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17 birds in total will mean that you need to think of the roosting board set up. You could put two long roosts, staggered in height, along the longer wall, so they would all have personal space when roosting. The pecking order will soon determine who sits on the lower rung, and who on the higher one. You stagger them so they don't poop on one another. I would also add a dropping board under the roosts. They can use the dropping board to help them get up to the roosts, and it makes for a cleaner hen house if it's cleaned every morning. Put the dropping board about 15" from the floor, the lower roost 25" from the floor, and the higher roost about 36" from the floor. At these heights, you probably won't need a ramp for the birds, unless they are very young still.
I would put the nest boxes on the shorter wall, three will do. Chances are they will only use one, or maybe two..They all seem to prefer the same one for some reason..
Put them up about 20" from the floor. If you put a sloped roof over them, the hens won't use them as a roost. Plastic milk cartons work great, but you need to add a solid floor to them, so the straw, or shavings don't all fall out.
I would add a window for light in the coop. If you plan on having an opening one for added ventilation, cover the opening with hardware cloth. Build a chicken door, that you can open and close, unless you plan on using the main door, and keeping it propped open during the day. Add screened vents around the roof line under the eves. You can also make these so you can open or close them, as desired.
You can hang your feeder from a chain, so the hens don't play in the feeder, scratching food all over the place. Put your waterer up on a cinder block, or even better, a plastic kitty litter box, with a few boards screwed across the top for the waterer to rest on. The raised height helps keeps floor litter out of the water, the litter box prevents water spillage into the floor litter.
Install a light if at all possible, both for artificial lighting to keep the birds laying, but also for when your in the coop cleaning, etc. You can rig it with an automatic timer. A second fixture might come in handy for a heat lamp, or running a cord to a water heater, if you live in a colder winter climate.
You could build a feed storage bin in the coop as it is a good size, but make it rat proof. A metal garbage can works well.
Just a couple ideas for your new coop..
