So I just picked up the supplies to build my coop...

[LDSmama]

A little more info...

While this will be a tractor coop most of the year, from first snowfall until spring it will be stationary. Part of our yard is a garden spot, and a corner of that will be the compost pile. I'm building an 8' square of concrete blocks, with the center dug out about a foot. All spring/summer we'll put all our compostable stuff in that pit. When the snow starts, making moving the tractor too difficult, we'll just park it right on top of that pit, add straw/hay/leaves etc. as needed, and do the deep litter method until spring. Then, come spring, we'll move the coop back to the grass, and utilize the compost in the garden.

 

[lazy gardener]

I didn't realize that w/c was a part of your equation. How many birds are you planning to house, max?

One suggestion: your center rafter has nothing under it to support it (for load bearing). You could put a couple of diagonals under that point, coming back to the corners. Your perches don't have to be stair stepped. You could put them all on the horizontal framing that appears to be about 3.5' high. Is your entire yard super flat? Are you intending this to be a mobile tractor, or a stationary coop? It would be a beast to move! You will also see a lot of hammocking from your tarp roof.

 

[LDSmama]

Yeah, being in a wheelchair makes it a bit trickier, but thankfully, this is a joint project with my married daughter & her husband. Plus I have a husband and five other kids, four of whom are adults. Although three of those are also disabled, they can still do things like gathering eggs and feeding/watering. We decided to do this because my married daughter wants chickens, but doesn't have the land for it, while we have plenty of land, but aren't able to do the heavier work, like shoveling compost, and cleaning. So we're sharing. And yes, our yard is very flat. It's basically a big, boring, rectangle of grass. I have plans to plant trees, and planting beds, but that's more down the road.

We plan to have no more than 15-20 chickens. And if the coop ends up being too heavy to move, that's not a big deal - we can just leave it on our garden area and do deep litter year-round. If we do that, we would probably convert the run to just a tractor run, and during the day, move it around, then put it back with the coop at night. That would be a bit more effort, but not undoable.

Thanks for pointing out the center rafter issue - I didn't even notice that! I'll have to do some thinking on how best to remedy that. As for the roof, I'm using corrugated plastic to cover the walls; maybe I can use the same for the roof, and then just use the tarp for waterproofing. Hmmm, you've got me thinking some more - thanks! See, that's why I come here - lots of great advice from experienced folks.

 

[aart]

Because yes, we do get a lot of snow

You'll need to support the rafters in one or two places.

ETA:
Just go straight up to rafters with your present roost supports and put cross supports under rafters.
Stagger roosts at mid height.
That gives you 16 feet of roost length...good for 12-16 birds,
which your space should minimally support.

 

[lazy gardener]

Are you sold on this design? b/c IMO, you could certainly make your life easier by building a stationary coop. The stationary walk in coop could have a portable run/tractor attached to it. A shed style is easiest to build.

You could put the nest boxes in a "side car" affair so they could easily be w/c accessed. I've trained chickens to a tractor with ease. To train the chickens to the tractor, you simply open the coop up in the morning, and feed the birds in the tractor. At the end of the day, you open the tractor, and if needed, offer scratch to get them back to the coop. But, if it's late enough in the day, they will make a bee line to the coop b/c that's where they go to bed. So, you could leave the coop in one place, and move the tractor around as you see fit. You could have a separate nest box in the tractor.

Take a look at the Wood's open air style coop. It would be super easy to build the back shed portion as your stationary, and add a second shed as your tractor. The tractor portion could stay attached to the back shed during the winter, and be released from the shed in the warm weather months.

 

[LDSmama]

Are you sold on this design? b/c IMO, you could certainly make your life easier by building a stationary coop. The stationary walk in coop could have a portable run/tractor attached to it. A shed style is easiest to build.

Take a look at the Wood's open air style coop. It would be super easy to build the back shed portion as your stationary, and add a second shed as your tractor. The tractor portion could stay attached to the back shed during the winter, and be released from the shed in the warm weather months.

No, I'm not completely sold on it. In fact, your idea is pretty much exactly what I'll do if the main coop turns out to be too heavy (which is entirely possible!).

Sort of off topic, but I have a dream for my field. I call it my fairy forest, but it is just a large, flat, grassy area right now. I'm hoping, over the next few years, to plant lots of trees, as well as a variety of beneficial plants (ones that can be used for natural healing). Once trees are more mature, and we have the area fenced (hopefully happening next year, if we can avoid financial surprises), then the coop would remain stationary all the time, and the chickens would have free reign of the entire area (160'x70'), with all it's varied plants, a little stream that will run through it, etc. We are right on the edge of urban/rural, so hawks aren't likely to be a huge problem, but I would still want to have a large part of the area protected with netting, if possible.

Oh, and the best part of this? The whole forest will be w/c accessible, including the planting beds - all of them raised up so I can reach them and tend to them from my chair. At that time, we will also open it up for visits from local groups - schoolchildren, disabled groups, etc. The idea is to teach them ways they can enjoy the outdoors and how to live more sustainably, regardless of disability.

 

[lazy gardener]

I am a PTA. I have a friend who is a COTA, retired. She bought a piece of property on a lake, and has poured her income and her time into developing this property to be w/c, handicap accessible, complete with w/c accessible paths, rope lined walk ways so that even visually impaired folks can also safely access the property. There is a fishing dock, with nice high railings to prevent w/c accidents, and she takes folks out fishing in her boat. She has even built a camping lean to, so guests can spend the night. The pay back she gets: seeing the joy on the face of a wheel chair confined person as they "stroll" the forest paths, get to feel moss for perhaps the first time in decades, get surrounded by birds calling from the trees, and simply enjoy the solitude of being "in the woods", or out fishing on a lake. No matter that all they might catch is a sun fish, or perhaps a snag of pond weed!

 

[lazy gardener]

When you plant your fairy forest, I suggest that you not get too carried away with the trees. A lot of people want some of everything, and try to crowd it into a "too small space", resulting in an over growth where nothing can grow well! Those trees grow BIG! And you KNOW how much room it takes to maneuver a w/c!!! I do hope you plant a lot of aromatics and sensory plants as well, but perhaps keep them confined to a certain area so that if there is someone with pulmonary problems, they can avoid that area! Your idea sounds wonderful. My friend @Blooie has a grand daughter who uses a w/c for her primary mobility. There is a completely handicap accessible play ground near her! Such a simple thing that we take for granted when we have 2 functional feet!