Share Your Mistakes

[xke4]

Also, I would design it so there is an "isolation" ward where someone who maybe needs protection from the others can still enjoy the outdoors. ( if feather picked or injured in some way). I have many gates and partitions in my run now for that very reason, but it would have been a lot easier putting them in when it was first built.

 

[Home on the Stead]

Don't buy a shed kit and plan to "modify" it thinking you'll save money...

I ended up redesigning the whole thing to accommodate for the bad construction of the kit. Basically the kit ended up being the pile of lumber I had to make to coop from - plus all the stuff it didn't have, plus the modifications for insulation and transformation from coop to shed...

My next one (and someone here already said there will be a next one

) will be designed by me, for me, and no shortcuts.

 

[nivtup]

1. Make it bigger.

2. Leave room to the sides for the West Wing, AND the East Wing additions.

3. Wide door to the run, like the width of a wheel barrow.

4. Floor layout before building, space for roost, feeder, waterer, egg boxes, and calculate remaining floor space for birds.

5. Make it bigger.

 

[gotchooks?]

1) Bigger coop and run
2) Droppings area under roosts (easier cleaning)
3) Nest boxes with exterior access (egg collection)

 

[lilchick]

I am not one of those people that can visualize things before they're done.....
I have to use sticks and string to lay out the pen area.

Making sure there is room around it for hubby to mow...

Also if using fencing set posts so your fence ends at post!

Plant evergreens and shrubs that chickens cannot eat in the run.

Most importantly: have a few places where you can sit and enjoy them

 

[BeardedChick]

I would have built a nice pole structure for a covered run and would NOT tell the husband how easily that would later be converted to a larger coop.

These things are better planned in advance.

 

[big greg barker]

Have you noticed a common theme here?
1. bigger?
2. bigger?
3. more birds?

 

[aiwetir]

Quote:
don't forget
4. bigger

 

[patandchickens]

THere was a long thread here last year (you could probably find it with 'search' and a bit of reading) on this subject, entitled I believe "what would you do differently" or some such thing.

Virtually everybody listed as their #1 mistake, "should have built much bigger coop" LOL

My chickens are currently living in a bldg I didn't build myself, just retrofitted for chickens (previous owners of this place built it as a dog boarding/breeding kennel). On the whole I like it a lot, but there is one BIG thing I'd change if I easily could, which is:

I would kill to have a people door leading directly from coop (pen) into run. As it is, if I have to shoo chickens inside, I have to walk outside and around the end of the building, shoo chickens in, then race out of the run (not neglecting to latch door), back around the end of the building, in the building door and down the aisle and into the pen, and slam the popdoor shut, by which time of course half the chickens have wandered back outside again

I've worked out a few things to slightly streamline this, but MAN OH MAN do I wish I could just walk from the run directly into the coop.

Highly recommend for anyone doing coop design for next spring...

Pat

 

[Clay In Iowa]

OK so all you who are posting you'd "build it bigger"... How many chickens do you have and how big is your coop? (square feet /bird)


I'm in the planning stage. I'm currently planning 4 square feet per bird inside right now.