Interior Layout Question

[AnnaInMI]

Hi all,

Hoping to get some opinions on my plans for the interior layout of our coop. We're renovating an existing coop and it's about 19'x5' for 8 chickens.

The first picture shows where the door out to run will go (currently framed up in the lower left) as well as where I'm thinking the nesting boxes will go (we'd hang them and remove a section of the barn wood to access from the other side). I know this is far more boxes than we need for 8 chickens, but they were inherited and we're trying to use what we have on hand as much as possible.



That would put the roosts on the far side from the run door as shown in this second picture. The window is at 4ft so I'm thinking of doing L-shaped roosts at 3ft (with poop boards below). Where I'm getting myself a little confused is, if the nesting boxes are hung at 18" off the ground, that puts the top of them at 3'. I know the roosts are supposed to be higher than the NB, but would that similar height work? I can put the roosts higher, but then they'd be in front of a window and I don't know if that's ever ideal. It is west facing, so milder winds/weather, and would be closed off in the winter. They also won't be truly 3' up for the chickens once bedding is laid, so maybe that's a little on the short side?

I could also put the roosts along the longer section of wall opposite, that just seemed to be getting a bit crowded given the 5.5' width. Above the nesting boxes would be the only other idea (still with a poop board), but that seemed to be a lot going on in one area.



A side note as I know it might jump out to people, this is still work in progress so there is still some window framing to be done as well as some caulking and mortar to fill in draft gaps between the plywood and where the concrete has cracked/crumbled.

Any thoughts or suggestions are much appreciated.

 

[aart]

Welcome to BYC 'neighbor'...thanks for adding your location!

I love those nests, childhood memory of same made me copy them in wood.
Nests don't have to be 18" from ground, they are fine where they are as you have plenty of floor space. Then just put your roost and board at same height as top of nest bank down at other end of coop.

Nice to see the eaves are open, good ventilation, cover outside with 1/2" Hardware Cloth.
Pics of outside would help here.
And what's on the other side of that solid wall?

My Coop is 6x16....might get some ideas there.

 

[AnnaInMI]

Welcome to BYC 'neighbor'...thanks for adding your location!

I love those nests, childhood memory of same made me copy them in wood.
Nests don't have to be 18" from ground, they are fine where they are as you have plenty of floor space. Then just put your roost and board at same height as top of nest bank down at other end of coop.

Nice to see the eaves are open, good ventilation, cover outside with 1/2" Hardware Cloth.
Pics of outside would help here.
And what's on the other side of that solid wall?

My Coop is 6x16....might get some ideas there.

Thank you! I thought I might've been overthinking that a bit or missing something obvious. The other links will be my next stops.

The nests are so neat. They're from a long ago family flock so they have some history to them.

Still in progress, but outside below. It's really similar to yours. I actually saw yours in all my clicking around and it made me realize after the fact that I made hardware clothing the rafters much harder than it needed to be ha (I did individual pieces). The other side of the interior wall is more coop. I was going to use that for storage and a place to isolate if needed/future integration etc. It's a couple feet wider, but has a north wall so feels the weather more in winter and early spring (still debating on making that rafter ventilation blockable. The winds can rip pretty decent.)

 

[aart]

The other side of the interior wall is more coop. I was going to use that for storage and a place to isolate if needed/future integration etc.

Ooooo, room to expand!!
Probably lots of options there.

still debating on making that rafter ventilation blockable. The winds can rip pretty decent.

Tacking some cardboard or foam board onto bottoms of rafters, from top of wall up a foot or two, can help dampen the air flow coming in thru soffit vents.

So coop is new construction ...what all is in older building?

 

[AnnaInMI]

Ooooo, room to expand!!
Probably lots of options there.
Tacking some cardboard or foam board onto bottoms of rafters, from top of wall up a foot or two, can help dampen the air flow coming in thru soffit vents.

So coop is new construction ...what all is in older building?

Thanks for the cardboard/foam board idea! I didn't love the idea of completely stopping the air flow there so this is great.

Yep, there was a decent amount of rot in the framing so we had to rebuild more of it than originally thought. Kept the dimensions and design the same as the original though. We recently bought this place and the only things left from the previous owners were some empty feed bags and rotted nesting boxes. It looked like they had rabbits in one side and chickens in the other, but not entirely sure on that.