Making use of a little side niche in my coop/run

[NestingMillenial]

Also it's hard to clean behind s ladder. So, don't use a ladder-type roost. Use a single height roost on as many sides of the room as possible. Space it 12 to 16" away from the wall. Build poop trays beneath, with a lip all around to hold a half-inch of construction sand and PDZ that you can scoop daily with a slotted kitty litter scooper. You'll thank yourself later! Oh! And have a plan for the poop, a compost heap or something the chickens can't get into!

Good suggestion! I definitely planned to use a "poop board" but had not thought of making it a full tray with sand - thanks for the nudge! I'm sure that will make it all easier.

Thank you everyone for suggestions about the niche too! I am not too concerned about storage (the whole adjacent shed can be used as one, and I have some additional outdoor "cupboards" integrated nicely on a wall just nearby) but maybe storage accessible from within the coop/run would still be something to consider.

That "storage" box is one of the two they now use.

Ahaha, good reminder that they might end up choosing for themselves anyway!

 

[RcoM]

Hi all, I'm hoping you can give me ideas on how to use a little pre-existing feature in my run/coop.

I have recently moved and I am updating what I believe was a large catio into a coop/run. The catio shares a wall with an adjacent small shed, so the previous owner cut a little window in that wall to have the two spaces communicate. That window is a rectangle that's 22" large and 24" tall and 2 ft high from the floor.

Originally, I planned on using the shed as the coop, the catio as the run and that little window as the door between both. However, I live in AZ: it gets pretty hot and that shed doesn't have great ventilation, so instead, I am currently planning on letting the chicken roost in a corner of the run that's more secluded but would still have way better ventilation than the shed.

I could just board up that window and be done with it, but I was thinking that there might be a better use for it.
Another idea I had was to have the nesting boxes embedded in it -> I could divide that space into 4 parts, and build a backing that would hang into the shed (I could get the eggs from there too, though not sure if that would actually be more convenient to be honest). If I do that the nesting boxes would end up 11" wide, 12" high and something like 12" deep (or more, it would be easy to make that up to 16" deep or so). Would that sound appropriate?

If not, is there any other use for a little niche/nook of those dimensions, be it for storage or to enrich the run in some way? If you can think of something let me know!

I love the idea of an egg collection box. It would also keep the eggs cooler! Sounds big enough and like a design feature you will love! Ensure they have lots of shade in the run- not just ventilation when you "do up" the other corner for them.