The perfect/dream coop, what would it be?

[LaurelRidgeDreams]

If size, space, rules/regulations, and money were no issues, what would your dream coop be?

 

[NottinghamChicks]

Huge! So you never have to worry about not being able to have every chicken that you see

 

[mississippifarmboy]

50' by 1,000' building with a hallway down the middle large enough for an electric golf cart to deliver the feed & stuff. Automatic waterers, roll out nest boxes and a separate egg storage and incubator room. Large covered runs on each side of the coop filled with flocks of every breed I like from the very best breeders and a way to sell all of them.


oh, and a new wife. Because the one I've got would leave me if I spent that kind of money on a chicken coop.

on second thought she'd just kill me.

 

[LaurelRidgeDreams]

Quote:
Too funny! I love the golf cart feed delivery idea.

 

[mulewagon]

The loveliest one* from the "coops that look like a little house" thread, only constructed entirely of plastic, so bugs would have no place to lurk. Inside of a gigantic run, entirely roofed and sided with hardware cloth. Accompanied by a very large, trained herding dog, that would guard the chickens while free-ranging, even against foxes and coyotes.

*Whichever that is - my favorite changes daily!

 

[LaurelRidgeDreams]

Quote:
A dog to guard the chickens, I would really like to have one of those!!

 

[Judy]

I have an 11x17 dirt floor coop and really don't want a larger number of chickens -- I give eggs away part of the year as it is. Truth is, I wouldn't change much, maybe add a closed cabinet to hold small supplies. It's all metal, even the framing, which is annoying sometimes because I can't just run a nail in a stud to hang a garbage bag or whatever. But mites can't hide in metal.

I free range them now because the dogs run predators off, but it also has a large fenced yard, maybe 50'x70', which we originally set up with electric fencing, so if I do need to confine them against predators again, it's simple enough to do. BTW, even a yard that big gets all its grass eaten; they did leave a few tall woody weeds.

At my age I deserve to have what I want!

 

[calista]

Adapted to free-range every kind of heritage breed over at least 50 acres completely fenced and roofed in hardware cloth, with soft classical music piped in, a live-in chicken nanny/vet, and a daily truckload delivery of vegies, grains, and bugs for them to scratch in:

http://inhabitat.com/prefabricated-...-own-power/prefab-sustainable-chicken-coop-3/

"The chicken coop is a 200 foot long prefabricated layer farm that can also be adapted for free-range use, and is designed like a wind tunnel in order to provide constant ventilation, which is necessary for the hot climate and the hot chickens. Wind turbines, solar panels and vegetation are installed on the exterior of the structure and providing the coop with its own energy. Inside the coop, water tanks, silos, egg storage, and a waste-treatment system turn chicken manure into biofuel. The designers hid all the extras inside the coop in order to visually improve a farm’s landscape as well as integrate their functions."

Seriously, if I won the lottery, I'd buy the 50 acres and then commission something similar to this to see if a "backyard" chicken-keeping operation could be made sustainable in this way for my climate, which is DEFINITELY not "hot."

 

[Whispering Winds]

Quote:
Because like the rest of us, you are worth more dead than alive!!!!!

 

[gryeyes]

One, big coop, professionally built, sufficient to hold:

80 - 100 chickens. (Not saying there would be that many, but just in case.)
A feed & supplies room, opening both from outside and into the coop.
A brooder room.
An incubator area within the brooder room.
Nest boxes with rear roll- out, but all in a row, one on each side of the coop. With covered awnings so I don't get wet gathering eggs.
A sitting area IN the coop, to spend quality time with the girls on "those" days, rain or shine or wind. With a recessed place to set a coffee mug, diet soda or glass of wine.
A covered area with a feeding platform.
Absolute must: nipple watering system.

One whole end of the coop reserved for cantilevered roosts.