Planning process

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MrsSimensen

MrsSimensen

In the Brooder
6 Years
Mar 27, 2013
7
0
14
Greetings All,

I am new to your group and am very excited to follow all of you with your experiences and expert advice. My history is: I am brand new to chicken raising. We moved to the country last September and are very excited to built our coop for our current 9 chicks that are approx. Four weeks old now. I am in a quandary in regards to my plans for a coop. We live in the Pacific Northwest so winters tend to be mild with lots of rain. I have a thought in my head to bounce it off of the experts "you". I would like to build a medium coop raised approx. 3-4 ft high so that I can put in a drop floor. I plan to use wood chips (from my wood chipper) for bedding then as I drop the floor to clean the coop I can catch it in a wheel barrow to add to a compost pile to eventually rework into my garden for extra nutrients. What are your thoughts on this? Good, Bad and the ugly I am ready for the comments. Thanks so much Newbie Jeannie
 
That sounds like really good idea! Something I have never thought of!! When you get it built I would love to see a picture! Might convert mine!
 
Thanks Megan! I will for sure post pic's when we get it figured out. I am a bit overwelmed by all of the ideas and coop plans.
 
I use wood chips also, makes great compost
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Greetings from Kansas, Jeannie, and
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! Pleased you joined us! I am of two minds about your question. The first is that that is a great idea - use what materials you have at your disposal - the wood chips for instance. The second is about the wood chips. When I think of the Pacific NW I think conifer trees. I know with chicks and chickens pine shavings are a first rate bedding - but cedar (I take this to mean red cedar) can be toxic to chickens. If you are chipping up some sort of coniferous tree you just need to make sure it is chicken safe - I am not speaking from experience, mind you...I just don't know if other conifer trees beyond cedar are bad for chickens as well. Good luck to you!!
 
Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan
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Adult standard sized fowl need about 4 square feet of floor space per bird in the coop, so for 9 birds you will need about 36 square feet, or around 6'x6' - pretty big for a dropped floor. I saw a very cleverly designed coop that was raised and had a wide hatchway at floor level on one side, you flipped the door up from the outside and could shovel the bedding out into a wheelbarrow below. Wish I had seen that before I built my coop.

I agree with Redsox about the cedar, not good for chicken bedding
 

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