New Coop almost finished ..inside anyway

[JeninMN]

We started Saturday morning and we basically got everything done that day...we are working on the outside run this weekend weather permitting...hoping we can move the chicks out to the coop next weekend...

We have 28 and we built the inside coop 112 sq. ft...we have nesting boxes up on one wall....10 of them...we'll have various roosts thruout and there is a roost going across the whole outer wall....we used a house screen door for the door going into the coop...

does this sound like we did ok as far as sizing goes?

We are planning to do a 20 x 20 run outside...using corrugated sheet metal from the bottom up about 2.5 ft and then using chicken wire the rest of the way up...going about 6.5 feet high for easy accessibility for cleaning, etc....does that sound ok?? we are probably going to use sheet metal to also roof it paritally and have netting along the rest of the roof area to keep predators out...

any and all advice MUCH appreciated!!

Jen

 

[Chirpy]

You are right on the money for the size. If you take 112 and divide by 4 you get 28. That's great except.... next month or next year when you want more chickens your hen house is already filled!! (Just thinking ahead here...

)

Sounds like you've done an A+ job on everything and done your homework ahead of time. Good for you!!

I think your outside run is also going to be great. However, depending on what you have in your area for predators the chicken wire will not keep out dogs, raccoons and even fox. So, even though you have the metal around the bottom I might be concerned about a raccoon climbing up and ripping open the chicken wire. Fox will probably not be able to get up high enough to be a worry, dogs certainly can stand up and thus might be a problem.

If you can I would suggest using 2x4 welded or woven wire instead of the chicken wire. But, if money is an issue then just keep the metal as high as you can before starting the wire.

Have fun and good luck.

 

[gumpsgirl]

WOW! Sounds great! Wishing you well this coming weekend!

 

[JeninMN]

Maybe we better go a little higher with the metal...would you also trench the metal in atleast 4 inches?? We had thought of putting railroad ties on the outer part of the metal just to keep it in place good...we will def want that higher then so they aren't using that as a stepping stone to crawling up there!

We do have alot of space to add onto the coop inside and out

...we know already we will want to add more we are pretty sure anyways..thank goodness we have 2 acres and a big shop!