Our coop plans

[kimbalaya]

My first chicks are on order, due to arrive the week of June 6 - we are moving and need the extra time to finish moving and building to get ready for them. I would love some input on the coop my DH and I have designed. We have a dozen chicks on order - 4 BOs, 4 BRs, 3 SLWs and 1 BLRW. We've pored over all the pages and pages of coop pictures here at BYC, and taken ideas from several, combined them into what we want.

The outside is going to look like a little cottage, with a front door from a house as the entry to the storage area. There was one left at our property - it has diagonal gridded glass panes in the top half, exactly what I wanted! Just needs a little sanding and finishing. There was also a portable utility sink left at the property - we plan to run a water source over to the coop, but it will just be for rinsing off hands or eggs mostly, so it will just drain out in the open.

The nesting boxes will be nearly flush with the inside of the coop wall, protruding out into the storage area, where there will be access lids. The top half of that wall will be screen, the bottom will be solid around the nesting boxes. The door into the coop will also be screened at the top - and it's another recycled find. A friend does the maintenance at a bunch of rentals owned by a real estate company and had to replace a door because there was a crack in the top half. We'll just cut that section out and frame it in with a screen.

There's a storage cabinet across from the nesting boxes, that will be where we keep food and/or supplies.

The front door of the "cottage" will be facing west, with the long sides of the coop on the north and south, with windows on both sides for cross ventilation when it's warm. The run is on the north and east ends of the coop.

Any input/suggestions?

 

[ChanceRider]

No suggestions, I'm struggling with trying to design my own new coop that will have 3 separate coop/pens under one roof. All I can say is that I like your design... especially the covered run and attached storage space! Nice job... hope you'll post pics when you're done.

 

[chicks4kids]

Very nice design! It's always fun planning it out!!

My suggestion...with 12 birds coming you want at least 1 ft. per bird for roosting...by looking at your pic, it looks to be about 8 ft. Also, if you put the roosts longer along either the back wall or the side wall and going the same direction, you could have a poop board underneath, which will keep your coop clean alot longer than just letting it fall to the floor. You can make your doorways large enough for a wheelbarrow to fit through and also make your poop board high enough for the wheelbarrow to fit under it as well. This will make it super easy for cleaning.

One other thing you may want to incorporate is some type of feeder that fits possibly under the nest boxes that you can fill from your dry storage area. That will eliminate having to go inside the coop to refill their feed.

It looks fantastic though! I'm in the process of transforming a shed into a coop as well! Good luck!

 

[Manok-Tao]

Very nice!!!!!
From my view I would only change the gate to the run to open in, rather than out as drawn in your plans.
Will the coop have power?

Don't forget to include ventallation, lots of it...no I mean lots of it

good luck it looks great and hope to see some pixs soon

 

[team_realtree]

Wow thats nice and big....your storage area is bigger than my coop

 

[chicks4kids]

Quote:
If the gate to the run opens in, you'll have to worry about the height of the door...meaning, with whatever bedding you're using in the coop, imagine opening the door to the inside, shoving bedding or what not out of your way. Opening out might be better... then you could just run a 6 inch board across the front to keep the litter in when you open the door. JMO

 

[snowflake]

like it, very nice! almost exactly what my Hubby made for our chicks. We were finishing it when the weather turned very cold, the nest box went on the floor in the main room and the hens didn't like it at all so I put it(one long box with 3 nest areas)in the storage area I put a blanket over the door way between as we didn't have the door up yet, the hens think its great,they have their own nesting room. The roosters don't seem to go in there at all. the hens go lay their eggs in private then go back to the main "parlor" ......chickens are so much fun! we do have a poop board under the roosts it does keep things cleaner and gives the birds a little more floor room.

 

[JRchickchick]

How about tucking your nest boxes under the window on the left, and make them hang on the exterior (about 1' out is all), so you can grab the eggs without going inside. That's what I'm planning, so my teenage daughter can get the eggs without stepping in chicken poo. Check out this link with a 6x8 free chicken coop plan...
http://www.buildeazy.com/chicken_coop_1.html

Looks like you'll have plenty of windows, which will mean plenty of winter light coming in, and then plenty of ventilation during the summer.
Looking good, oh, my, I just saw that you'll have running water in there too! FANCY!

