raised coop question

[dcouette]

Hi there,
Totally new to this and have a few questions about the raised coop. What are the benefits from a raised coop and why do you do it? I live in Northern Ontario, Canada and I wonder about cold wind, etc and keeping the coop warm. Have plans for heating the coop but wonder if a level coop would be a better idea. Also wondering about a concrete floor; any thoughts?
Thanks so much for any help!

 

[Judy]

Welcome to the forum!

Raising a coop makes cleaning a small coop easier on the back and gives the chickens a little more space underneath it. But I do not feel they are suitable for really cold weather like your. Frankly, in that climate I would build a walk-in. I'd likely build a 4x8 or 8x8 even for just a few chickens as they will not want to go out in the snow so need lots more space indoors than they would where I live.

Here is a great article you really should read, written by a woman who keeps chickens in Canada. Note there is a ventilation link on the page which is equally good reading.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-winter-coop-temperatures

 

[oldchickenlady]

My coop is raised because my property is rolling hills and there isnt a level spot to build the coop on my land, except right beside the house. One corner by the door is about 3 feet off the ground and I can store stuff under there. I use 5 gallon buckets to clean off the poop board and they stow away nicely under the coop until I get the bucket full and can dump it on the compost pile. If your coop is smaller than my 8x8 walk in coop, it would be convenient to be raised for cleaning. My original plan was to have a 4x8 coop with a drop down door across the back. I wanted to be able to put the wheelbarrow in back and just rake the old shavings/poop out the door and into the wheelbarrow. I decided that 4x8 wasn't large enough and went with the 8x8 walk in coop. I love it! It is big enough to section off a broody or chick area and to store extra feed in it, also. If your coop isn't going to be large enough to walk into, I highly recommend
a raised coop. It will save your back!

 

[AinaWGSD]

I agree, in northern Ontario you'll probably want to avoid a raised coop because your winters are so cold. I have a raised coop, but we only rarely get into dangerously low temps in the winter (and even then it's usually due to wind chill). We have a hollow floor, so there's 6" of dead air space to help with keeping the temperature from fluctuating too much plus several inches deep of pine shavings. The walls in our coop also have dead air space to help with "insulation" so to speak. We decided to raise our coop because it is fairly small and the area where we have available to keep our chickens is also fairly small. Raising the coop not only makes it easier for us to clean, but it also gives them that much more space in their run. During rainy weather they all hang out under the coop to stay dry and have built themselves a nice little dust bath under there.

 

[babyrnlc]

We have the opposite problem as you and it gets quite hot in the summers and the raised coop is a little cooler and it gives a little more shade (we also tarp it for shade. We also have limited space and the dogs are not chicken friendly so we cannot let the free range unless we put the dogs up, so they needed more run space and by raising our 4x8 coop, we added 32 sq feet to the run. (which we move every 4-5 days)

Here is our coop. I agree though for your weather, you probably want a walk in.

 

[dcouette]

Thank you so much for all the advice! Very helpful! Starting to build the coop next week. I can't get over all the resources on this website! I will post pics and updates of our progress!

 

[Judy]

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