New coop!! Ideas? Suggestions?

[3KillerBs]

The top of your head with thank you.

Indeed: https://www.backyardchickens.com/posts/24739256

 

[Iluveggers]

One of the few benefits of being short!

 

[mowin]

Indeed: https://www.backyardchickens.com/posts/24739256

I remember that thread. Stupid cup hooks...

 

[Krugerrand]

Just one more thought... If you haven't planned out the height of the coop, plan now for it to be tall enough for you to stand up in. Same with the run. Your back will thank you. The top of your head with thank you.

With this in mind, if you plan on doing deep litter, note that the floor will get higher as you add to it.

 

[Bakbuk]

With this in mind, if you plan on doing deep litter, note that the floor will get higher as you add to it.

What exactly is this deep litter thing?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

What exactly is this deep litter thing?

Deep Litter is a method of management of the droppings, by way of slow decomposition, which helps to control odors and as a byproduct, produces most excellent garden soil.

In theory, it works the same way as a mulch pile, alternating brown and green, to produce conditions prime for rapid decomposition. Only chicken poops are already VERY high in nitrogen - so high they can "burn" sensitive plants - so you leave the green out. The chicken poop serves that purpose.

Practically, and preferably with a "floor" which is the ground, you pile up inches thick "brown" material - leaf litter, pine shavings, straw, even bark and dried tree trimmings (NOT! fresh green mulched trimmings - they will mold/mildew!), etc. The chicken's droppings fall into that, get mixed in by their scratching, and begins to slowly break down. Periodically, you throw more "brown" in, as it slowly builds up a layer of very good dirt underneath. Very infrequently, you shovel some of that dirt out to use elsewhere (roughly annually for me).

there are some excellent articles on it here on BYC, and I strongly recommend the practice, if you have a suitable coop for it, and a ready source of brown.

 

[3KillerBs]

With this in mind, if you plan on doing deep litter, note that the floor will get higher as you add to it.

Indeed.

I was stirring stuff up yesterday to break up the manure under the roosts and since only September I'm up at least 8-10 inches (my coop is on a slope, so I'm constantly having to throw stuff uphill).

 

[Bakbuk]

Dad wants to compromise roosting space for the birds, claiming that they don’t need a whole foot to themselves. I know he’d better not do that, but how can I convince him?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Dad wants to compromise roosting space for the birds, claiming that they don’t need a whole foot to themselves. I know he’d better not do that, but how can I convince him?

I'm uncertain that you can. However, you can build those roosts (assuming the hen house design permits it) as a "ladder", which will save some horizontal space. As is, the space closest to the walls often isn't used (chickens don't like to roost with one side up against the wall in my experience), so a series of short roosts is actually functionally worse than several long ones.

I'll see if I can't get a photo of what I did in my second coop. It works pretty well, but I short changed one dimension - I'll make sure I get it in the photo, for illustrative purposes, so your dad doesn't need to repeat my mistake.

OK, these are terrible pictures, sorry. Basically, I have a 10' wide "coop". One one side of it, I mounted 2x4s at an angle (you can see the one at right, behind the shovel) that I partially nothced out, then mounted 2x4s as perches (almost 10' long) that run from one side of the coop to the other. That gives me perch space for 30 birds, in theory. Usually, there's a smaller number, but in theory, 30 birds).

The tops of those perches ar 21", 24" , and 27" off the ground - plenty of room to get a rake or shovel underneath, not so high that a perched bird (I have medium and large breeds) has its head in the draft that starts at about 48" in height. None of the birds have trouble jumping up, no evidence of foot injuries jumping down. (Straw and leaf litter on the ground, but the goats walk thru constantly, so its not thickly padded).

Those are the things I did right.

Here's what I did wrong. The bar closest to the wall is too close, and birds seated on it end up, effectively, pooping on the bottom of the wall and the 2x4 wall framing - which will eventually damage the building. That distance is 10". The other two board are each spaced about 15" and 10" (respectively) from one another horizontally (plus 3" in vertical height), I don't have those issues.

When I rebuild it, I'll move the board currently closest to the wall out about 6" so the poop goes in the hay and the leaves where it belongs, instead of down the wall first. and I'll index the other boards off the first, at the same spacing (approx 12" O/C).

Hope that helps.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Updated with comments to the photos and dimensions, above.

Sorry about the pictures of my toes - those are my run "shoes". $3 from Walmart on clearance, all plastic. Easy to bleach, easy to throw away when bleach no longer satisfies.