Shed style coop...on the ground or elevated?

[Beehappy13]

My husband and I will be building our chicken coop this weekend for our 5 week old flock of 5. We will be building a walk in, shed style slant roof coop with an attached run. Similar to the picture below. My question is should a coop this style be elevated with cinder blocks or built on the ground where it will be placed at? I’ve seen many different posts on here where people have them elevated using cinder blocks or a slab (slab isn’t an option where we are). We are building it with a plywood floor so the walls wouldn’t just be sitting on the ground. My husband says it will be fine just sitting on the ground. I think it may need to be slightly elevated with cinder blocks (chickens will not have access underneath it) if anyone can shed any light on this it is much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[pozees2]

Ours is up on skids, in theory so it could possibly be moved, but it isn't moving. Ever. It's 12x16. Space underneath might not have been our best move. Things live under there, for one thing, sometimes cute things like bunnies, other times not so cute things (snakes). Attaching the run can be more difficult when working at a different elevation, as well.

 

[DobieLover]

It should not be sitting directly on the ground. I'd make a 'pad' of compacted crusher run or driveway base then put two level 4x4 skids down and build your floor on that.

 

[DobieLover]

Ours is up on skids, in theory so it could possibly be moved, but it isn't moving. Ever. It's 12x16. Space underneath might not have been our best move. Things live under there, for one thing, sometimes cute things like bunnies, other times not so cute things (snakes). Attaching the run can be more difficult when working at a different elevation, as well.

Attach an apron of 1/2" hardware cloth around the coop. Nothing can get under it that way.

 

[Beehappy13]

Ours is most likely going to be built on top of grass. Everything is pretty level already. The ideal place is like to put it is too much of a hill and there is no protection. I should also have added in my original post that we live in South Central Montana. So we get fairly hot summers and some cold and snowy winters as well as some pretty descent wind a lot of times. I didn’t know if the weather made a difference if the coop was elevated or on the ground.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If you're putting in a wood floor, elevate it. It'll help protect the floor. Our coop is elevated about 6" on pressure treated skids on top of concrete blocks. A little hard to see in photo, but you can see one of the concrete blocks towards right corner behind the cinder block step. Very hard to see but the entire base is aproned in hardware cloth to keep small critters out - even thought the coop is fully inside the run fence, baby chicks could certainly disappear under there, so that was a concern.

 

[Flockincrazy]

My husband and I will be building our chicken coop this weekend for our 5 week old flock of 5. We will be building a walk in, shed style slant roof coop with an attached run. Similar to the picture below. My question is should a coop this style be elevated with cinder blocks or built on the ground where it will be placed at? I’ve seen many different posts on here where people have them elevated using cinder blocks or a slab (slab isn’t an option where we are). We are building it with a plywood floor so the walls wouldn’t just be sitting on the ground. My husband says it will be fine just sitting on the ground. I think it may need to be slightly elevated with cinder blocks (chickens will not have access underneath it) if anyone can shed any light on this it is much appreciated. Thank you.

Mine is elevated on cinder blocks I think it is better to have it elevated so the wood doesn't sink or deteriorate we have had ours for 6yrs and have only had to do minimum maintenance

 

[Beehappy13]

If you're putting in a wood floor, elevate it. It'll help protect the floor. Our coop is elevated about 6" on pressure treated skids on top of concrete blocks. A little hard to see in photo, but you can see one of the concrete blocks towards right corner behind the cinder block step. Very hard to see but the entire base is aproned in hardware cloth to keep small critters out - even thought the coop is fully inside the run fence, baby chicks could certainly disappear under there, so that was a concern.

View attachment 2167617

I can see what you’re talking about. Thank you for the picture. I love the color

 

[aart]

we live in South Central Montana.

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[pozees2]

Ours is most likely going to be built on top of grass. Everything is pretty level already. The ideal place is like to put it is too much of a hill and there is no protection. I should also have added in my original post that we live in South Central Montana. So we get fairly hot summers and some cold and snowy winters as well as some pretty descent wind a lot of times. I didn’t know if the weather made a difference if the coop was elevated or on the ground.

WRT wind - we get gusts as high as 70 mph here occasionally, so when we put the roof rafters, trusses, whatever you want to call them, on, we put hurricane ties on both sides of each end of each one. We figure if the wind is strong enough to pick up the whole coop we'll be lucky to survive it.