Newb13's coop

[newb13]

There is a good chance I don't know what I'm doing. In a short period of time I looked at a lot of pictures and read what I could, I tried to understand chicken care, I looked at the wood available and I started building. My goal was to make a cheaper coop that wasn't too small. I worry about heat in the summer so I have a removable tray on the bottom to allow it to be completely open and allow good air flow. It also has a vent near the top. It is 4'x4' for the coop, 1'x4' for the nesting boxes, and 4'x8' for the run. 4'x13' total footprint. I also worry about the cold in the winter, so I want to be able to put in a heat lamp in for the worst of it. I'm still working on a few parts and I would like any advice. Let me know what you think.




And here are the chicks

 

[cknkids]

looks great! May need more ventilation? Also it looks like the run is enclosed in chicken wire. Raccoons can reach through this and rodents can crawl through and larger animals can break it. I was surprised that chicken wire is more for keeping chickens in then predators out. Consider upgrading to 1/2" hardware cloth. Also did you predator proof for digging predators?

 

[Stumpy]

It does look very nice, but I have to second cknkids's advice about ventilation and predator-proofing.

 

[4 the Birds]

+1

Looks nice and you have some building skills! I am not a fan at all of floor trays or mesh floors. I have found that solid floors work well with plenty of bedding material. Vents up high and on all sides would be ideal. Ones with flaps that you can open or close with the weather. Your pop door looks kinda small. If you decide to add a lamp for the winter months then I would make it small wattage and still have a few vents open to move out moist air. Clever idea to add the conc blocks around the run to deter predator digging. A determined digger may still be able to tunnel under but I am not sure. A wire mesh skirt pinned on the ground would allow grass to grow up through it and would probably look better and may be more secure (that would also protect the door.... I noticed that there is no protection from digging there). You may also want to consider a few solid boards on the run roof for added shade during the hot and sunny seasons. Nice Job!

 

[newb13]

Thanks for the suggestions and compliments.
I can always add more vents.
I planned on putting a tarp over the run for shade, then I started trying to think of something more solid.
Our cats are the biggest predator we have to worry about unless a dog gets though the outer fence. The cats take care of the rodents. And otherwise I've only seen small skunks. Do you think I still need to upgrade the wire?

 

[cknkids]

It's a cost and effort thing. If you can, I would. Raccoons are in my area and most people don't even know it. I know that most areas have some type of nocturnal predator your probably unaware of, or even a neighbors cat. A friend lost a hen from a raccoon reaching through and pulling it apart. My kids & I would be hart broken to find we'd lost one or all our girls from an attack that could of been prevent by stronger wire. Our first tractor had chicken wire and we now use it to protect plants from the chickens.

 

[HandsomeRyan]

... did you predator proof for digging predators?

In the picture you can see that they added concrete block around the entire foundation to deter this.

I will respectfully disagree with those who preach that you must use the (much more expensive) hardware cloth. Plenty of people use chicken wire with no problem at all. Predators getting through chicken wire is something to be aware of but it isn't the absolute death sentence that many here make it out to be.

Coop looks great. I agree that another vent or two on the top of the front would keep it from turning into a solar oven in the summer.

 

[newb13]

It's been a hot summer but the coop works like I hoped it would.
I added a divider with four holes cut into it, it is placed between the coop and nesting boxes. This fixed two problems. I had hens sleeping in the nesting boxes and now they don't. I had hens laying eggs on the ground and now they lay in the nesting boxes.


It took just over a month and a half from the first egg to the first time we had 7 eggs in one day, all 7 hens.


Here they are.


The next project is to expand the run.