citychicks99
Songster
Apologies for my drawings, I had to draw this out so I can see it and think about the details. I'm trying to rebuild my coop for my two birds and just wanted to make sure the new coop has what they need. I wanted to build this in a way so that it can be easily expanded in the future if we wanted to get more birds. The back will be a 4x4 that I can open so I can clean the coop. The right and left will pretty much be the same and will have the same size window. I will have an optional window in the front for when it gets hot here. The hottest it gets here can be in the 100s but it's only for about a week or two.
I'm more concerned about the massive amount of rain and wind we get throughout the year. Their last coop, about half the wood shavings were wet. The window was too wide and there was no overhang. I'm hoping that can help. We don't get too much snow, about 3' per year on average that lasts for about a week. Would I need an overhang on all four sides? I've noticed that coops usually slope down the back. Would there an issue if we slope it down the front or even a side? We wanted to put them in front of our covered backyard area on concrete and I was concerned that the slope leading down the back might drop the snow and rain into our concreted area where we keep the grill and other misc things. The run will be on dirt area.
For the roof, since it rains so much here, I think shingles might be the best option but I'm not sure that I want to invest in that. Would wood be fine for a very rainy area?
Another question I had, for predator proofing, I was going to build a 2' skirt on the outside of their run. Would rats be able to dig around this? Should I bury it horizontally so I creates a "wall"?
I'm more concerned about the massive amount of rain and wind we get throughout the year. Their last coop, about half the wood shavings were wet. The window was too wide and there was no overhang. I'm hoping that can help. We don't get too much snow, about 3' per year on average that lasts for about a week. Would I need an overhang on all four sides? I've noticed that coops usually slope down the back. Would there an issue if we slope it down the front or even a side? We wanted to put them in front of our covered backyard area on concrete and I was concerned that the slope leading down the back might drop the snow and rain into our concreted area where we keep the grill and other misc things. The run will be on dirt area.
For the roof, since it rains so much here, I think shingles might be the best option but I'm not sure that I want to invest in that. Would wood be fine for a very rainy area?
Another question I had, for predator proofing, I was going to build a 2' skirt on the outside of their run. Would rats be able to dig around this? Should I bury it horizontally so I creates a "wall"?
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