BK, I think your birds will like that, and it will also make dealing with different ages of birds a little easier. I like having an area that is a little quieter for the broodies and the babies.
Our coop is big. That's the best feature of our set-up, I think. Lots of good indoor space. We have some improvements to make elsewhere (we have a desperate need for more pasture, which we just seeded this past week), but for the number of birds we have, we have plenty of coop space.
One of the reasons we put up a double row of roosts is so the birds can "cuddle" head-to-tail as well as wing-to-wing at night and only have one end exposed and don't feel lost in the large, airy coop. I think that helps them stay warmer in winter than a single row of roosts might. In the summer, our nights can be a lot cooler than our days, so the cuddling helps them not have to deal with the stress of big temperature swings. The day of the photo was a LOT cooler than the days before, so the birds were puffed up for insulation. That's why Ruffles was looking especially cute.
I was thinking about maybe putting in a "training" roost in the upper room ... an angled ladder roost attached to the place where the wall meets the roof, but something hinged that I could lift and hook to the ceiling when we don't have little birds around. That would be simple enough
I like the light in the coop, too. And I think it helps keep the birds more productive. The nice thing about where I have the coops set up is they are well shaded from above by big trees (one big evergreen for year-round protection, and several smaller deciduous trees for seasonal shade), so don't really overheat during the middle of the day, but the light can get in from the sides during sunrise and sunset. Shade cloth over the "roof" portion of the coop is another protection against overheating in summer. The photos were taken at dusk, the birds were headed to bed, and the coop was still pretty well lit from the low angle of the sun to the west.
I had just dropped the sides in anticipation of the rain we just got, and even thought the sides aren't see-through, they are transparent. With the sides up, the sun streams through the hardware cloth and the birds can sunbathe indoors, which is really great.
I'm all jazzed about re-arranging my set up with some well-placed "hoop coops." The limiting factor here is fencing. One could argue the limiting factor is "no guard dog," but we say "fence" instead. Gust's #1 job is keeping me laughing, and he is pretty good at that.
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I'll keep you all updated. Much to do before then… and probably will not happen until September when things cool off a bit.
