New Coop Blueprint

[aart]

Ventilation is important, but will not necessarily eliminate respiratory disease(which is caused by a viral or bacterial organism).
Fowl pox, which is viral and is carried by mosquitoes, and if the dry variety is not fatal, will disappear within 6 weeks and leave the bird immune.

 

[Alaskan]

Yeah, I think we underestimated the need for ventilation. Drastically! So hopefully punching in some big holes with hardware cloth will help and/or completely eliminate the diseases our birds are getting. Fowl pox! Do you vaccinate your birds?

No, I do not vaccinate.

I grew up in Texas, and had no fowl pox there either. We used open air coops down there, and did not vaccinate.

 

[lifein1840]

How big is your poop tray and how far is the roost from it?

my poop tray is the length of the back coop wall, 7 feet long, 22 inches wide and the roost is mounted on the top of the side rails which are 1x4s. The roost is a 2x4 on the flat side and sits about 2 or 3 inches above the poop tray. It's so easy to just scoop each morning, dump it in the compost bin and I'm done! The nests are part of the frame that holds the roost, they fit right in under the poop tray. I still have about 15" under the nests to store my bag of pine shavings. My coop is 8x12 so I use my space wisely!