Odd Slab Already on Property

[Highland Peach]

Hi, I am a new chicken owner as of this morning! Although I have been lurking and researching for some time, I still have a few questions.

! - I will start building my coop asap but the size will be limited since I am using a slab already in place. The coop will hold 12 chickens. Problem - I have had my chicks for one day and I am already addicted, I've got the bug, I'm toast! So, when I want more than twelve, what do I do? I could build a second coop but I am not sure how that works. Two coops sharing one run? If so, will the chickens go back to their particular coop, will they try to crowd into one coop ... ? I'm trying to get answers before construction starts.

2 - I already have a poured concrete slab on my property and I was thinking it would be the perfect place for my coop. However, it is an odd slab. On each of the four sides, there is a poured 4" wide lip that is a few inches high. I figured I could just build 2" x 4" walls on top of the lips/edges. My concern is cleaning it out since the floor will be below grade, below door/entry level. Anyway, I was strongly considering using the deep litter method and am unsure how the poured edges might affect this. A pond form as a big litter box? There is also a one foot wide poured section on the outside of one edge. Just an area for potted plants or should that be incorporated into the coop construction? A different idea might be to make the slab into a shed that connects to a raised coop. Then I could access the coop and nesting boxes from inside the shed and have plenty of storage too. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[manwithnoname]

With the price of new concrete and that slab being in what looks like good condition, I'd say Score! I believe that slab was for a building and your 2X4 walls do go on that raised lip. the small slab outside the large slab was were the door used to be (so you don't have to stand in the mud or create a hole there). as far as the two coop idea I'm still to green with chickens to answer that. but the pros might also want to know the size of that slab? i just found this website last week and i can tell you that you came to the right place! check out the coop designs page. good luck I'm sure you'll get a lot of great advice here

 

[Highland Peach]

Thank you! The measurements inside the edges are 9.5' x 8'. The extra poured edge that is outside the raised lip (south side of pic) runs the entire length of one of the 9.5' sides. So accounting for walls and storage, I'm thinking it will only hold a dozen chickens. Maybe I could add raised wings to the main structure?

 

[wildorchid053]

two coops on the same run will be problems if the two groups of chickens weren't raised together.. i would raise your first coop about 2' off the ground and that gives them run space under the coop as well as what your extending out.. then when you get ready for the next coop wether it is side by side or at differents ends you can divided the run into two sections with a wall inbetween and they can share it.. by putting some of the run underneath they get more run and protection from the elements .. rain.. sun.. etc. we built our first coop the red one with a large run knowing later when we added more chickens they would share the run.

 

[patandchickens]

Unless there are large cracks or ruined sections under where the leaf debris etc is covering the slab, it looks great to me. I would absolutely say USE IT! A slab floor is TERRIFIC for a coop, cna't get any more predatorproof and mudproof than that

For sure make the coop cover the whole slab (although b/c of the lip I kind of doubt you'd consider doing otherwise anyhow).

As far as your concerns about it forming a pond, what does it do now? I can't see why it'd do any much different inside a building. If high water tables do not flood the interior slab area, then you should be good to go.

And you know what, if *worst case scenario* you built your coop and then discovered you DID have rising ground moisture that sometimes flooded it, it would not be difficult with that lip there to add some fill (tamped stonedust or screenings would be my choice, alone or topped with large well-set pavers) to raise the floor up above the waterline. So if you guessed wrong it would still not be a tragedy, and I cannot see any possible reason why you could not get it to where you can do deep litter.

I can't see any reason why the slightly recessed concrete floor would make it hard to clean. The wheelbarrow would go down *bump!* 4" if you had no litter in there, but big deal

Quote:
I would suggest building your coop so that section is INSIDE the coop walls, otherwise you may get some (in this case very minor) water tracking in under the wall when rain pools on the protruding part of hte slab. OTOH I suppose you might put it outside the coop wall but *inside* the run, so that the chickens have that 12" concrete apron to hang out under the roof overhang and reduce the extent to which you get mud forming in the high-traffic areas there (esp. around the popdoor).

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Highland Peach]

Thanks to all! I've got some ideas and am drafting a plan now. I'll let you know how it goes.