New coop completed. Should we do anything to the run?

[UrbanSproutsandHarvest]

As others noted above, chickens don't eat and drink (generally) in the dark. As long as they have access to water during waking hours, or close to that, they'll be fine.


Keep in mind that cups will freeze once you reach freezing temperatures, so you may need to consider a different watering option for winter. Horizontal nipples can continue working below freezing temps because the majority of the mechanism is housed inside the waterer so they're less likely to freeze.

That waterers are heated in the winter, but we will definitely keep an eye on them to make sure they stay warm enough to keep the cups from freezing. We have friends with the same heater and his water was fine even when his eggs kept freezing so I am hopeful the heater will be sufficient. I know they utilize the food and water in the coop so I will probably leave it out there until it get cold enough to be an issue then remove it over winter. I

That's the problem with most prefab coops and most coop plans -- they almost inevitably over-promise on the number of chickens they are suited for and under-deliver on ventilation.

The general guideline is that you need one square foot of ventilation per adult, standard-sized hen -- preferably located above the birds' heads when they're sitting on the roost. Your goal is to have the temperature and humidity inside the coop the same as the outside but to be completely free of drafts.

Here's my article illustrating the principles of good coop ventilation: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/repecka-illustrates-coop-ventilation.77659/

Yes that was definitely the case with the prefab we bought. We were busy building a greenhouse and putting in a retaining wall this spring so we found a prefab that had excellent reviews and purchased. They said it was for 8-9 hens depending on size. The pictures made it look really big. It showed up made out of 1x1 and the house portion is 26"x 53.5". It cracked in half after only being outside 3 months and our winds are not strong at all. We sealed it and it’s already crumbling in sections just from the rain. No way they could be in it for the winter as it only has 1 tiny window slide and it sits right next to the roosting bars. I figured out how they had such good reviews after i left them a bad one and it was deleted. They only leave good reviews on their site I don’t know how they can advertise 9.66 total square feet as housing 8-9 hens, that should be criminal! We pretty quickly determined that they would need a new coop, so once we finished the retaining wall we moved into getting the run built so they weren’t stuck in the sorry excuse for an attached run their prefab came with. We are going to reuse the roof pieces to build a covered area for them to eat under, and i was thinking of using the 1/2 inch hardware cloth panels to build them a salad bar in the spring, but the rest of the coop is basically garbage.

We are going to remove the vent covers which will allow us to widen and lengthen the venting. We have a bunch of spare 1/2 inch hardware cloth from when we built the big run or we can use some off the prefab coop to cover the openings. Then we will see if we need to add an awning. We have extra roofing tile if we need to make something.

 

[UrbanSproutsandHarvest]

Over decades we have enlarged and improved our coop, it didn't start out where it is now.
In snow country, your birds won't want to be out in it, so either they stay in under cover, or you shovel. We roofed our whole coop and small run, so it acts like a big coop. Much better! We overwinter birds that will be fine if they don't free range at all, and this year because of AI they are again locked in!
Mary

We already have plans to square off the top of the run. We did an A frame run the bottom is 1/2 inch hardware cloth and the top is 1/2 inch avian netting as recommended in a book I was reading on keeping chickens safe from Owls. We don’t really have any hawks that I have ever seen, but we do have an owl pair that live in our neighborhood.

Anyways we did this A frame design and I hate it. I run into the net all the time. I have to bend over to get around the coop. If I have any hairclips, a hat, or earrings in I somehow get snagged every time We already plan to square off the top next spring and I think it would be easy to set the back a little lower and put a pitched roof on it. We could do it with clear polycarbonate Like we did on our greenhouse and it wouldn’t obstruct the view but would definitely offer snow protection. They have a bunch of trees over their area so they do get some protection from them, but they definitely head under the coop if they get heavy rain. We built the coop up on the platform, so they wouldn’t lose any square footage in the run and would be able to go under it for shelter if need be.

 

[aart]

We have friends with the same heater and his water was fine even when his eggs kept freezing so I am hopeful the heater will be sufficient.

But do they have the same cups?

Maybe I missed it, but.....
Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, and then it's always there!

 

[UrbanSproutsandHarvest]

But do they have the same cups?

Maybe I missed it, but.....
Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, and then it's always there!
View attachment 3281141

Awesome! I didnt know that was there. I filled it in, but we are in Eastern Iowa. He also has the cups but his waterer is heated and under cover and closed in on 3 sides so its not exposed to wind like ours. We will have to see how it does. If not we will have swap out the hanging waterer for the winter.

 

[Bodhisan]

Coop looks nice. I might be way off base with perspective, but if you have six hens, I'd just use one (maybe two) roost boards - with a poop board underneath. It will make your job way, way easier, imho. And maybe I missed this, but do you have a bird net over your run?

 

[UrbanSproutsandHarvest]

Coop looks nice. I might be way off base with perspective, but if you have six hens, I'd just use one (maybe two) roost boards - with a poop board underneath. It will make your job way, way easier, imho. And maybe I missed this, but do you have a bird net over your run?

Hi yeah we followed the building plans but the 3 roost is probably overkill. We do have avian netting over the run which we will actually be taking out next spring. We want to square off the run next year because we hate the A frame design and all the bending over it causes. We are going to run the walls all the way up and put a polycarbonate roof on the run instead. We were out there looking at it last night, but decided we will change it in spring.