Repurposed playhouse coop

[pibb]

Ha. I converted the exact same playhouse just a little differently. I have 6 chickens roosting comfortably in mine and 3 nests. I could probably get a couple more chickens in there.

I spent alot of time on mine too. I really would have been better just building from scratch, but I do like it.

 

[Rasputin66]

Ha. I converted the exact same playhouse just a little differently. I have 6 chickens roosting comfortably in mine and 3 nests. I could probably get a couple more chickens in there.

I spent alot of time on mine too. I really would have been better just building from scratch, but I do like it.

I'd like to see yours!

 

[pibb]

I reach in through the side windows to get my eggs as you can see in the second pic. The middle nest is hard to get to but doable. The windows are a hinged piece of plywood now.

I clean the roost poop up every morning with a plastic putty knife and dust pan. I used 2x6s for the floor. I did have straw in the floor for the winter but now it is removed to ease my poo cleaning and to save straw.

The front is open into an enclosed run. They mostly only go in the coop to lay an egg or roost. Sometimes I see my rooster in the nest thinking he is going to lay an egg.

I had to shingle the roof because it leaked so bad even after I siliconed every joint up there so you should watch yours closely. Mine had a half door at the bottom in which I put it on the top then put a piece of plywood at the bottom.

 

[3KillerBs]

I don’t consider cleaning out an animals quarters every day intensive management. I consider it being responsible and taking proper care of an animal.

Adequate space is also part of taking proper care of an animal.

By giving farm animals adequate space and using Deep Bedding and/or Deep Litter techniques they thrive without their caretakers having to clean the coop more than once every 6 weeks to 6 months.

I last cleaned out my coop on December 1st. Because the weather has been cool and the ventilation in my coop is excellent and because I have added additional bedding every 10 days to 2 weeks -- at which point I also turn the bedding -- my coop is clean, odor-free, and pleasant. The bedding is now at the maximum height so I will have to clean it out next week or, maybe, the week after.

I admit that I currently have one more chicken in 16 square feet than I ought to -- a temporary situation while we build a larger coop. Should I have to close them in I would be well-advised to choose one to part with or I could expect to see behavioral problems.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Very cute and a lot of creative adaptation there, but it is awfully small.

You need 4 square feet per standard size bird inside the coop.

Intensive management *can* enable keeping chickens in higher densities -- but it increases the likelihood of health and behavior problems.

They look like they have plenty a room outside. I have a coop that is 4‘ x 8‘ for my nine big girls and they only go in there to roost at night or to lay eggs. I feel like they can fit in half the size. They only poop on the poop board, so I feel like as long as you clean out all the poop every day, why would there be a problem? I could be wrong, but I think it is more a matter of how clean you keep it. I would think a big coop with a build up of chicken poop would be more of a health issue, looks like they have plenty of ventilation.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

A. Because cleaning it out every day is that "intensive management" I mentioned. Should there ever come a day when the chicken keeper is unable to do that because of being ill, traveling, or having some other emergency the sanitation will be compromised.

B. Because there will come a day when they will not be able to go outside -- because of predators, because of something like the current UK lockdown, because the owner has had an emergency and cannot let them out, etc. -- and they will be jammed like sardines into a space that will not allow them to move freely around each other and work out their pecking order issues.

C. Because we backyard chicken keepers generally aim to give them a better life than if they were jammed into commercial-farm-density quarters.

A very large pen only compensates for a too-small coop up to a point -- that point being the day that they don't have access to that pen.

I don’t consider cleaning out an animals quarters every day intensive management. I consider it being responsible and taking proper care of an animal.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Adequate space is also part of taking proper care of an animal.

By giving farm animals adequate space and using Deep Bedding and/or Deep Litter techniques they thrive without their caretakers having to clean the coop more than once every 6 weeks to 6 months.

I last cleaned out my coop on December 1st. Because the weather has been cool and the ventilation in my coop is excellent and because I have added additional bedding every 10 days to 2 weeks -- at which point I also turn the bedding -- my coop is clean, odor-free, and pleasant. The bedding is now at the maximum height so I will have to clean it out next week or, maybe, the week after.

I admit that I currently have one more chicken in 16 square feet than I ought to -- a temporary situation while we build a larger coop. Should I have to close them in I would be well-advised to choose one to part with or I could expect to see behavioral problems.

Well, that works for you. I don’t like poop, I don’t like flies and I have trained people to take care of my chickens when I have had to have surgery. I just pay for their care to be done the way I like it. I also clean the poop in their run four times a day when I am visiting with them. I consider mine more like pets.