Need your opinion: what should every coop have?

[trooper]

I've seen some real good ideas.Some I want to do.If you haven't already built ,I suggest putting a small porch at the front porch accross the front about 12ft long and about 4ft wide.I put this on mine and it gives me a place for my feed storage.I have that in metal cans for mice and rain protection.It is also located so that I can sit in it and watch my birds.

I built a small deck on the poop door side so that when they go in and out if there is mud it will get on the deck and not in the coop.It provides a few other benifits also.I suggest at least 3 1/2 inches wide if you are in cold climates for your roosts.This helps to keep their feet warm in the winter.You need to put some kind of bedding on the floor and in the nest boxes.This helps keep it warm,cleaner,gives them something to dig in,and adds cushion to their feet and legs when jumping down from roosts and out of the nest boxes.In the nest boxes it gives them comfort while setting and protects the eggs.It also adds a little warmth.Put your nest boxes to the outside.It gives you more floor space.I have a small fan that I leave running 24/7 in the summer time.It's big enough to keep the air moving,but not so big that it blows everything away.Good luck and welcome aboard.

:cd

 

[lauriruth]

Sand!!!!!!:d

 

[Chemguy]

Many good ideas. I'll apologize if the following duplicate what others have said: it is useful to have enough space in the coop to where you can easily maneuver a shovel, rake or other cleaning tool. Also, ventilation that can be adjusted (opened, closed) has been helpful. I keep things wide open in warm weather and mostly closed in cold (but never completely closed!)

 

[newbee chick01]

lino on the floor,,its so much easier 2 clean

 

[Lee-in-Iowa]

I love all these ideas. Mine are:

a rugged pen (mine's hardware cloth over HUGE old aquarium frames) leading straight into the coop, in case you don't feel up to opening and shutting coop doors every day;

a section of clear rippled plastic roofing (on the roof), so the hens get enough winter sunlight (it's late December and mine are still laying about an egg a day);

a "real" metal hanging chicken feeder, hung INSIDE the coop (I was losing SO MUCH food to sloppy chickens and rain, before);

a mounted waterer inside the coop (I'm using an old piglet waterer, but it's fantastic--NO POO IN THE WATER!! Hurray!!);

a couple of mountable, small petfood holders in the pen, like you'd use in a pet crate, one with oyster shell (for the girls, for grit that includes calcium) and one with limestone grit (for the boys, who need grit but not calcium), like this: http://www.petco.com/product/112528/Petco-Dog-Crate-and-Kennel-Cup.aspx?cm_mmc=CSEMGooglebase-_-Dog-_-Petco-_-1283090&mr:trackingCode=496F1204-6686-DF11-BC8B-0019B9C043EB&mr:referralID=NA.

Last of all, my coop is 6 inches off the ground to deter rats and mice from settling in underneath it, and has a "flounce" of black garden netting stapled around the bottom, as BYC friends say this deters snakes.

I used the ideas here in my coop, and guess what? The nest boxes are being roosted in (never mind a perfectly fine roost right there beside them), the drop-down door to the nest boxes thus has become my clean-out spot, and the "girls" are laying their eggs in nests they've made in the cubbyhole underneath the next boxes, on the floor of the coop. I duct-taped a plastic measuring cup to a slightly curved branch to use as an egg-retriever.

 

[Lee-in-Iowa]

Just a note (been reading the "advice from old-timers" thread, where people want to know how long you've had chickens): just got my chickens last spring BUT watched my Aunt Sue & Uncle Max, Aunt Mary & Uncle Joe, Grandma, and Great-Aunt Corie (who lived in a log cabin, and whose parents used to trade baskets with the Cherokee there) as THEY raised chickens. Their coops were up off the ground, had human sized entrances, had NO fancy nest box access panels (I always got elected to go in and get the eggs), and let their dogs and cats run outside all hours of the day and night, for protection of the flock. Most had a special chicken run area with no wiring or protection on the top, a few let the chickens run freely all around the farm.

 

[conny63malies]

my kids said a big screen TV and a AC....

 

[manolito]

I am the least likely person to post what you need.
We live on a ranch and have a lot of Fox, coyote, Mountain Lion, and Bob cat, Raccoon and badger. Keeping that in mind I bought a tool shed from costco to lock the birds up at night 8'X10'. This shed is plastic of some kind and washes out very well keeping the chickens healthy. I put in roosting boards and then built the most besutiful nesting boxes you have ever seen routing all edges and corners filling them with clean shavings and I will tell you I had one egg all year in the nesting boxes I tried golf balls and fake eggs to no avail then I locked them inside for three days I had eggs all over the floor not a single one in the boxes. I made these boxes 12X12 as suggested in the reading I have done. I continue to find eggs in the hay barn, in the back of the Kabota, under bushes, In the sheep feeder and other places that boggle the imagination. If they decide to use them I have some beautiful nest boxes. We keep around 20 hens and two roosters and some turkeys. They are better than the comedy channel

 

[pamcpitts]

Every Coop should have windows, and a fan, and of course fresh water and fresh food and lots of love.

 

[grassy2]

a spacious bar for them to roost on, ample nesting boxes and a a storage bin for feed.