Our first ever (coop) build!

[newchickychick]

To be fair, it’s our first build… at all! Please do be gentle with feedback as we really put a lot of time, money, and love into it - but we absolutely do want to get feedback on how to make it better! We still need to fill in the bitty cracks in the wall, which we are in process of right this very moment!
This is our first time owning chickens (our adventure started this April!) and I knew chicken math was going to hit hard. It’s very simple but I really wanted something we put our own elbow grease into. I wasn’t needing pretty - just safe, functional, and spacious. Adding some of the work in progress pics in to show ventilation (this is being reinforced/covered by hardware cloth to prevent predators from getting in but still allow for good ventilation)
We’re certainly no experts, but the chickens seem really happy with it! We plan to add a “loft” and are definitely working on brooding boxes. These guys are about 9 weeks now, so won’t be laying for a while yet so we haven’t rushed it so we can be satisfied with the design.
Also as a note, they’re in there for a week so they can get used to it while we wrap up building the run, hence food/water being in there.
Did we do okay for our first ever coop? do y’all have advice on how to improve it?
As mentioned we’re working on the cracks and adding hardware cloth over the ventilation at the roof.
We do plan to add: a second layer of walls on top of the exposed ones very soon (we’re adding electricity into the coop and the electrician said it would be easiest if we leave it off for now so he can plan on how to get electricity all the way out there - we want an AC/heat unit to make sure they will be safe both in summer and winter!), shingles to the roof, nesting boxes of course, the “loft” with added little roosting perches, and we plan to add some sort of thin outside wall to make it look nicer, and a permanent door. More windows, too! But is there anything else we’re missing? Even though the chickens seem to adore it, we want to be sure they feel very happy and enriched.
The roosting bars so far are just the start - we plan to add some more depending on how many chickens end up in there total and the needs of their breeds for height.

Before we added chickens and fixed the big roof gap! But to show our ventilation better (hopefully).

Chicken tax time.

(Big Man - one of the crosses - an absolute sweetie!)

Gadget (the EE) and friends! Please, be a pullet.

Zip and Zoom! Bet you can’t guess how they earned those names.

Featuring: Pretty much everyone, mid-zoomies.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

It's very roomy. That's the best thing.

You may want to add a few more roost options since you have room.

I personally would add more windows. Chickens need good ventilation year round as they put out a lot of dander, and good air exchange is healthy year round.

I would also not do AC and heating. Chickens don't require both of those, and it can mess up the acclimating process.

Since there's so much room I might section off a place for feed storage, and a separation pen as that always comes in handy for brooding new chicks, and removing sick or trouble making birds.

 

[newchickychick]

It's very roomy. That's the best thing.

You may want to add a few more roost options since you have room.

I personally would add more windows. Chickens need good ventilation year round as they put out a lot of dander, and good air exchange is healthy year round.

I would also not do AC and heating. Chickens don't require both of those, and it can mess up the acclimating process.

Since there's so much room I might section off a place for feed storage, and a separation pen as that always comes in handy for brooding new chicks, and removing sick or trouble making birds.

Thank you so much! We actually have a shed that will be right at the start of the run we plan to use for tools, food, medical supplies, etc. for chicken needs! That way they get the whole run of the coop. We definitely will be adding plenty more roosting areas, including up on the “loft” area we want to add in! I’m so excited for that part.

Yes, definitely adding in more windows! Though I didn’t think heating/AC could be a negative! Will it be too hard to regulate regardless with so much ventilation?

We were thinking about doing a brooder built into an additional 8’x12’ we’re going to have as our “introductory” coop. So once they’re old enough to go outside, they’d be added to that brooder then let into the actual “coop” part as we started the see-no-touch portion. Of course that’s only for chicks added in ourselves - we got a handful of broody-prone breeds (Turkens in our brooder right now!) we’re hoping will end up decently reliable to hatch our own chicks so they can get a more natural introduction. But I also really like the idea of it being in the big coop. That does the see-no-touch introduction a lot quicker! We will toy with plans for that and see which we find most convenient.

How many more windows would you think? We definitely want a couple larger ones, but would you recommend more than 2?

 

[Appalachickens]

That's a big coop! I bet they love all the room. When I was researching to build, the general consensus is not to heat unless you have an Arctic-like climate. And maybe a fan for hot days rather than an AC? I'm guessing our climates aren't terribly dissimilar (depending on where in VA you are), and I don't have heat or air - just lots and lots of ventilation because it's an open coop.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Yes, definitely adding in more windows! Though I didn’t think heating/AC could be a negative! Will it be too hard to regulate regardless with so much ventilation?

It isn't necessary. Not sure what type of climate you have, but chickens will grow in a thick coat of feathers in winter and it will thin out during the warmer months. Adding extra heat or air conditioning will make it so that process doesn't happen and can leave them vulnerable if the power goes out, or someone goes wrong. If they acclimate they will be able to handle the temperature in most instances.

