After many hours of research on here, I have drawn up my plans. Please look at it and tell me what you think. I'd appreciate any helpful tips! I will be building it in a 7' x 7' dog kennel that I built a roof for, and have reinforced with hardware cloth. I have two Blue Orpingtons, an Americauna, 2 Silkies, a banty Polish and a banty Cochin.
Needs to be much bigger, I think you need to quadruple the number of chickens you have right now, so you don't have to think about getting more later. I love banties. I see you don't have any seramas - they dont care up much room at all.
A couple of thoughts. First of all, when I built my little winter coop, I only made roof overhangs on the front and the back, and I wish I had built overhangs on all four sides. I have a little leak in the roof where the rain comes in where my roof meets the wall on one side. It's annoying, and I can't quite find the actual spot where the rain is coming in. I can't really see how you've designed the roof on your coop (drawing is too small), but I would be very careful with a hinged roof that you don't build a leaky one, too. My real question about the hinged roof, though, is why? Your coop is 4 to 4 1/2 feet deep, plus it's on 16" legs; you aren't really going to be able to reach in there much unless you're very tall or stand on a ladder. How's that going to work? I can see the coop is 6 feet wide, but I can't see the length. If it's not much more than 4-5, you could build the front wall so that it completely opens (two doors, opening from the middle). This is what I did with my winter coop (picture on my BYC page) and I love the design. It makes it very easy to get to the inside of the coop for cleaning, etc. I put a board on the bottom front to contain bedding, but it's removeable so that if I want to sweep or shovel out all the bedding, I can just push it out without having a permanent lip in the way. Don't forget to cut your popdoor a bit higher than the level of your bedding (this is one I forgot). Try to build in at least one square foot of vent space per chicken. Consider that any opening on your coop will need to have raccoon proof latches, too. If you build a sliding door on the outside, that can be vulnerable to having the door ripped right off the track.
Thanks for all the great responses! I will incorporate them all! You are right about it being addicting! My tiny banty Polish "Peep" comes running to me to be picked up whenever I go into the run. How precious is that! All of them will eat mealworms out of my hand. I could spend hours just watching them. Hubby is already mad at me because I have more than the 3 hens I started with. He wants nothing to do with them. After 32 years it seems we are just growing further apart. ('',%20'');
Elmo made some good comments. I'm having some trouble reading everything there. My eyes are not what they were 30 years ago. I can't tell how much floor space you have in the coop. I see the 6' but not the other dimension. With three full sized, two silkies and two bantams, I'm not sure exactly how much you need. If it is in a 7' x 7' dog kennel, I'd question that it is big enough for those chickens or that you will have enough room in the run to fit the coop and you still be able to get in the run. With a 6' dimension in a 7' run, what are you going to do with that extra 1'? Would it be realistic for you to make the coop the full 7' across and maybe have cleanout doors where it butts up against the fence? I just don't see a whole lot of benefit of a 6' coop in a 7' run. The other dimension may not leave you enough room to get into the run either. Access to the run looks pretty limited. The height is only 16". How are you going to get under there if you need to collect an injured or sick chicken, clean it out, or maybe gather eggs if one decides to lay under there? Something to think about. With that mix of chickens, 49 square feet in the run might be enough and it might be too small. I'd suggest you be on the lookout for pecking and cannibalism. I do not think you should panic. It could very well work out, just be on the lookout for that behavior. With it being covered like you plan, all that space should be available even in the winter in Pennsylvnia which is a huge benefit. It's almost like that whole space is really coop space. (Thanks for posting your location in your profile. That does help.) Mine hate the wind and snow, but don't mind the cold. To keep out the snow and block the wind, you might consider putting a tarp or something on the upwind side and around the corners to give them some protection. I think you will wind up with something pretty good.
