Quote:
Yes Poppy (named for the seed) is a gorgeous black ameraucana roo that is a shiny jet black color with a beetle green sheen when you catch him in the sunlight. He is turning out to be quite a stunner.
My coop is a modified shed design. Although the finished product looks nothing like a shed. I designed it to accomodate my bad back. It is elevated off the ground and has nests that are bumped out (half in and half out of the coop) with hinged hatch lids that are on a rope and pulley system so I don't have to lift the heavy lids. This means I can collect the eggs from outside the coop (this was a must have for me) and it also gives the flock a place to hide from the heat and rain. One huge summer vent (the permanent vents are in the eaves) is also on rope and pulleys with a hook to anchor it open when it's hot (covered with stout wire fencing on the inside). The coop is tall enough to accomodate a tall man (and plenty of roosts) with a bump out brooder that is half inside the coop (this portion is covered with chicken wire so the older birds get used to seeing the younger ones and the top is under the roosts and acts as a dropping's board) and half out. I don't have to bend over to let them in or out either. A window gives them light and even more ventilation when it's hot (a freebie from the local window store) and a couple of pop doors in the floor, under the nests, makes shoveling out the coop easier.
The only thing I still want (beside more coops) is to have the coop plumbed with an automatic waterer and to build a huge gravity fed feeder with the hopper on the outside of the coop and the feeder on the inside. The feeder would be easy to design but I haven't figured out how to economically keep a water line from freezing in winter.
Seriously, I scoured the net and the library for a really good design and couldn't find anything that came close to what I wanted. Since you are an engineer it should be easy for you to come up with a design that's miles better than what's already out there. In fact I think those of us that have great designs should write a book! Course lots of folks seem to
think they have great designs... Ok, I shouldn't be that way. Not many people have special needs like I have due to my disability. I'm sure their coops work just fine for them.
Sorry, I used to be an efficiency expert and that's just how I look at everything. If there is work involved it should be efficient to avoid having to work any harder than you have to or to waste more time than you have to. I hate a bad design that saves time during construction only to waste 100 times more energy when in use.
Wow we are getting close to 4000 posts! Who's gonna beat me to it this time?