Our first ever (coop) build!

[oldhenlikesdogs]

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!

I would be more concerned with the summer heat. Using fans as mentioned by @Appalachickens is a good idea if they look like they are getting too warm.

 

[newchickychick]

I would be more concerned with the summer heat. Using fans as mentioned by @Appalachickens is a good idea if they look like they are getting too warm.

Yes, definitely! I was so happy when I stepped in today (it was 93 here) that it did NOT feel like 93 inside. We also built it under the shade of a few trees, but they are veeeeery small trees and angled to where they wouldn’t fall on the coop if they somehow fell. Hubby was also jumping up and down like a fiend in his steel toed work boots on top of the roof to make sure it was sturdy. I was nervous, he was having a blast.

 

[RojoMarz]

I'd add poop boards with roosts over them. They will help so much in keeping the coop floor clean. You can then fence in under the poop board and use the space for brooder, sick bay, broody breaker, etc.

 

[newchickychick]

Thanks so much! We were wanting to do a “loft” with roosts on it. Since this will be the highest roosts, should we do poop boards under there? We’re wanting to try to make it enticing as an extra space for them, with stairs and a secondary ramp up to it for ease. Do you have size recommendations for poop boards? Or just totally dependent on the roosts?

 

[RojoMarz]

Check out @DobieLover 's coop page. They have good pictures and configuration of their poop boards.

 

[DobieLover]

Check out @DobieLover 's coop page. They have good pictures and configuration of their poop boards.

They is she. Me.
I'm adding another PB, splash guard and a shelf this month.

 

[newchickychick]

They is she. Me.
I'm adding another PB, splash guard and a shelf this month.

Wow, your coop is stellar! The chick/hen partition is exactly what I was imagining for our intro coop, but maybe we’ll build it into this one! So awesome.

 

[DobieLover]

Wow, your coop is stellar! The chick/hen partition is exactly what I was imagining for our intro coop, but maybe we’ll build it into this one! So awesome.

It works well... maybe TOO well. I'm on hatch number three for this season. The chicks will soon outnumber the hens and I'll have maybe a dozen cockerels to rehome this year.

 

[newchickychick]

It works well... maybe TOO well. I'm on hatch number three for this season. The chicks will soon outnumber the hens and I'll have maybe a dozen cockerels to rehome this year.

Oh man, that’s one reason I was thinking “maybe I’ll hold off on hatching eggs and just stick with sexed chicks.” And then impulse control has brought me to 21 of our first hatching eggs and 2 incubators. Funny how eggs don’t seem to feel like they count for chicken math.

The pics are so helpful though. It’s given us ideas on our loft and separate intro area!

 

[DobieLover]

The pics are so helpful though. It’s given us ideas on our loft and separate intro area!

If broody hens are doing the hatching, you don't need an intro area. Mom takes care of it for you.