New coop

[U_Stormcrow]

This is what I get for posting before my coffee.

Sincere condolences. I feel that pain.

We are all agreed. Coop is "too small".

Pics would help, so we can identify where it needs more ventilation. Also, a Location - climate matters. The original "Amish" coops were intended for a particular area, and a particular management style - they are now sold nationwide in plenty of areas here their design is sub-optimal, and management practices differ. Further, a number of coops being sold as Amish design have modifications and alterations by the builders, often builders who know nothing about chicken keeping.

We can help best if we can see what we are dealing with.

 

[Iluveggers]

Agreed. And ventilation seems to be an issue in all of these “custom” coops. One by me was selling for $1200. Well built, but no ventilation beyond the window that would be closed in the winter in NY, directly in front of the roost bar.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Agreed. And ventilation seems to be an issue in all of these “custom” coops. One by me was selling for $1200. Well built, but no ventilation beyond the window that would be closed in the winter in NY, directly in front of the roost bar.

Sadly typical. Plus the top hinge on the nesting box access, where water runs right in - with an internal roosting bar at the same height as the nest boxes.

 

[linguini]

Good morning, I’m new to the forum. So don’t know if I’m in the right page. I ordered a extra large Amish made coop and want to know how to entice my chickens to roost there at night. I’ve read different articles and I don’t think its big enough to keep 15 chickens in it for 3 days. Would appreciate any advice! Thanks

As all the responses indicated - the coop itself is too small to keep all the chickens in on 24x7 basis. We've been in the same situation, and worse - I didn't learn about BYC forum until our chickens were 6 months old.
But all is not lost, since you do have the 10x20 fenced in yard.

1. all the grass will be gone very soon (days) in the fenced in yard.
2. you can
- provide roof or cover to keep rain/snow out of the fenced-in yard
- predator proof the fenced in yard area
- chickens should have free 24x7 access to the fenced in yard

Then your coop+yard combo structure will become an enlarged "chicken house", you can keep your feeder and waterer in the sheltered area instead of the coop. It'll make the coop much easier to clean!

Basically that's what we did! And we eventually fenced in a MUCH bigger extended area for our chickens to have more fun during the day. But every night they are locked into their "coop+run" construct. The coop becomes their "bedroom", and the predator proof run is their living room.

 

[3KillerBs]

Basically that's what we did! And we eventually fenced in a MUCH bigger extended area for our chickens to have more fun during the day. But every night they are locked into their "coop+run" construct. The coop becomes their "bedroom", and the predator proof run is their living room.

Photos?

For inspiration and education?

 

[saysfaa]

74/60/74 1/2
No run my chickens are in a large 200 sq Ft fenced area.

People often mean different things by the same term and the same things by different terms. Could you explain what you mean by a fenced area that is not a run?

Possibly, that fenced area could effectively be an open air coop with the Amish Coop part being the most sheltered part. There are sometimes simple ways to beef up fenced areas.

And to encourage the chickens to roost where we want them to - such as make sure they have enough clearance when they are on the roosts or to get on and off the roosts. That is why we all want pictures.

 

[linguini]

Photos?

For inspiration and education?

Not so much inspiration - but lots of "oh no, what do we do now?" situations and amateur solution!

Definitely not ideal, and it's sort of a layered mess. Neighbors are probably not happy with the sight they can see from the street! But our chickens are happy.

Some photos of the first year development:
First prefab coop - claimed to be able to house 6 chickens. ( lol, maybe for 6 baby chickens! ) we attached it to a cubic run we built, naively thought that'd be enough.
The chooks in the pictures were about 6 -7 weeks old

We immediately realized the coop was too small, and bought a second prefab coop.

We managed to connect the two coops to the cube and made a chicken complex. The coop doors are open to the cube all the time. Since the cube was not built strong enough to hold a roof, and we just couldn't figure out a way to make a real roof inside or on top of the structure, so we added an internal tarp in the cube, and leave feeder and waterer in the cube. The cube became their living room and they can access food and water 24x7. We do close the door to the cube (the red door) every night. I also pick up their poops in the coop daily.

To make the chickens happy, we added an extended yard, covered with bird net, as their day run. (~30x50)

Did all of these before I joined the BYC!!! Had we joined BYC before we purchased the prefabs, things would definitely have been done differently.

Photo of the two coops connected to the cube. (first coop is in the back)

Below are some photos of the "Living room" set up:

Waterer with heater base inside the cube
you can see the snow outside the cube in the backgorund!

Initially we had home-made PVC pipes in the cube as auto feeder. But since we work at home all the time due to pandemic, I removed the PVC feeder and replaced with a gutter as their feeder.

below is a photo of the cube+coop deep in the winter last year! There are days they
had to be "cooped" up in the complex.

We have 8 chickens, the two prefab coops with some modification provide just about enough floor space (32 sqft) to meet the chicken math requirements

The cube + the runs that came with the prefab coops added up to about 99 sqft run space, bare minimum if they have to be locked inside the complex.

 

[3KillerBs]

Not so much inspiration - but lots of "oh no, what do we do now?" situations and amateur solution!

Definitely not ideal, and it's sort of a layered mess. Neighbors are probably not happy with the sight they can see from the street! But our chickens are happy.

Some photos of the first year development:
First prefab coop - claimed to be able to house 6 chickens. ( lol, maybe for 6 baby chickens! ) we attached it to a cubic run we built, naively thought that'd be enough.
The chooks in the pictures were about 6 -7 weeks old

View attachment 2999780

We immediately realized the coop was too small, and bought a second prefab coop.

We managed to connect the two coops to the cube and made a chicken complex. The coop doors are open to the cube all the time. Since the cube was not built strong enough to hold a roof, and we just couldn't figure out a way to make a real roof inside or on top of the structure, so we added an internal tarp in the cube, and leave feeder and waterer in the cube. The cube became their living room and they can access food and water 24x7. We do close the door to the cube (the red door) every night. I also pick up their poops in the coop daily.

To make the chickens happy, we added an extended yard, covered with bird net, as their day run. (~30x50)

Did all of these before I joined the BYC!!! Had we joined BYC before we purchased the prefabs, things would definitely been done differently.

Photo of the two coops connected to the cube. (first coop is in the back)
View attachment 2999768

Below are some photos of the "Living room" set up:

Waterer with heater base inside the cube
you can see the snow outside the cube in the backgorund!

View attachment 2999781

Initially we had home-made PVC pipes in the cube as auto feeder. But since we work at home all the time due to pandemic, I removed the PVC feeder and replace with a gutter as their feeder.

View attachment 2999782

below is a photo of the cube+coop deep in the winter last year! There are days they
had to be "cooped" up in the complex.

View attachment 2999783


We have 8 chickens, the two prefab coops with some modification provide just about enough floor space (32 sqft) to meet the chicken math requirements

The cube + the runs that came with the prefab coops added up to about 99 sqft run space, bare minimum if they have to be locked inside the complex.

You did a great job working with what you had to make something that works!

 

[linguini]

You did a great job working with what you had to make something that works!

It's funny that we did not know about chicken math then - and just did everything by intuition, observation, trial and error, the numbers actually came out about right! whew!

One major problem with these "one step at a time" process, is that I have to live with "coop envy" all the time when reading BYC....

That said, the comforting part of chicken raising, though, is that there are always ways to remedy, and chickens don't care if their house look nice!

 

[Kayz]

I'm always nervous about size when I see coop measurements given in inches.

Do those dimensions include the nestboxes? Only the square footage of the usable floor counts when figuring out how many chickens it *really* holds.

Yes 3 that are attached on the outside