Here we house ours with as much ventilation as possible. In winter without proper ventilation the coop will fill with moisture from the birds respiration and it will cause frostbite. In summer they can quickly overheat in a stuffy coop. They also would be stressed by the temperature change of going outside from a heated or cooled coop, and I cannot imagine how much that would cost year round.

How many more windows would you think? We definitely want a couple larger ones, but would you recommend more than 2?

As many as possible. South facing windows are great for winter to let in the light. It's also good to be able to open up the windows in summer so the breeze can blow through. My shed didn't have any windows, and we have since add a few on each side for light and ventilation.

 

[newchickychick]

That's a big coop! I bet they love all the room. When I was researching to build, the general consensus is not to heat unless you have an Arctic-like climate. And maybe a fan for hot days rather than an AC? I'm guessing our climates aren't terribly dissimilar (depending on where in VA you are), and I don't have heat or air - just lots and lots of ventilation because it's an open coop.

Oh thank you so much! Power for a fan then and lights in case we need urgent night health checks, but no AC/heat? We definitely want to do what makes most sense and helps them the most! We did have one AWFUL snowstorm last year where it was reliably like 0 degrees for a week. It didn’t get above 20 in our house, which is why I leaned to worrying about it. But we do plan to insulate when we add in the “outer” inside wall.

They really do! They have two modes now: zoomies and sleeping to recharge from zoomies. I’m so happy they’re all SO different but get along so well. They were so sweet when I went in earlier to hang out and make sure they had the waterers filled. Yesterday they thought the roosting bar was the devil, and today they’ve learned they can not only sleep on it, but glide down off of it and hit the ground running.

 

[newchickychick]

It isn't necessary. Not sure what type of climate you have, but chickens will grow in a thick coat of feathers in winter and it will thin out during the warmer months. Adding extra heat or air conditioning will make it so that process doesn't happen and can leave them vulnerable if the power goes out, or someone goes wrong. If they acclimate they will be able to handle the temperature in most instances.

Here we house ours with as much ventilation as possible. In winter without proper ventilation the coop will fill with moisture from the birds respiration and it will cause frostbite. In summer they can quickly overheat in a stuffy coop. They also would be stressed by the temperature change of going outside from a heated or cooled coop, and I cannot imagine how much that would cost year round.



As many as possible. South facing windows are great for winter to let in the light. It's also good to be able to open up the windows in summer so the breeze can blow through. My shed didn't have any windows, and we have since add a few on each side for light and ventilation.

This is SO informative, thank you! We will definitely skip the heat/AC unit, add some insulation when we add in the extra layer of inside wall, and definitely add more windows! Really nice to know about south facing. I hadn’t thought of that! We will start marking out some window plans this week!

 

[Appalachickens]

Oh thank you so much! Power for a fan then and lights in case we need urgent night health checks, but no AC/heat? We definitely want to do what makes most sense and helps them the most! We did have one AWFUL snowstorm last year where it was reliably like 0 degrees for a week. It didn’t get above 20 in our house, which is why I leaned to worrying about it. But we do plan to insulate when we add in the “outer” inside wall.

They really do! They have two modes now: zoomies and sleeping to recharge from zoomies. I’m so happy they’re all SO different but get along so well. They were so sweet when I went in earlier to hang out and make sure they had the waterers filled. Yesterday they thought the roosting bar was the devil, and today they’ve learned they can not only sleep on it, but glide down off of it and hit the ground running.

Being able to wire the place is very useful - having a light really helps and it's also nice to be able to plug in things like a heated waterer in the winter. And I also plugged in a chicken cam so I can monitor!

Hopefully, some folks from colder states will weigh in here about warmth in the winter.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Oh thank you so much! Power for a fan then and lights in case we need urgent night health checks, but no AC/heat? We definitely want to do what makes most sense and helps them the most! We did have one AWFUL snowstorm last year where it was reliably like 0 degrees for a week. It didn’t get above 20 in our house, which is why I leaned to worrying about it. But we do plan to insulate when we add in the “outer” inside wall.

We get down to -20's F most winters here. Sometimes for weeks at a time. My chickens do fine. We always have an east facing door open so critters can come and go.

Sounds like you need more heat in your house. Did your pipes freeze?

 

[newchickychick]

We get down to -20's F most winters here. Sometimes for weeks at a time. My chickens do fine. We always have a east facing door open so critters can come and go.

Sounds like you need more heat in your house. Did your pipes freeze?

Oh wonderful to know! I was worried as some of our breeds are much more cold hardy than others. Since they’re our first, we went with “surprises” from hatcheries to learn what we do and don’t like as they’re primarily pets with the benefit of breakfast. But I realized after that with our widely varying climate (0 or less winters, 95-105 summers) I maybe needed to plan for comfort. It’s a serious relief to know us continuing to work on good ventilation will really help them!

Oh, we had a power outage. I meant to mention that part. We now have a generator though. We even had a power outage today, like an hour after I started our first ever egg incubation. The generator kicks on within 60 seconds tops of an outage! So thankfully this winter won’t be bad for us!