Questions! Building 5x8 coop

[aart]

My roost boards are 24" and bottom of roost is 8" above the board.
Plenty of room for hoe scraper and mesh basket(have shown you that before).
Rarely any 'overshoots'.

 

[DoeAndGander]

We have a 6x8 coop, so very similar to you. We have more than 4 chickens, so we did a ladder roost. Partly so the chickens could easily get up to the highest roost, and down without injury. We do have 2 full size Black Jersey Giants (the male makes a *thud* when he jumps down off the lowest roost, so it was a good choice to do it this way for our flock. to Maximize space, we placed the door to the side, and put the nest box (2 boxes) to the side of the people door. We put the chicken door as an integral part of the people door. Here are some pics, but some are from prior to getting everything done.

View attachment 1614356

View attachment 1614357


Here are the Jersey Giants (1 male, 1 female) on lower roost. They were only about 4 months old in this picture! They are even bigger now. The coop is elevated about 2.5 feet above the ground and the male (named Jupiter) has to duck to get under the side support beam.
View attachment 1614358

Good Luck!

So neat!! I have something similar in my guinea coop along a 10 ft wall. If I wasn’t in love with the ease and function of poop boards I’d so go this route! Your flock looks super happy.

I love the idea of the open vent up top as well. I have a gable roof and open eves but was thinking of doing something similar on hinges to open and close when needed.

 

[DoeAndGander]

I think you should move the people door all the way to the right walk and make a chicken pop door across from it that way you will have more room for roosts and your chickens won’t walk through poop to lay their eggs
You can make your roosts span the 8 foot wall View attachment 1614365

Why didn’t I think to move the door?!? This is great. I have until tomorrow afternoon to ponder sliding the door over. My problem with that is I need symmetry and I think that would drive me nuts. Although I have been walking on the wild side this week... I decided on two off centered open shelves for my kitchen instead of 3 completely centered. Look out world!

 

[DoeAndGander]

A 30" poop board will be big enough for standard size birds. Having the roost close to the poop board will make poop scooping a bit of a pain. I find that 12" gives me plenty of room to maneuver tools like my kitty litter scoop and my Sweet PDZ leveler without hitting the roost.

JT

Makes perfect sense! I read recently someone recommended roost lower incase an egg is laid over night. Any insight on this?

 

[EggWalrus]

I think you should move the people door all the way to the right walk and make a chicken pop door across from it that way you will have more room for roosts and your chickens won’t walk through poop to lay their eggs
You can make your roosts span the 8 foot wall View attachment 1614365

If your coop has gables on the narrow ends of it, you may want to put the exterior nest boxes there, otherwise as rain runs of the long sides of the roof, it could soak the nests.
I wouldn't have more than 2 nest boxes for 6 or less girls, and after putting hay/straw in the nest boxes you'll need all 12" of height for them to be able to get in and our without scrubbing their noggins.

 

[EggWalrus]

Makes perfect sense! I read recently someone recommended roost lower incase an egg is laid over night. Any insight on this?

They don't lay overnight.
People in the city that have never had chickens came up with the fantasy/dream of collecting all the eggs at first light. It would be ok I guess if the roost poles can be taken out easily for cleaning. Otherwise like someone said, poles that low will be a pain to clean under. Good luck!

 

[jthornton]

Makes perfect sense! I read recently someone recommended roost lower incase an egg is laid over night. Any insight on this?

Yea, the egg if laid from the roost is in my case they are always broken even when I had the roost 6" from the poop tray. Remember hens stand up when they lay an egg so the distance is a lot further than when they are resting on the roost. I use Sweet PDZ but I guess if you used straw it might not break. I have 8 RIR hens and get about 2 eggs a month laid from the roost. I keep track of my eggs with a spreadsheet (talk about nerdiness).

JT

 

[jthornton]

They don't lay overnight.

I get an average of 2 per month laid from the roost at night so that is an incorrect statement.

JT

 

[DoeAndGander]

I think you should move the people door all the way to the right walk and make a chicken pop door across from it that way you will have more room for roosts and your chickens won’t walk through poop to lay their eggs
You can make your roosts span the 8 foot wall View attachment 1614365

If your coop has gables on the narrow ends of it, you may want to put the exterior nest boxes there, otherwise as rain runs of the long sides of the roof, it could soak the nests.
I wouldn't have more than 2 nest boxes for 6 or less girls, and after putting hay/straw in the nest boxes you'll need all 12" of height for them to be able to get in and our without scrubbing their noggins.

Scrubbing their noggins?!? Noted!

I can’t get over the thought of moving the door off centered so I’m going to try to work with it centered and boxes on East (right) wall. I’ve decided to run with a community nesting box. The other side of the box space will be storage/hospital if needed. Besides shingle and drip edge the boxes and extending the roof a bit... any other ideas to keep them dry? Maybe a rain gutter?

Being there will be two entrance points (exterior tops) into boxes, I suppose I’ll have issues with rain running between them too. Yikes! If I treated them as two different areas instead of one solid piece, would that be enough to keep them dry?

Here she is so far. Ignore the “aw heck I ran out of light” mess

 

[DoeAndGander]

My roost boards are 24" and bottom of roost is 8" above the board.
Plenty of room for hoe scraper and mesh basket(have shown you that before).
Rarely any 'overshoots'.

Love the term “overshoot”! I’m going to aim for 24” to avoid a mess. Thanks!