Need some help on improvements for coop

[CLUCKING CHICKENS]

Wow how can you improve such a nice coop? I dont think ventilation is a problem with the roof on hinges. You can lift up the hatches and put a something under the hatches to keep them open an inch or two, and have perfect ventilation.

Where do your adulta sleep now? Are perches something you have to have?

Right now I have 12 young chicks… I sold my original adults to start over with a new mixed flock.
With the original adults I bought these two raised perches off Etsy that are about 30 inches long to lay in the middle of the coop.
There is also a perch rack that I built in their run and surprisingly 2 of the precious adults preferred to just sleep there at night instead of in the coop.
I have looked at pictures of other coops and they all seem to have mounted perches that are a lot higher.
I do think I should remove 3 of the nesting boxes to make more floor space.

 

[CLUCKING CHICKENS]

there are 6 nesting boxes currently, you can get rid of all of them but one. This will increase you floor space for chickens to walk on. Elevate the remaining box slightly if you can so they would not kick poop into it from the floor. Depending on your winters don't cut any ventilation unless you know how to close it. Unless in full sun in hot climate, you don't need cross ventilation, it can be all on one side of the coop furthest away from the perches. So with my winters in mind I would make a hinged window in front of the coop and put perches at the back. This window would allow some light into the coop which chickens need for laying. The window should be facing S or SE ideally. Hardware cloth over window opening of course.

Is one nesting box enough? I was thinking maybe removing 3 nesting boxes and keeping 3. There would be 8 hens in this one.

 

[aart]

Right now I have 12 young chicks… I sold my original adults to start over with a new mixed flock.
With the original adults I bought these two raised perches off Etsy that are about 30 inches long to lay in the middle of the coop.
There is also a perch rack that I built in their run and surprisingly 2 of the precious adults preferred to just sleep there at night instead of in the coop.
I have looked at pictures of other coops and they all seem to have mounted perches that are a lot higher.
I do think I should remove 3 of the nesting boxes to make more floor space.

Got pics of the inside?

Doesn't matter how high the roosts/perches as long as they are higher than nests so they don't sleep in nests.
With your coop it's better to have them well below the ventilation you will be adding.

 

[aart]

Is one nesting box enough? I was thinking maybe removing 3 nesting boxes and keeping 3. There would be 8 hens in this one.

For 8 birds I'd have at least 2 nests.

 

[Silkie Princess]

A guy that I work with was throwing out a old coop that he had made and offered to let me just take it off his hands. I had no prior experience raising chickens and thought it was as good of a time as any to start. The coop was rough to look at but I loaded it in the back of my truck and when I got it home I cleaned it off, added vertical boards on the outside for aesthetics, painted it, and bought a chicken door off Amazon that I installed. This was in June and I have been learning more as I read these posts that It may need more work or I may need to trash it and shop around. I already know that I need to add venting, but any ideas on how I should go about that? Also, should I try to add perches?
I am setting up another coop and run on my property but for that I bought an Eglu Cube from Omlet with a 13 foot run for that area. I have yet to set that one up and still have it sitting in boxes.
I am hoping to salvage the refurbished coop and avoid issues down the road. I do not want to spend what I spent on the Eglu Cube to replace it.

I think the coop is fine. But the thing that disturbed me was that the run was made out of chicken wire. Hardware cloth is definetly more sturdy

 

[Banana01]

Right now I have 12 young chicks… I sold my original adults to start over with a new mixed flock.
With the original adults I bought these two raised perches off Etsy that are about 30 inches long to lay in the middle of the coop.
There is also a perch rack that I built in their run and surprisingly 2 of the precious adults preferred to just sleep there at night instead of in the coop.
I have looked at pictures of other coops and they all seem to have mounted perches that are a lot higher.
I do think I should remove 3 of the nesting boxes to make more floor space.

Ventilation in the red one is perfect if you crack open the hatches slightly, like an inch or 1.5 inches.

As for perches, your chickens may end up perching on the roof beams in the outer coop. The red coop is a bit tight to consider perches for full grown adults. But if you lay down some boards, you have yourself an adult perch with poop boards. They will eventually be bombing the red coop.

Its a terrible drawing, but if you lay boards here, and create a beam they can walk up, you have a nice perch and loft for the adults. My coop is like that in some ways.
Sorry for the bad drawing of board locations.

 

[Banana01]

Ventilation in the red one is perfect if you crack open the hatches slightly, like an inch or 1.5 inches.

As for perches, your chickens may end up perching on the roof beams in the outer coop. The red coop is a bit tight to consider perches for full grown adults. But if you lay down some boards, you have yourself an adult perch with poop boards. They will eventually be bombing the red coop.

Its a terrible drawing, but if you lay boards here, and create a beam they can walk up, you have a nice perch and loft for the adults. My coop is like that in some ways.
Sorry for the bad drawing of board locations.
View attachment 2949602

That drawing was so bad, here is what you might try though, i love how well it works.

You can see the cross beams, from below and what it looks like when you lay boards up there for them to hang out. My hens actually hang there all day and they are not confined there.

And what it looks like above. The poop is easy to clean off the round poles, but the boards are also easy to clean whem they are removed. Whenever it rains though i get a free cleaning because the roof is palm leaves and it leaks a little. The mites are unfortunately very bad here too.

 

[CLUCKING CHICKENS]

I think the coop is fine. But the thing that disturbed me was that the run was made out of chicken wire. Hardware cloth is definetly more sturdy

I did not know about the hardware cloth prior to using the chicken wire. I had a

I think the coop is fine. But the thing that disturbed me was that the run was made out of chicken wire. Hardware cloth is definetly more sturdy

Now that I know about hardware cloth If I were to do this over again I would definitely use it.
Before this current set up I just had a 4 foot high fence of chicken wire going all around for the run since I didn’t think I had any real predator issue to worry over in my area… I was wrong and came out one morning to find a massacre. A raccoon had scaled over that 4 foot fence and attacked my chickens.
That is when I built this enclosed chicken run and while the hardware cloth may have been a better choice, there have been no issues since.

 

[CanadaEh]

Is one nesting box enough? I was thinking maybe removing 3 nesting boxes and keeping 3. There would be 8 hens in this one.

I was thinking for 5 chickens max given the size of the coop. You may will have management challenges (cleaning and pecking) with more chickens in a smallish coop unless there are there only for a night. The most economical way is to have one slightly larger box than 2 separate ones. I have 3 double size nest boxes for 35. I have seen as many as 5 birds in one box at once No matter how many boxes you have they may have preference to go for particular box on any given day.

 

[3KillerBs]

I already know that I need to add venting, but any ideas on how I should go about that

Yup, this style of roof is called a monitor roof. So on both sides, replace the line green area with wire mesh for cross ventilation above the birds heads.

Exactly what I was going to suggest.

Here is an example -- my Little Monitor Coop: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-little-monitor-coop.76275/