My Design -- looking for advice before I build!

[Titus2Woman]

Quote:
Gosh it is gorgeous!! Can you build two and send one to me???

 

[oldchickenlady]

How many chickens are you planning on having? That number will determine how often you have to clean and how much smell there will be. If you are planning on say 4-6 chickens the clean up schedule will be less than if you have 6 or more. Is there a limit to how many you can have? Many people try to have too many birds in too little space...don't fall into that! It leads to problems! Ok just saw you are planning on 6. That is a good number for your 4x8 coop. I would think 3-4 times a week would be ok for cleaning, but you can adjust as needed.

 

[Ole rooster]

A couple of things here.

One is I clean the coop and run everyday. I have no odor from the chickens. I take the poo to the garden and bury it. No odor from anything.

Two I differ on the poultry being the worse of odor of all. You evidently haven't been on a pig farm. That odor will make you throw up. I think it get in you cloths too. I know it sticks in you nose.

The one thing I do not like about the deep litter method is it is not cleaned daily. It's just mixed in and more the next day is done the same. I had much rather clean my coop daily and know it is clean. I'm kinda freaky that way.

 

[ECBW]

From the picture, looks like free range is not likely. So, the coop and run would need to be as roomy as possible. Do not worry. Plenty of urban hobbyists keep their flocks in small spaces.

As someone said, 4x8 coop for 6 birds would be plenty. The corner patio piece of land would work too. I would suggest that build your run to full height and install branches to increase the dimension vertically.

If you are keeping them for pets with eggs as side benefit, think about keeping less than 6. It will reduce the amount of upkeep and smell and still have a flock of sort. Yes they will have a barnyard scent, just matter of how potent. I personally like it, but it is not for everyone.

I can walk into a cat person's house and tell, regardless of how faint the scent might be. Well, except this friend that has a McMansion with one cat, spatial ratio, which goes to support the argument of keeping less birds.

 

[Keltara]

I have 3 chickens. Here is my coop:

It is still a work in progress. I agree with rpchris, in that you need to design it so the doors swing open rather than what I have. My big coop door is heavy and I am always afraid that it's going to come down on my head. My husband is going to change that door for me. My run is nice and tall so I don't have to to stoop at all to clean it. This is VERY important as you will indeed be spending time each day out there (especially if they don't free range) cleaning it. Currently my girls free range all day, so their run never really gets messy at all. We will be adding sand to the run before winter. I'll touch on that in a moment.

Here's the interior of my coop:

The floor of the the coop is 4x4. I have 1/2 inch of sand on the bottom and it takes me less that 60 seconds a day to clean it using a kitty litter scoop. When chicken poop hits sand, it dries up instantly and there is no odor. I have the poop board with the roaster pans filled with sand. It's because I don't want my girls to have poopy feet, and they don't like to walk in the trays. My coop has not seen on single fly all summer long (even on the hottest and most humid days). It smells like a fresh breeze and is very healthy for the chickens. I do clean mine daily but as I stated, 60 seconds or less is NO BIG DEAL. The best kind of sand to use is construction sand. It is sharper and more jagged than play sand and can be bought pretty cheap at Lowes or Home Depot. It is good for the condition of the chickens feet, less habitable an environment for mites, and of course keeps the coop smelling very, very nice. I would NEVER put pine shavings in my coop. Too smelly, moist and messy to clean. As you can see, my coop floor is well elevated which also makes for easy cleaning as I don't have to stoop. Not stooping makes for very happy chicken owners. Trust me on this one.

My nest box doors swing open:

For nest boxes, I use kitty litter trays which I got cheap at Wal-Mart. I have straw in mine. My girls have not started to lay yet, but hopefully very soon.

The plastic nest boxes will make for very easy cleaning (a tip I got here on BYC).

We are going to add ventilation to the coop. With the winters you will be having in Ohio, ventilation is crucial for the health of your little flock!! You can read important ventilation info HERE. If I had not read that, I would have had our girls locked up and sealed up tight in there each night in the winter. Not anymore! I've learned.

We are going to put sand in the run as I stated, before winter. There is a member on BYC who mentioned how he wired hardware cloth to a garden rake to clean his run. I PM's him asking him if he'd explain how he did that and this is what he said:

it's rather simple - I just cut a piece of hardware cloth (wire actually) the
size of the teeth part of the rake and wired it across the metal part of the
rake - put it in front of the rake - that way when you run the rake through
the sand it digs in a little and the sand goes through the hardware cloth
but the poop and anything else you hit stays with the rake - I rake the
entire run putting everything that I catch into a pile and then shovel it
into a plastic bucket and put the contents into my garden

Simple enough, and again, VERY healthy for the hens. There will be absolutely no smell to bother you OR your neighbors. We plan to add some roosts to our run so our girls will be able to get off the ground in the winter. I also plan to put clear tarp around the run in the winter to keep the snow out. Pine shavings are extremely messy, mulch is unhealthy, and sand is a beautiful thing.

The ONLY thing I'd change on my coop is that big main door. I'm having my hubby make it a swing door. Other than that, I've taken a bunch of good idea's I've seen here on BYC and applied it to what we have today. I love our set up very much.

My run is 4x12 and works great for us. If you are interested in plans, PM me. My husband is actually "officially" drawing them up for someone else on BYC.

Sincerely,
~Kelly~
✿My Country Chronicles Blog✿

 

[ailurophile23]

I completely agree with everything Keltara said above! Clean daily - it doesn't take very long for a small flock and it means no bad smells and healthy chickens. Ventillation is SO important, especially in winter to avoid frostbite. The 4x8 coop should be a good size but if you can, I would make the run a little larger than the 4x8 under the coop + 4x4 section - chickens can get bored and more space helps - make the run as large as reasonably possible and utilize vertical space too - I keep adding roosts in the run and the chickens love it. Good luck and enjoy having chickens!

 

[Titus2Woman]

Quote:
Ok, I have abandoned that location because of its proximity to the houses I could not make it bigger and we think it will be better in the back of the yard. We are thinking of making the coop 4x8 and the run 8x8 with half of it being under the coop... I would love a walk in coop but we are thinking that making it shorter will make it less obvious to the neighbors. I but thanks to Keltara's pictures I am now thinking of putting it right next to my shed and maybe wrapping the run aroudn the back and if we put our privacy fence up like I want across the back no one will really see it! Oh I like that idea... too many options!!!!!!

 

[Titus2Woman]

Ok so here is the new location I am looking to use. I will either move the square foot garden to the right and put the coop and run about 4 foot away from the shed... (where the green poles are at currently) or now I am thinking of putting the coop against the shed and maybe hiding the run behind it. Down side is we will not be able to see the chickens as much up side is neither will the neighbors. I am hoping to get a privacy fence put in back there so none of the neighbors in the back will know what is going on really...

 

[rpchris]

Hmm. Looking at the picture, I see a beautiful coop already in that spot. So what's in the shed now? Could you partition off part of it and use it as the 'coop' and then just build out a nice sized run? Or is the shed off-limits? Husband domain?

 

[Titus2Woman]

Quote:
The shed is FULL! We built the biggest the city would allow on our lot and well, I am glad we did... full -- especially in the winter! In fact I have to be careful because I suspect too big of a coop would probably violate some sort of ordinance for structures that I am allowed to have because of how big the shed is... which is another reason I changed from my original plans of one I could walk in... I was afraid if it were too tall I would have neighbors complaining about the extra "building" on my lot... If the housing market had not plummeted I would be looking for land!