can't imagine it being dumped in one spot on the ground, unless you have your roosts scattered in the coop. One other thing: I have back issues so my DH built the roosts high off the ground so the poop board is waist level....no bending.

 

[MemesChicks]

An idea I found on this site when building my coop was to use a plastic wash bin for the nest box. I cut out one side, leaving a lip, and added a board there to raise the front up a bit. The girls step up on the board to get into the box. I also added a side wall (attached to the side of the box) for privacy...I covered it with outdoor canvas to cute it up. Access is from a door on the outside. What's great about it is that it's very easy to clean; just take it out, empty, and hose out if needed. The girls love it. Stainless would be just as easy to clean, but it could be chilly to sit in if your winters are cold.

I'd love to see pics, too. There's so much wonderful info in our BYC community. Great help!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Why? The bossy hens will make the lesser hens sleep on the ground if they are all the same height :/

Not always if you have sufficient roost space. If you try to squeeze them onto just a bit of roost, yes you are more likely to have problems, especially when you are integrating chickens. But if you provide adequate roost space, they will normally spread out and get along even if you have a bully.

You can't say "never" or "always" with chickens. I have had hens fairly low in the pecking order leave their normal roost location and go out of their way to be brutal to younger chickens when I'm integrating, but that's fairly rare. But I have more roost space than the absolute minimum.

In reality, some of us have roosts all at the same level and they work great. Some of us have ladder roosts and they work great. Some of us have problems with one kind or the other.

We have different conditions with different chcikens and different flock make-ups. With our chickens their is seldom any one answer that is right for all of us. There is seldom any one answer that is wrong for all of us. There is just what works for us individually.