Planning stages - Coop Design

[AndrewH]

Working out the coop design. Looking for advise for improvements or suggestions. Any help is greatly appreciated.


Coop in this design is ~16' x 20' with the run being 20' x 40' (should be good for up to 40 birds). The coop and run pretty much can be any size I want and only limited by my budget.
First stab:

 

[gsim]

Looks like you are doing a ladder-style roost with various heights? I did just one height, being 48". I set it 12' from wall and then down at 24" ht is the poop board, being 24" wide x the length of the roost. It is made of 1/2" osb and has linoleum glued to it. I clean it daily

and should be able to go a year before changing litter.

I do not water mine inside. I feed inside only to prevent rodents and birds with their diseases being attracted. I water outside to make them all want to come out immediately when I open the pop doors. Also keeps the litter dry and air does not get damp or moldy from spilled water reacting with litter. Just a thought.

Pay attention to ventilation. I did 1 sq ft permanent , above-the-tops-of-walls ventilation for each 4 chooks. So for my flock of 24 i have 6 sq ft permanent, high-up ventilation, way above roosting height, so no drafts. In addition, I have 4 windows, 2 pop-doors (guillotine type) and the entrance door. So, I can tailor the ventilation to suit the season by opening windows according to temps. I always open two each morning when I scrape the poop boards

Pat strict attention to predators. A weasel can get in thru a hole the size of a quarter according to the predators section of BYC. Security and ventilation are two biggies, plus features to make day to day chores easiest.

 

[newchicksnducks]

Looks great! Being able to design before you get your birds is such a great idea (unlike many of us here on BYC) My coop was a converted childs playhouse 8x8, and I would have loved to have storage for food and shavings in the coop. Love that idea. I agree with gsim on the roost with a droppings board under it. It really makes cleaning it much easier. My girls have been on lockdown until I can secure their run better from hawks and fox, and the shavings are still good (have not been changed since I filled the coop in the summer.) I would like to say I clean it daily, but even doing every few days, the coop is still clean smelling. (Of course, you can tell when I stretched it one day too long! LOL) The moisture has not been a problem for me here in NE Ohio, but the air is dry with all the cold we've had, and our ventilation seems to be adequate for our needs. I feed and water in the coop, and use a heated waterer so the girls don't have to peck at ice cubes...not much of a problem where you are.A separate area for pullets as they are growing before they are integrated with the flock is a good idea....your plan looks great!

 

[Buttercup Chillin]

I like the layout, but. The incubator room/section is really big. My brooder house is 24 Sq Feet. I can section of a third of it to brood for the third and 4th week then open it up. Sorry, I'm a softy and like to Incubate in the house and keep them in the spare Bath in a tote for the first 10 days or so. Have only lost one, this way.

I would split the run in half. Then when you don't have chicks growing out, you can switch the hens to the other run to give their run a chance to grow out. They can devastate an enclosed area in a Short time. That calls for a door or another pop door between the runs.

Wish I had that option. My back yard is getting pretty bare. Must have to many chickens, No, must be some other reason.

Oh, I have my Feeder and Waterers by the doors or down the middle, not as far to carry the water and food, especially in the cold winter. No they don't really need water at night. They do first thing in the morning and when they are kept in due to weather or when they don't want to go out on gloomy days. Mine pop in and out all day long and they are up at 5 A.M.. I certainly am not up that early. Someone around here leaves for work real early.

I also use the deep liter method over a dirt floor, over 1/2" hardware cloth. I change out the floor/bedding once a year. In winter I add Hay for warmth, thou I probably don't need to, but it makes things smell good and keeps the eggs clean in rainy weather. I only keep it in there till the yard drys out then it goes out to the yard. I have had to change out under the waterer from time to time, not often, it's usually only a problem when Mr Drake spends time in the Hen house, sometimes he bounces it when he gets off the Roost, he's a pretty big boy. The first year will be the messiest. After that the older hens will teach the younger ones how they like to keep their hen house and things start running pretty smooth. The young Pullets learn from the hens and the pecking order though it keeps changing is more sedate. Unless a snake comes in and decides that Browny's egg is its' and settles in the nest, won't leave and freaks out all the hens.

In Texas, always look before you put your hand in a nest. Oh yes, your chickens will eat smaller snakes and mine chase the large ones into the bird netting around the garden and the netting over the run. Having seen my hens chase a snake away from me, I feel so protected. Yes, Snakes here climb. The Bird Netting (Lowes) over the run is needed to keep out Hawks but works for them too.

My Pop doors latch on the inside and I padlock my large door and each of my outside doors of the nesting boxes (Harbour Freight- small matching locks). To keep out predators. Can't think of anything else. Oh, Large Metal trash cans for food storage, to keep out mice. Have on hand with first chicks, First aid kit for pecking Blue Cote, Q-Tips, Tweezers, etc

I raise for eggs and food, but I also enjoy them much more than I expected to, even though they are a lot of work they are also a kick to watch.

