Storage in coop?

[serenityNH]

Hello!

Still in the planning stages of our first coop and a questions came up today about storage......I was planning on keeping some large rubber maid containers in the coop for storing food etc. I'm thinking they are going to be too heavy to keep 'up' but are the chickens going to get into them if they are on the floor? I would think they would be a pain to drag out from under a shelf or something because of the shaving on the floor. What do you do for storing the food?
Also- can I keep the hay/shaving inside the coop or will the chickens try to roost in it?
Sorry, I know kind of stupid questions but I just don't know what to expect and want to plan for as much as possible so I can focus on enjoying my chickens

Thanks for any advice!

 

[perchie.girl]

I am planning on partitioning an area in my next coop just for storage. It could even be an added on screened porch. just figure out how much space your stuff needs provide space to walk through to your chooks and viola (sp?) consider putting in shelves to get stuff higher to give the floor more space too. I am building a very large coop so my space for storage is going to be six by six to start and six feet high with no chicken access. Enough for grain cans brooms shovels scoops extra transport cages.... hay or bales of shavings what ever. I am also open to expansion if it needs to be expanded.

 

[NottinghamChicks]

Quote:
Hello again! I raised the floor of the coop four feet up and added a door in the back for cleaning the coop area out. Underneath the coop area is another door that is where I keep a small metal garbage can full of chicken food, another for scrath, and a bale of wood shavings. It is best to keep all the food and bedding seperate and this system proves to be an excellent system for maintaining my girls.

Hope this pic helps!

 

[Backyard Bantam]

I have a small chicken coop with 3 bantams, I don't need to refill their coop with shavings too often but I have 2 5 gallon buckets, one full of wood shavings, and an empty one. When I need to refresh their shavings, I fill the empty bucket with the used shavings ( it fills up afte about 4 loads). I go and empty it in the woods, and refill the coop with the bucket full of shavings. I can refill their coop about 4 times before I need to refill the 5 gallon bucket.