I agree with much of what Daisy8s said. I think you could have a mighty fine chickie coop when all is said and done.
I would caution about removing that wall. Just make sure it isn't holding anything up. That nice, straight roof line will surely suffer at some point if it is. If not, tear it out.
We put our nesting boxes by the front door as well. My father-in-law had made his coop this way and we just copied him. We will have to walk in the coop a bit to collect eggs, but oddly enough, the chickies don't poop around the nesting boxes so there's little chance of getting of anything stuck to our shoes.
We had to put the Food/Water workstation inside on an opposite wall. My coop used to be a maple sugaring house (so I know all about cleaning out an old space that was creepy and nasty at first) so the air vents in the roof tend to leak near the door and I want us to keep using those vents so we won't be boarding them up. So we moved the storage of food into the interior to keep it dry. The roost is under the vents, and only a small part of it at that. It is so nice though to have a place to keep food, paper towels, a trashcan, extra scoops, treats, extra food bowls, etc. The coop is a good 500 feet from the house and it would be a gigantic pain to cart those items out to the coop twice (or more) a day. We are also finishing up a space outside for other things like extra chicken wire for the run, a step ladder (I am short
), a rake (for the litter), the wire brush (for cleaning off old, stuck on poop), a shovel, etc.
We picked an interior spot on the sunny side of the coop to put the brooder. We blocked off about 1/4 of 240sqft floor space for the brooder itself. I wanted it to be big enough for me to get into it (and clean) and for the baby chicks to run around and jump on little roosts. So I would suggest making space for a brooder and take some time to think through (or ask here for) ideas for an optimum brooder space. With all of that room, why not?
Enjoy and good luck!
I would caution about removing that wall. Just make sure it isn't holding anything up. That nice, straight roof line will surely suffer at some point if it is. If not, tear it out.
We put our nesting boxes by the front door as well. My father-in-law had made his coop this way and we just copied him. We will have to walk in the coop a bit to collect eggs, but oddly enough, the chickies don't poop around the nesting boxes so there's little chance of getting of anything stuck to our shoes.
We had to put the Food/Water workstation inside on an opposite wall. My coop used to be a maple sugaring house (so I know all about cleaning out an old space that was creepy and nasty at first) so the air vents in the roof tend to leak near the door and I want us to keep using those vents so we won't be boarding them up. So we moved the storage of food into the interior to keep it dry. The roost is under the vents, and only a small part of it at that. It is so nice though to have a place to keep food, paper towels, a trashcan, extra scoops, treats, extra food bowls, etc. The coop is a good 500 feet from the house and it would be a gigantic pain to cart those items out to the coop twice (or more) a day. We are also finishing up a space outside for other things like extra chicken wire for the run, a step ladder (I am short
We picked an interior spot on the sunny side of the coop to put the brooder. We blocked off about 1/4 of 240sqft floor space for the brooder itself. I wanted it to be big enough for me to get into it (and clean) and for the baby chicks to run around and jump on little roosts. So I would suggest making space for a brooder and take some time to think through (or ask here for) ideas for an optimum brooder space. With all of that room, why not?
Enjoy and good luck!
