Large Coop Design - Feedback?

[harice4806]

Chicken math definitely gets the best of us. I have an 8x12 shed turned coop and figured it'd be plenty of room for 5-10 birds. Yea...5-10 birds...ha! I'm a bit over my limit with 28 but 8 are bantams so it's not as bad but looking to expand. I just know I don't have a lot of ability to free range bc of one of my dogs so I tend to think on the side of "what would I want for them if they were exclusively coop kept?". I too have gone vertical with some of the space to help but I feel like no matter how large my coop I'll want to continue to make improvements!

 

[Kiki]

I'd say build it wider instead of taller for more ground space.

 

[ValerieJ]

Yep, fully understood and agreed! These birds will be out in 3 acres all day long so housing in here will only be for over-nighting (aka true coop). It may be too tight still even then, so I guess I will have to see and adjust properly.

I do currently "stack" my roosts today and it works well so I am well under 4sf but "3d space-wise" they have lots of room, but I have found a lot of chickens go in my nesting boxes at night too... so possibly overcrowded.

Maybe I have to go even BIGGER lol. Chicken math getting the best of me for sure.

When you get done you’ll have a mansion for you chickens!

 

[rosemarythyme]

This is a scale picture- and each of these roosts is 6' long, so that's a whole lot of roosting space.

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Since you mentioned going vertical before, how do you keep them from pooping all over each other with this roost configuration?

 

[Cryss]

Very pretty design. Lovely to look at. 1.2 foot per bird. Birds will be pooping in the nests all night. Poopie eggs will result. Pooping from above on the heads of the ones below. Very pretty but not healthy.
You expect to lose to hawks. What are you doing about it? You said it will be in the middle of 3 acres. Is this open field? Are there trees? Shrubs? Hidey holes? Is there any fencing to keep out critters?

 

[BaaKaaawk]

Since you mentioned going vertical before, how do you keep them from pooping all over each other with this roost configuration?

Not sure if you saw my picture a couple back, but I stagger the roost stick about 1.5-2' apart. That seems to be the magic distance to keep poop off feathers!

In my current setup I do have an issue I'll make sure not to repeat which is I have the boxes inside the coop and that made about a 1' flat spot on the top of it. They do poop all over that and we have to get in there and rake that off. That's why in this design I pushed the boxes out of the 6x6 central column.

 

[BaaKaaawk]

Very pretty design. Lovely to look at. 1.2 foot per bird. Birds will be pooping in the nests all night. Poopie eggs will result. Pooping from above on the heads of the ones below. Very pretty but not healthy.
You expect to lose to hawks. What are you doing about it? You said it will be in the middle of 3 acres. Is this open field? Are there trees? Shrubs? Hidey holes? Is there any fencing to keep out critters?

It's not built yet and the main house will be under renovations for about a year still. When that is done I'll know the lay of the land and make appropriate decisions for the free ranging area. So absolutely, lots to still figure it. Heck based on the comments I'm not making it very far past coop design at this point. lol

 

[BaaKaaawk]

Chicken math definitely gets the best of us. I have an 8x12 shed turned coop and figured it'd be plenty of room for 5-10 birds. Yea...5-10 birds...ha! I'm a bit over my limit with 28 but 8 are bantams so it's not as bad but looking to expand. I just know I don't have a lot of ability to free range bc of one of my dogs so I tend to think on the side of "what would I want for them if they were exclusively coop kept?". I too have gone vertical with some of the space to help but I feel like no matter how large my coop I'll want to continue to make improvements!

Here's my current coop which has been added on to twice in this picture and yet again now to house the ever increasing birds (it's in the woods so I went rustic, actually built this one out of all pallets and reclaimed barn wood, and reclaimed tin roofing- the add-ons I used some OSB though). I am going to have to literally have to start breaking broodies because they created this amount of chickens not me! I keep falling for their momma eyes saying please let me hatch chicks!

 

[ValerieJ]

It's not built yet and the main house will be under renovations for about a year still. When that is done I'll know the lay of the land and make appropriate decisions for the free ranging area. So absolutely, lots to still figure it. Heck based on the comments I'm not making it very far past coop design at this point. lol

We just want to save you from the big rebuild. We will be building our 4th in a couple months. In fact, we’re building the third right now because the two we have aren’t big enough to accommodate our 12 chickens without some of them pooping in nesting boxes. Oh and we have about 40 sf right now, not counting the 8 best boxes. . Without what the chickens perceive as adequate space there will be messy nest boxes. They have to be able to get away from each other.

Our next coop, after this wick one this week, will be 8x10. We will still have 12 chickens. We know that’s our magic number.

 

[AllenK RGV]

This is a relatively large coop I intend to build next year. It will be in the middle of a 3 acre field on a unique property so I figured why not make a statement with it. Any feedback on the general design?

There will be 2 rows of 4 nesting boxes. One side will have the entrance, the other a 2.5' service door, and the last side a flat board (or two) for silkies / ground nesters. The rest are different levels of roosts. May take one or two off the nesting box side.

This is in NC, and I've built a bunch of coops in this climate before and always do wire bottoms with screen in the tops for air flow. Doesn't get much below 20 degrees here ever and pretty mild winters, so cold has not been an issue, nor snow. Thanks!

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Looks like a chicken church to me. Laying boxes are pointless in my opinion as chickes do whatever the heck they want. For us it is better to provide plants and bushes for them to lay under.