Need to build a new chicken coop

[glwchickens]

Hello Everyone,

My wife and I built a mobile coop last year, however it looks like we will be adding
new chicks soon and maybe every year after, so I am thinking about building a
larger coop.


I have been thinking about building a coop with a 8 foot square floor plan and about
6 foot high with 2 foot ground clearance, with a divider wall 3 foot inside the door for
storing chicken supplies, that would give the chickens 5 foot square area inside.

Does this sound OK, or should I build a coop a little bigger, about 8 foot x 10 foot??

Any suggestions on design?

Thank you for your time and help,
Darle

 

[Nocila]

Personally, I'd probably get rid of the ground clearance, if you can, and put a cement floor in... We had a coop that sat off the ground, and we had to build a new one because the floor was falling through (We lost a bird in the back, but we couldn't remove it for fear that the floor would cave in completely :/)

Also, it's nice to be able to walk into your coop, in my opinion, so that, if something happens, you can actually access things.

If you make it big enough that you can walk into the coop, you might want to make it big enough to move a shovel around (the other reason we had to make a new coop... it was long, but not wide enough for a shovel, which made it really awkward...)... With chickens, the bigger the better, right?

 

[glwchickens]

There is a reason for the ground clearance, if the coop is off the ground 1 1/2
feet to 2 foot, raccoon s, and other critters have a hard time tunneling up
through the floor and killing the chickens, a friend of my wife lost her chickens
by a raccoon tunneling up through the floor.

 

[3riverschick]

Great response glwchickns! Plus, you can count the area under the coop as sq. footage for the run. Important if one is in an urban setting where one wants to keep the whole footprint small as possible. I also use that area as an outside foul weather shelter. The hens use it for a dusting area. Built a door
in one side. Covered the other two raised sides with chicken wire ( of course) and that translucent carpet runner from Lowe's which has 2 smooth sides. Works great! If it is hot and there is a summer storm, they just go there instead of in the coop.
Best,
Karen in western PA

 

[Nocila]

True, but if the floor is wood, then there's a higher chance of the wood going bad. Ours fell through within the first five years, so we decided to go with concrete, so the predators couldn't tunnel through, and the floor wouldn't cave/rot. We lost 5 birds in one night to a tiny hole in the floor from where the wood had started to rot, and another five the next night when the original fix didn't work. The choice is entirely yours, but I think you'd have more luck with a concrete floor.

 

[3riverschick]

Hello Everyone,

My wife and I built a mobile coop last year, however it looks like we will be adding
new chicks soon and maybe every year after, so I am thinking about building a
larger coop.


I have been thinking about building a coop with a 8 foot square floor plan and about
6 foot high with 2 foot ground clearance, with a divider wall 3 foot inside the door for
storing chicken supplies, that would give the chickens 5 foot square area inside.

Does this sound OK, or should I build a coop a little bigger, about 8 foot x 10 foot??

Any suggestions on design?

Thank you for your time and help,
Darle

you mean 8 ft. wide x8ft. deep x6 ft. high coop? That's 64 sq. ft. That's a lot of coop to raise off the ground.

If it were me, ( mine are all smaller coops so raised off the ground 24 inches. The biggest is 4' x 6'. ). If it were me,
I would make the wooden coop but affix layer ofboth chicken wire ( layer number one) and welded wire( layer number two)
under the floor so nothing can tunnet up thru it. Just my thoughts.
Best,
Karen in western PA

 

[glwchickens]

I forgot to mention the cool shade provided by the coop on hot and or rainy days, plus they do like
to roll in the dirt, plus they will keep the bugs off the bottom of the coop, good source of food
for the chickens.

My wife and I were talking about getting one of those Little Giant egg turners and incubator to hatch
out some eggs, my Wyandottes don't seem to be interested in brooding and all of our eggs are
fertile so far, but that is to be expected with our rooster, he is a bit to aggressive, four of our
hens are missing feathers on their backs. The rooster is a bit on the nasty side, he attacks
when your not looking.

Darle Piner, KY

 

[glwchickens]

Yes I am thinking about a coop 8 ft. wide 8 ft. length and 6 ft. high 2 ft. off the ground. I helped my neighbor
build his new coop and his is 8 ft. wide 10 ft. long and 7 ft. head clearance with a peaked roof that has a 1 ft.
over hang and shingles. He covered the floor with heavy gauge black plastic, it has a storage area for all his
chicken supplies inside the walk in door, the whole coop is setting on 4" x 4" treated support legs on concrete
blocks. This thing is solid and if decides he doesn't what to have chickens any more he has a real nice shed.
I think his coop should house 25 chickens or more without any problems.

 

[Chickenchick11]

I have to agree with Nocila about the cement floor. I have a cement floor in my coop and it makes it a cinch to clean and I don't have to worry about a rotting floor. ( I live on a farm that has been in my family for 4 generations. The coop is between 80-90 years old but with the cement floors it has still lasted all this time. If the floor had been wood or dirt we probably would have lost the coop within the first 5-10 years of it being built) The cement floor will cost you more now but save you in the long run by not having to make a new coop or fix things like rot which will most likely happen with a wood or dirt floor.