Remodeling The Coop Again......

[crazyfeathers]

Hello,
We began our chicken venture about 8 months ago.

When I was young we raised chickens for meat, they were not considered pets. Me and my husband went into this basically blind. We purchased our home and it came with a barn in good repair, so my first thought was Chickens!!!! I wanted them for eggs mostly but after reading about how some peeps chickens sit on their laps and follow them around I thought that would be cool, that's the kind of chickens I want. So after straightening the barn and fixing parts of the foundation we began building our coop in the SE corner of the barn. We used plywood, recycled insulation and wood that we had lying around. We had to purchase the light, heat lamp and heated water bowl but everything else was recycled. He got the exhaust fan that is mounted on the back of the coop from work when they were doing remodeling on their plant. The Chicken run door is powered by us, we open it in the morning and close it at dusk.

I knew nothing of chicken math when we were first building but when my husband builds something he builds it large, shame on him, this just encourages a crazy chicken lady to take in more chickens lol.
This is the way we built the coop the first time. We did have nesting boxes on both shelves but I removed 7 of them cuz the girls pooped in them more than laying eggs in them, I found out why after reading BYC.

I had the nesting boxes higher than some of the roosts, no wonder the chix are pooing everywhere. The shelving was a disaster to begin with, everyday I cleaned the plywood off.
So research began, my husband works everyday so I was left on my own to solve these problems. With wind-chills around 30 below I started ripped out all the shelving, nesting boxes, and roosts and started with a clean slate. Thankfully the old barn stands strong against the wind and elements, not that it's cozy by any stretch but it is better than being outside. Eventually I will be mounting the nesting boxes on the backside of the coop (also insulating them as I had frozen eggs this winter) not only to give the ladies more room but easier egg collection and more room for chickens. lol
Here is what I did:






Well wouldn't you know it the girls are roosting where they should be and in 4 days I haven't had to clean out any poop out of the nesting boxes!

I plan on putting dairy board under the roost area for easier clean up and will continue to use the deep litter method.

In case anyone was wondering, the ladies are laying just fine after me disrupting their coop. I have another flock of pullets who just started laying and I plan on adding them to this coop in early spring. I leave the coop door open and let the older girls meet and greet the young ones so far so good even the 2 roosters are fine together but they will never be in the same coop 1 is a D'uccle and the other a Bantee (don't know if I spelled that right) Anyway he is small too.
It may not look like much but knowing I did it all by myself in the best interest of my girls I am very proud. Also my older girls come when they are called but don't like to be held or pet. My pullets on the other hand are just what I wanted sweet as can be, eat out of my hand, sleep at my feet, let me pet them, and pick them up. Thanks (I tend to ramble) lol

 

[DavidKerk]

It looks great!!!

 

[lacquerandlace]

I enjoyed this post, thanks for sharing.