Please critique my coop design before I build it

[coffeelady3]

Sweeping out pine shavings would probably be easier then scraping poop off all those slats. My girls are in a dog house that gets cleaned out with a hand broom and dust pan every other week. The whole process takes less than 20 minutes. I also fashioned a free standing roost with a built in droppings board. I just pull it out and scrape it off. Here's a pic.

My only other comment is to make sure you put wire over the ventilation holes.

Looks nice!

 

[jesd]

We live in MD which can get pretty cold in winter too (into the low 20s if not the teens) and are also in the process of building our first coop. We've been thiking about insulating it with that hard foam insulation (the name escapes me), and dragging out the heat lamp on an extension cord if it becomes necessary when nights get really cold. Might be a little easier for us though -- we're planning a hinged roof and a bar at the top from which to hang food/water, so the lamp could be attached there.

What software did you use to put that together? Love it!

 

[patandchickens]

I agree with those who suggest that your flooring, cute and Eglu-ish tho it is, is probably going to just create extra work for you. Just make a solid plywood floor, sprinkle with shavings, and scrape out the ucky bits every day or two, and it'll be FINE (actually probably *less* smelly, since the shavings will help dry the poo faster).

You need a roost bar; you could easily put a droppings board below it that could also be scraped clean each day, for same benefit and less shavings use

In that small a coop you might consider an exterior nest box (so it is a 'bump-out' rather than taking up already-limited space indoors).

And I would recommend having a wall that opens, cabinet-style; not only would that be necessary for cleaning with a solid floor, but without it you will have one heckuva time *catching* a chicken when you have to (and sometimes you will have to), or retrieving floor eggs, or that sort of thing.

I'm not a fan of "I used my hole saw" type ventilation but for three chickens yours probably *is* adequate

Good luck, have fun, welcome to BYC,

Pat