My A- Frame chicken coop so far...

[fauxden]

First- Glad to be here. I have been lurking here for a few weeks mining info on this whole chicken thing- new to me. My wife bought some chicks cuz "they were so cute"....so I went with it and figured why not. Now we are building coop an A frame coop (or I am..... ) that is about 9.5ft x ~4 ft. I got all my material for free from scrap and so I am just piecing it together the best way I can. I plan on having about 5 chickens (~4 sq/ft per chicken, right?). So now I have a few questions for all your great minds.

http://flic.kr/p/bwsKAs

So this is my first chicken coop attempt. The coop itself is about 5ft x4 ft. The run is about 4.5x4 foot. Since I took this pic I put the rest of the the plywood on the roof and put a door in the back of it. What is your advice as far as roofing materials go? What is cheap? I was thinking that corrugated plastic pvc stuff. Seems easy to install etc. How about the front of it. I need a door of some sort. Do you all have any suggestions? I was just thinking some more plywood on hinges, but I dont know. Another question is security. I have left excess chicken wire. If I bury it will it keep animals out? It looks like I'm in the woods, but I am actually in the city- just a part of the city with some pastures. So I'm not too worried...but there are dogs, skunks, cats, etc. Where do I put the feed and water? In the run or the coop? Do chickens need to be put up in the coop and the door closed at night? I live in Idaho- my winter gets fairly cold. Will a heat lamp work well enough with some rhode island reds- thats what I'm thinking of getting? Does it matter if there is a perch inside the coop vs in the run?

Thanks so much for the help.

 

[SunnyAlberta]

I am new, too, so take my feedback with that in mind. My understanding is that the birds will want to perch when they sleep and so if you are closing them up at night they need perches in the enclosed part.

 

[jeepguy982001]

As far as heat you'll get thousands of conflicting answers. I don't use any and my birds run around when its in the single digits. I far as cheap roofing maybe you can find someone building and ask for scraps. Or check your local hardware store if they have any discountinued roofing that they sell cheap just to get rid of it. I got lucky my neighbor was working construction and brought me tons of scraps when the job was done he brought me 3 whole sheets of unused tin roofing. Also since your using chicken wire i would lock them in at night because racoons and such can break through it fairly easily.