Not sure what to look for in a set of coop plans, can you help?

[CluckinFun]

I am going to have 3 chickens in an urban backyard. I have an open outdoor area with about 125 square feet that the chickens can have to themselves. I need to build a coop that is on a concrete slab, though. I can use whatever material I need for the base, but during the day would allow them to the outdoor area to roam around. Is this feasible for 3 chickens? Also, where might I find what should be included in any plans? I'm wondering what I should plan for coop square footage, what they need, et cetera.

My coop will essentially be on the backside of a shed, and the area they'll be at during the day will be adjacent to the shed (meaning I need to design a coop that allows them to turn the corner to their outside area). Any ideas or help would be so greatly appreciated.

 

[crikescrikes]

<<but during the day would allow them to the outdoor area to roam around.>>
<<and the area they'll be at during the day will be adjacent to the shed (meaning I need to design a coop that allows them to turn the corner to their outside area). >>

Would the outside area be off the concrete pad and outside of the coop -- free range?

I've given ideas and suggestions to several people on how to build their first coop. One thing I ALWAYS recommend is DO NOT USE WOOD if you want your coop to last for many years with minimal maintenance -- and minimal pest problems. Wood absorbs moisture, odors, promotes mildew, mold, mites (not necessarily bird mites) that don't live on birds but thrive on wood and often crawl up your shoes/pant leg. Also, wood is very difficult to clean. Those who used wood have come back and told me later that they will rebuild with pvc.

If you search the internet for coops, you'll see many beautiful wooden designs -- many of which look like houses for humans!! If you notice, most of the photos are of their wooden coops when it is brand new....with no chicken poop on the wood. I think there is a reason many people don't show detailed interior photos of their wooden coop after 5 years of use. If you haven't raised chickens before, something you need to know is chickens poop all day long!! (exaggerating)

All the people I know who built their own coops have told me the wish they would have made a different design, so my advice is to not spend too much time and money on your first coop because you'll want to make changes after a couple of months. I made a coop out of a used 8X8 pop up tent I found on craigslist for cheap (the tarp was damaged, but I didn't use the tarp). I anchored down the 4 corners with stakes, then wrapped the entire thing with 1"X1" vinyl mesh, and on one side I used welded wire -- so I could install a door on that side. I like the pop-up tent idea so much that I build a 2nd one. The second one has a little "tunnel" that connects to a separate room (the brooder). It is difficult to give you ideas of how to design your coop because I am not sure of your layout of the concrete pad and the "outside" area. Anyway, here is a video of my pop-up frame coop with the tunnel to a separate room, and a connection to another 8X8 pop-up frame coop. Maybe you could make a tunnel to the adjacent area outside?? Mine has a door at the tunnel, to keep them on lock down if needed. During your first 2 or 3 months of having your first coop, take notes of how you'd like your next coop to be. Try not to cut the screen when building your first coop so you can reuse it for your second, and permanent coop.

Good luck. I'm sure you will get lots of good advice and ideas from others at backyardchickens.com.

 

[CluckinFun]

Thanks, Crikes...you've given me a lot to think about!

Actually, to restructure the question -- is there a good resource that lays out what is really needed in a coop/run? I want three chickens, so my research tells me I need to be looking at about 12 square feet for a coop and 24-30 square feet for a run (speaking about minimums). If this is correct, what are the design features that I need to have in plans if my goals are:

Happy/healthy chicks
Ease of cleaning & care
Built with materials that won't rot in a year (to your point of most woods)

If I had a run of dirt (direct contact with the soil) below the coop is this more ideal? Sorry for all the noob questions--theres so much great knowledge online, but I feel so saturated I'm not sure how to proceed!

 

[crikescrikes]

Don't get overwhelmed with all of the excellent info online. Remember to keep it simple.

How much are you spending on your coop? . Also Google image for :"chicken dust baths". And Google image: "5 gallon bucket for chicken nest" (don't use a wood nest box)

happy/healthy chicks -- Chickens need & love to take dust baths, so direct contact with soil and exposure to sunlight is important. Also give them access to lots of greens. To keep them healthy remember fresh water is more important than food. Have a minimum of 2 sources of water -- one serves as a backup in case the other one empties or gets contaminated. One source of water should be a bucket with a water nipple for chickens, and the other source should be automatically filled by a timer such as your landscape drip irrigation. Don't buy fancy waterers -- there are lots of great ideas online for easy to make waterers. Here is an idea for a feeder:

ease cleaning - use pvc and make the height at least as tall as you. You should be able to walk inside of your chicken's coop. Other than to ease cleaning, a high coop is also important so you can place a roost at least 6 feet above the ground. Chickens love to sleep up high -- they can't see at night, so I believe they sleep up high to lessen the chance of getting attacked by predators. Fast Forward to minute 2:50 in this video:

Also, If you happen to have a couple of raised garden beds about 5X10 feet in your backyard, it would help ease cleaning by simply making the base of your coop 5X10 feet and placing it over the garden bed -- and alternating the coop between the 2 beds every few months. The manure would help replenish the soil, and the chickens would work the soil by their scratching and digging.

Built with materials that won't rot in a year - use pvc frame, and a dirt floor. Google image searches for: "pvc chicken tractors"

Have fun.

 

[fiddlebanshee]

I agree with post 4 wholehartedly, but have a couple of observations:

I have built all my chicken structures out of wood, and nothing has rotted within the year. Wood is versatile, easy to work with and can be used to achieve a variety of looks. Combine pressure treated where it touches the ground with non-treated for everything else and there is no problem with rot, until much, much later.

Plastics, including PVC will also rot, or deteriorate due to UV radiation and below freezing temps. If you go that route (and I have) make sure you use the grey electrical pvc which is more uv resistant. PVC is also very flexible, and I would never use it to build an entire coop. It's great material for a run frame, though.

Roosts, -- different breeds of chickens like roosts at different heights. My ancona's would go up 12 ft if they could, my heavier breeds - not so much, they lumber up the ramp and don't bother with jumping or flying. So depending on what kind you get -- provide roosts at varying heights, otherwise you may end up with birds either sleeping on the floor or in the nest boxes.

 

[CluckinFun]

This is all incredibly helpful, and I'm learning so much here in such a short time span! Fiddle, thank you for the note about species as well--that's something I need to sink some more research into as well.

Somebody turned me on to this 4' x 8' set of plans at MyPetChicken, but it doesn't really show the coop. Has anybody used plans like this before? If so, would it be sufficient for 3 chickens (who really won't have too many regular opportunities outside of the coop/run enclosure)?

 

[fiddlebanshee]

You may want to check out the book "reinventing the chicken coop". Detailed plans, materials lists and instructions. Some of the designs are a bit out there, but in all, a very useful book.

The mypetchicken coop would imho only house about 2 chickens. The actual coop size is only by my estimate 4x2 ft. The rest of the measurements is for the run. 7.6'x4' for the run size is 30 sq ft so would fit 3 chickens. You could make the whole thing work for 3 chickens if you made the coop section a bit larger. But what you need to ask yourself is: "how soon will I want more than 3 chickens". From experience I can tell you, chickenmath WILL happen, whether you want it or not.

There are similar coops on this site. Have you looked at the coop section linked in the top bar? Look for something that is called the "Wichita Cabin coop". It is similar to the MPC plans but the base is 5x10 in stead of 4x7.5. The thread I linked has construction details

Best of luck!