Starting my first coop next week. Wish me luck!!

[Junior Homesteader]

Hi, wanted to tell everyone a giant "Thank You!" before I even got started with my coop. Before registering on BYC I saw a ton of great ideas and spent a lot of time reading up on all the lessons posted and the highs and lows of raising chickens. This is my first venture raising chickens - my wife and I have always talked about it but this time we jumped at the chance when the local TSC started their Chick Days.

Anyhow, Spring Break is starting up and I'm going to put my kids to work on planting a garden and building the coop for the girls. I have a lot of great ideas from the medium coop designs that were posted and I'm mishmashing some of them in my head (to get them on paper).

I live in NW Arkansas - around Van Buren - and the summer never really gets above 105* too many times. It's normally pretty breezy in my backyard and there's some nice shading from the trees. We have 15 pullets that are growing tremendously fast! Since they're from TSC I'm not exactly sure how large they're going to get so I don't know if I should go with 6 or 8 roosting boxes. I know the specifics of keeping the coop portion raised off the ground and changing the openings of wire or using hardware cloth for the first 2 feet up from the ground, and caulking/sealing any and all cracks. Any other suggestions on paneling construction? I'm hoping to make the coop be mostly 3 walls with hardware cloth/wire on the inside run facing wall (which can be paneled up in winter). I'm going to use the idea of normal windows mounted backwards so the girls can enjoy the breeze and stay cooler.

You all are the best with all the replies and hints posted on the forums!

 

[OnlyinGlenloch]

You will love keeping chickens!
good luck.
We have found that building with plans to expand always helps because if you are like us you will expand.

 

[Junior Homesteader]

Quote:
Thanks! Yea, we're already hooked on them! We've talked about purchasing another 8-10 to replace some next spring and start cycling them out for stews when they slow down the laying. Next time I want to special order the birds that lay Easter eggs (the kids read about them and flipped!)

Only downside so far, once the chicks are outside, we're going to miss their chirping. We've talked about maybe have to get a parakeet or something to replace it.

 

[chickenlizzy]

We are doing the same as you ASAP! We are so excited. We have been looking at all the designs on BYC as well. I am going to go with a coop similar to the Triple C that won 1st place in the coop contest. My 8 x 12 covered run with the coop will be inside a 20 x 20 fenced area for "free ranging." We live in the mountains of North Idaho and predators are very close all the time. We are going to have another section of 20 x 20 fencing for the garden which the chickens will have the run of after we we've pulled up the garden in the fall but before the snow falls. I hear they make the soil wonderfully fertile with their poop. I'm also going to have a compost pile inside the chickens 20 x 20 run so when I clean the straw out of the coop it will go straight into the pile. For the sides of the coop we are going to use OSB painted and sealed appropriately, I think for the bottom we are going to use plywood covered with linoleum. We can't wait to get building and the snow is melting quickly. We've already started our garden indoors. Good luck to you. Sounds like you will have an action packed Spring and Summer too.