 

[kimbalaya]

Oh, yes, I'm planning to have poop boards! And I'll make sure we have at least 12 feet of roosts - DH had another long one drawn in above the nesting boxes but I didn't want it there so I erased it on the picture

As far as the nesting boxes protruding outside vs. into the storage area - the storage area is a completely separated area and theoretically will remain clean - the door to the coop will be closed unless we are going in and out! Because we live in Oregon, I wanted to be able to go indoors into a clean area to collect the eggs, especially if it's raining or even snowing. Don't laugh - there will even be a covered front porch so we can stamp our feet off on the welcome mat before going inside.

The door between the coop and storage areas opens into the storage area because I plan to have a 6 inch board across the bottom, for keeping bedding in place. Same for the gate on the run - there will be a 6 inch board/kick plate to keep bedding inside when the gate opens outward.

Yes, we'll have power run out there also - I'm married to a handyman/jack-of-all-trades - he can run the water as well as wire the whole place up for power.

It didn't get on the plans yet, but I was planning to have a door from the coop section on the outside, I think on the south side between the roost bars and the storage area, for cleaning out the bedding. The kind that's really just a cut-out of the walls, on hinges, that just has some trim around it but it flush mounted with the wall, not in a frame. The coop is going to be about 10 feet from the fence on that side (we have one acre), so there will be plenty of room to go along that side of the building with a wheelbarrow. And I'm planning to have a compost bin somewhere out there behind the run, and could just go right on past the run then to empty it onto that.

Thanks for all the input - keep it coming!

Edited to add: I forgot to mention, the storage area will have a wood floor (with linoleum probably) but inside the coop area will be dirt floor with bedding on it, probably deep litter method, even though I plan on poop boards, so it will be a small step down from the storage area. I like the feeder suggestion for refilling from the storage area, too, thanks!

 

[Intheswamp]

Looks like you've got a good plan. Here's some thoughts.

I would re-think just letting your sink drain out onto the ground....it would be better to dig a hole, even if no bigger than a 5-gallon bucket, and fill it with a gravel mix of different sizes and run your drain pipe into it just below the ground surface. Over a period of time a drain just going onto the ground will make a mucky spot, especially if soap is used...the frenchie drain will help keep things a bit neater.

You mentioned that you wanted a "clean" place to come into to pick up eggs, etc.,. Realize that the dust from the coop will easily come through the screen (above nest boxes) that you have between the coop area and the storage area.

You mentioned also that the door from the storage area to the coop will open into the storage area because you'll have a lip in the doorway to retain the litter in the coop. If you want the door to open into the coop simply cut the door off at the bottom so that it swings over the lip.

I'm a little concerned about your wood floor. For some reason I don't envision it being elevated very high and a framed floor that is close to the ground is a natural breeding ground for rats. What would be nice is if you could raise the floor up maybe 24" and extend the (in your pictures) lefthand run fence all the way down even with the lower lefthand corner of your building. Then turn the fence and attach it to that corner of the building and finish fencing in the perimeter of the raised storage room. This would give you roughly an additional 48sqft of open run space and another 48sqft of "sheltered" shade/rain area under the storage room and also would elevate the flooring to help keep the rats and varmits away. You could move the existing outside run door up even with the front of the storage room and even add a people-door from the coop into the run. Plus raising the floor would help keep it away from dampness. Be aware that raising the floor will also raise the height of the nestboxes that you have opening into the storage room, but, this should not cause a problem being as the boxes are mostly flush against the wall of the coop and would be difficult for the chickens to roost on. Just some thoughts.

The outside flush door into your coop area...make it waterproof and seal all edges well...a couple of pieces of tin for a small overhead porch would be nice.

Pay attention to your roof run-off. Divert it away from the run to the best of your ability. Even adding guttering and piping it away would be good. A 10'x10' roof will shed over 60 gallons of water in a 1" rainfall. You don't want to create a soggy mess in the run everytime it comes a shower.

Where you live in Oregon...is it rainy? Definitely pay attention to details regarding weather/water-proofing.

I hope you don't mind but I edited your plans to show some of what I mentioned. As I mentioned before...just some thoughts.

Best wishes,
Ed