Things you've learned while building your coop...

[mechagrue]

Quote:
Wow, that's incredible! We have black bears and cougar out here, but they rarely come into yards, knock wood.

Have you tried electric fencing? I grew up in Alaska, and several neighbors swore that a hot wire (or two, or three) was the only way to keep four-legged predators out of their pastures.

Not a cheap option, sadly.

 

[g_a_brand]

this site is great!!! Just found it the other day , we are planing on building a coop and run within the next month. ( had to make sure our neighbors would not mind first) the ideas and hints you have given us here are priceless?

my hubby and I stayed up till 12:30 just reading this thread, ( he even has plans drawen up for the coop already)

Im not sure who it was that said to listen to hubby about how big, but he laughed so hard at that and said " see I told you we needed it bigger than 8X10 "

 

[farmerKEN]

-chicken coops are REALLY heavy, build it in pieces and assemble "final" location.
-level the ground before you build.
-When burying the run remember that wood rots, pvc doesnt. (unfortunately metal always rusts, atleast eventually).

 

[angelib1]

I did not see this one yet, hope i'm not repeating any one.

Do not put the gate to the run right in front of a window that opens out at head height, OW!#*^$#*()@#%!. I will be moving mine, just have to be more careful going in to the run till I can get around to it.
Got a nice hole in my forhead.

 

[Gwen]

someone mentioned having the floor drain. what if your floor does not have holes in it?

"Think about the cleaning method you want to use. Deep litter needs a higher space between the floor and door" - I'm not visualizing this. Any photos or more detailed description?

"Do not permantly attach your roosts to the walls of the coop. " Why not?

"You may wonder why you've never seen a chicken tractor design where the coop sits atop the run, and the chickens use a hole in the floor as a door. It seems perfectly reasonable to you! After you build the whole thing, you will discover that this is because chickens do not like to use a hole in the floor as a door. A fact which is perfectly obvious to anyone who's had more than "petting zoo" experience with chickens." I have seen quite a few chicken tractors with this design. In fact, I'm planning on puchasing one of them. The pop door is in the floor and goes down, forming the little ladder for the chickens to walk down. Why do you think this wouldn't work? Hmmmm, I'll have to talk to the person who's going to build it for me (she's on this site actually, so maybe she'll read this and chime in) because I believe she uses it herself, so I would assume she hasn't had the problems mentioned in these posts on this issue.

 

[kassy68]

Quote:
I had read this over and over and came up with this:
HI.. I made this roost while the hubby was constructing the coop.. very simple design, I used an old window (glass removed and 2 more cross supports) for the poop tray frame keeping it as light as possible. Used left over 1x6 for the side rails and cut out half circles for logs to sit in. Attached to the side rails is a 2" wide x 7" long scrap 1x to drop the poop tray for removal clearance. I constructed the above first and then added the 2x4 legs and and cross supports. Added a piece of vinyl flooring(had it laying around) for poop collecting.. the over all size was based on my window and turned out to be 48" deep and 57" wide and 44" high . Logs are heavy enough they don't need to be attached. Pick them up for clean up or slide out vinyl.

 

[AmyRey]

Our newly-built (and still not quite finished) chicken tractor has a door in the floor. It swings downward and becomes the ramp into and out of the run below.

Much like this design:

Our birds don't seem to mind going up and coming down it.

 

[elmo]

Don't drink a couple of beers before trying to roof your coop, even if it's a really hot day. Trust me on this one.

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

Quote:
imagine the door swinging into the coop, nice and level, 1 inch from the floor throughout.

Now add 4 inches of litter

The door will not swing nicely into the coop, it runs into the litter.

If you will use deep litter, have the door swing outfrom the coop to the outside so it does not have to worry about running into the pile of litter.

Litter does not work well with a floor drain, it clogs it up.

 

[Sissy]

Great idea for poop tray. throw
away vinyl or do you scrape and reuse?

Using less chicken wire and more Hardware cloth.