New to the game, no pun intended

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penny1960 said:
You have pretty good winters insulate well lots of ventilation though
think of how many birds do you want
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Welcome to BYC! And yes think of how many birds you want and +3 for extras lol. General rule of thumb is 1ft of roosting space per bird and you want at least a foot of space between the bar and a wall so they can rest comfortably. There are pros and cons to round roosts vs square roosts so recommend that you do some homework on that before you decide.

1 nesting box per 3 hens, add them to the outside so they don't subtract from the inside footprint and also for easier access. Nesting boxes should be below the height of the roosting bars. If the nesting boxes are higher than the roosting bars, the chickens may want to sleep (and leave droppings) in them.

You want plenty of ventilation, but you don't want drafts around their roosting areas. I used expanding insulation foam to fill thin gaps, trimmed with a box cutter, and then painted the outside same as the walls so the chickens wouldn't notice it and peck at it. Use with caution because you DON'T want chickens eating it.

I highly recommend linoleum on the floor, makes cleaning easier and protects the floor. Sand is a flooring option for coop or run, check into it if you want. You can also look into removable poop trays to be placed below the roosts. Also you want the coop door to be small for just the chickens and a bigger door for access and mucking out.

Every hinged opening should have a secure lock. Hardware cloth... secure it with screws and washers, staples can be pulled out or loosened over time. Chicken wire only keeps chickens contained but not predators out.

Good luck, interested to see the finished coop!
 
OmeletteYouWin said:
We are new to the chicken raising lifestyle. We reside in southwest Ohio, outside of Cincinnati.Any tips or secrets would greatly be appreciated. We currently have 6 chicks now(3 Rhode Island Reds, and 3 Amberlinx) and they are doing great. We do feel a little overwhelmed by the coop building prospect. We need to build a permanent coop, so any ideas from the crowd would be great! Thanks
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Welcome to BYC you picked a great community to learn from so ask as many questions as you need too and coop building go to the coop building and design feed on here it has great ideas and plans it will make your build a little less stressful and always make your coop bigger than you need cause chicken math is real
 
Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.
Consider converting a shed into a coop.
You don't need insulation and you don't need to foam in gaps around windows. Just keep drafts strong enough to open feathers off roosted birds and they'll do well. You'll need lots of ventilation that is open year round to keep the birds dry. Dry birds are warm birds.
 
DobieLover said:
You don't need insulation and you don't need to foam in gaps around windows. Just keep drafts strong enough to open feathers off roosted birds and they'll do well. You'll need lots of ventilation that is open year round to keep the birds dry. Dry birds are warm birds.
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Wow. " You want plenty of ventilation, but you don't want drafts around their roosting areas. I used expanding insulation foam to fill thin gaps " IE thin gaps from the wall joints not windows. By the way OP you don't have to do a lot of things. I mentioned foam because it was what I used to prevent a large draft/significant wind advisory situation from being an issue for my birds in winter time. And to be more clear you don't need sand and you don't need poop trays and you don't need linoleum and you don't need screws and washers with hardware etc those were all suggestions even the foam idea to take and leave as you will.
 

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