I just quickly scanned through all the pages of replies, and you have received all the same great information and tips that I got from the knowledgeable and experienced members here.
When I was planning the build of my coop, I just about drove everyone crazy with all of my questions, and I read everything I could find here, to try and determine what would work best for my particular coop. I tried to pick out all of the best qualities, lay-outs, and functionality, from various coop plans, pictures, and suggestions.
here is what I ended up with, and for the most part,... it has worked out VERY well, is easy to clean and maintain, and the flock is quite comfortable.
My overall pen is 12' x 24'.
My coop is only a 4' x 8' (floor space) sized coop, but it was designed for maximum utility, ease of maintenance, and maximum use of space.
It is raised 18" off the ground, so there is no rain/muddy floor issues.
It has double doors for easy human entry, and during the warmer months, are often left open all day, to provide great ventilation.
It also has 2 closeable 2' x 4'' windows. one on the rear side, and another on the end.
It has 14' of roosting perches upstairs, and Poop Boards made of plastic panels that are easily scrapped for cleaning.
Poop Boards are GREAT !, and I highly recommend going with that style. The bottom of the coop stays SOoooo much cleaner, and the shavings last for many months before needing to be changed.
(The one thing that I wish I would have done differently is, I made the Poop Boards only 4" under/below the perches), This does make for slightly more difficulty in scrapping the boards off.
I am going to rework this, and lower the boards another 4" to 6" to facilitate a even easiler cleaning. This will allow for scrapping straight into a tub with less effort, less dropped poop.
The coop also has an external egg door to the nesting boxes, as well as a rope pull to the "pop door", so that in the morning before the kids go to school, they can open the pop door by pulling the rope, and retreive yesterdays fresh eggs, without entering the coop, and dirtying there school clothes.
i also used large plastic tool tubs in/as the nesting boxes, again for ease of cleaning.
here's some pics, hope this helps,...
When I was planning the build of my coop, I just about drove everyone crazy with all of my questions, and I read everything I could find here, to try and determine what would work best for my particular coop. I tried to pick out all of the best qualities, lay-outs, and functionality, from various coop plans, pictures, and suggestions.
here is what I ended up with, and for the most part,... it has worked out VERY well, is easy to clean and maintain, and the flock is quite comfortable.
My overall pen is 12' x 24'.
My coop is only a 4' x 8' (floor space) sized coop, but it was designed for maximum utility, ease of maintenance, and maximum use of space.
It is raised 18" off the ground, so there is no rain/muddy floor issues.
It has double doors for easy human entry, and during the warmer months, are often left open all day, to provide great ventilation.
It also has 2 closeable 2' x 4'' windows. one on the rear side, and another on the end.
It has 14' of roosting perches upstairs, and Poop Boards made of plastic panels that are easily scrapped for cleaning.
Poop Boards are GREAT !, and I highly recommend going with that style. The bottom of the coop stays SOoooo much cleaner, and the shavings last for many months before needing to be changed.
(The one thing that I wish I would have done differently is, I made the Poop Boards only 4" under/below the perches), This does make for slightly more difficulty in scrapping the boards off.
I am going to rework this, and lower the boards another 4" to 6" to facilitate a even easiler cleaning. This will allow for scrapping straight into a tub with less effort, less dropped poop.
The coop also has an external egg door to the nesting boxes, as well as a rope pull to the "pop door", so that in the morning before the kids go to school, they can open the pop door by pulling the rope, and retreive yesterdays fresh eggs, without entering the coop, and dirtying there school clothes.
i also used large plastic tool tubs in/as the nesting boxes, again for ease of cleaning.
here's some pics, hope this helps,...
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