Share Your Mistakes

[xke4]

Make sure door is wide enough to accommodate whatever means you will use to clean it out. ie: small lawn tractor and wagon or wheelbarrow.

 

[conny63malies]

Quote:
Over here its the opposite, dont leave husband alone with tools or powertools. He gets angry too quick and flings the tools in next corner.

 

[momofdrew]

Make it taller so I don't get a kink in my back everytime I change the water...
make it bigger so I can get more birds
Change the roof so there is more over hang to keep the run dryer...

 

[joerogrz]

Plan it out first!

I'm actually in the process of building my coop now and it's been planned and everything. I'm making small changes as I go to accommodate the material available to me.

However, when I built my brooder, I did not plan a thing. I just read somewhere "1/2 sq. ft. per chick" and started cutting. Well my brooder is huge, but it just barely accommodates 27 five week old chicks and the head room is somewhat lacking, but comfortable. Had I planned this out, the floor would have been made differently also. It looks kinda weird with the current set up. I should have started with the floor and built around it.

Just remember.... Proper planning prevents pee poor performance.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

- Make the gate taller than your head as opposed to forehead height. I clock myself about every third time I go through.

(Second coop has a normal size door!)

- Make the first one twice as big as you want so that you don't have to go back later and add coop #2. Because you will have to at some point. Really. And everybody that helped you build coop #1 will be "busy" the weekend you want to build coop #2.

- make sure that the food is covered. My first version had the feeder exposed and the food turned into ooky, gummy goo after a good rain. The chickens loved it, but it was nasty messy and wasted a lot of food.

- Make sure that there is shade in your run. In version #1 all the chickens would crowd back into the little coop during the hottest part of the day. I finally got wise and put a tarp over it. That helped immensely. The new coop has a covered lean-to area.

-Save lots of money before you start because it will cost twice what you plan for.

- I assumed my chickens would all very sweetly lay me an egg once I had the fancy new coop done. Not so. They actually will panic the first night you try out the new coop and stubbornly refuse to ever lay anything. Chickens are loosy little ingrates. (12 hens, 4-7 eggs a day)
Freeloaders.

 

[RoxyOtis]

I would put a roof on my run, I put plastic up when it started raining and I had to remove it so the wire wouldn't cave into the run. I would put a Slanted roof up! lol

 

[redoak]

1. More chicken doors, hen, brooder, bachelor pad doors
2. Include dropping boards in original design
3. Bigger but then wouldn't be portable

 

[GaDawg]

1. Bigger
2. Walk in coop.
3. Make the roosts higher than the nests boxes.
(we built the coop before we found this site)

 

[Colored Egg Farmer]

I would.

make Taller and Wider
and heavier wire.

If I could I would make it light enough to move.

 

[aiwetir]

elevate it and give it a floor or at least have no wood contacting the earth.

make it at least 8sqft per bird as you'll want more one day