 

[squiqwe]

I can't work on my coop until spring but I'm designing an auto waterer. I plan to collect and filter rain water from my coop's roof. I'm going to install a commode plunger system in my 5 gallon waterer. As the level goes down the plunger will release fresh water out of the 30 gal rain water reservior.

1 wife 2kids 3step kids 1 yorkie 1 weimerainer and 12 Australorps ordered

 

[patandchickens]

By "incubating" I assume you mean brooding young chicks under a heatlamp, not actually incubating eggs in an incubator? (The latter is best done in the house or another controlled-temperature reasonably-clean building).

I don't know what you are considering in terms of partition walls, but could I suggest that you have only 1 permanent wall -- separating the main 'hens/roosters' coop from the other parts of the building -- and then build some *moveable* partitions, probably solid for the bottom 2-3' and mesh above that, so that you have lots of flexibility in how you divide the building. That way if you are not brooding many chicks but have a *lot* growing out, or vice versa, or need to move storage to a lean-to room outside and use the whole building for chickens, you can very easily do it.

Also, it would really be worthwhile fitting in "people" doors from the main and grow-out coops into their respective runs. I can tell you from personal experience that it MAJORLY sucks to have to go outside and around and into the run in order to chase tardy chickens indoors

The popdoor can be cut as a hole *in* the people door if space is limiting.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[AndrewH]

My replies are going to take a second to type up...

Thank you all for the great advice!

BRB

 

[AndrewH]

Quote:
Nothing is set in stone yet. Right now I'm working on layout and spacing. Roost design hasn't been looking into just yet (though I know it's pretty important).

Do you have any pictures of your setup? (feel free to post them here or a link

).

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Good advice. Definitely will consider that in the next draft of my coop design.

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Yeah, in a Texas summer, ventilation and shade are very important!

Any pics of your ventilation?

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Yeah, I definitely don't want to lose birds or eggs if I don't have too. We have more problems with snakes, coyotes, and raccoons

but I get your point

.

Thanks again for all the advice!

 

[AndrewH]

Quote:
Thank you.

being that I'm a designer professionally it's second nature to me to get my ideas on paper and in front of as many people with more knowledge on the subject than I, as possible

Have links or pics to that roost design? Sounds like a time saver!

Thinking about double coop design now (to help separate everything easier). Basically, their would be a coop at one end of the run and a second on the other end. This will also allow me to install running water and a frig in the 'meat' coop (for year round meat harvest) and all the storage in the 'egg' coop. Of course this will double my initial investment, but I think in the long run with me wanting to add ducks and turkeys (maybe others) it'll give me a little more flexibility to keep everything separated. And it's not like I can't plan to build the second coop in 6 months to 1 yr after the meat birds get a little larger and need the room.

Thank you for the help and kind words.

 

[AndrewH]

Quote:
The walls won't necessarily be hard, permanent structures, but more like those collapsible walls you see in large ballrooms/conference rooms. They'll be made out of a ridge frame with chicken wire/mesh for air follow. The incubation room will double as extra grow out space since I will only be incubating about 2-3 times a year.

Keeping the incubators in the house is definitely fine by me if my better half OKs it. I'm sure my 5 and 6 yo daughters would love it too

. The 6 yo's kindergarten class actually hatched eggs last year. She thought it was really cool. I'd just have to keep the cats and dogs and chicks separate

.

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Actually the runs will have the same type dividers as the incubation/grow-out rooms. There will be a permanent perimeter fence, a permanent center dividing fence then there will be several adjustable dividers. At least that's the plan. I'm not that far in my design to show this type detail just yet.

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LOL

I'll have an auto sprinkler system so the runs stay nice and green. Fingers crossed.

I can always build a temporary run/pin/gate to allow the "main runs" time to grow back. Definitely something I need to think about. But then again, I can make my runs almost 300' x 300'+ if I wanted

. Run and coops are limited by my budget, not space

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Feeders and waterers aren't nailed down just yet. Only shown in the sketch so I wouldn't forget about 'em

. Not exactly sure how I'm going to go about food and water just yet. Definitely in the works though.

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Not sure about the flooring just yet either. Several aspects are still up in the air.

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Oh, yeah. I can't tell you the number of times I've reached into a nest not paying attention (being young and in a hurry to get my chores done) and grabbed a bull snake... not fun for anyone evolved.

Yeah, the runs will have netting, but my thinking was for extra shading since the runs will be out in the open (coop under some trees). Snakes are one of the top priorities as far as predictors go

.

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, I have a nice source for 55 gallon barrels for $5, but metal trash cans is what we used back in the day (after finding mice stuck in the plastic trash barrels

).

Definitely need to study up on a "chicken first aide kit" to stock and keep on hand.

Thanks for all the advise and help!