Tips to Improve a Chicken Coop (especially for ease of cleaning)

[ATP]

It was nearly done this week, but...

View attachment 4130356

I cried double checking the inside of the coop today. Within just two weeks, it had many new smaller and larger cracks. I do not want my chickens to be tortured by mites, so I give up. There is no way of myself filling the cracks inside the coop every other week.

I wrote that on the 23rd May this year when I had no clue of what was causing the cracks. Now I know. It is the wood and the way it was put together.

We had some heavy rain over the last few days. The inside of the coop was all dry–before the rain came. Now, the (DE) fillings are wet again.

I'm SO glad that I filled the cracks with DE this time. Otherwise, I would have not discovered these small leaks.

The coop was great during high temperatures a while back–nice and cool–but it is quite humid in there now.

Long story short, no matter how much I would love to finally be a chicken mom, it is not going to be UNLESS I can have a walk in shed / chicken house with a walk in chicken run. I'm no longer trying to make the best out of this coop and/or run.

It is not only a struggle with the coop/run at the moment, but we were hit with a few hardships this week, too. My husband lost his job after 12 years, and it was an unfair and mean way of how they did that.

I will still come here to read, and, LORD willing, some day I can share a better story. For now, though, I have to let my dream of having chickens go.

Thank you for reading.

 

[townchicks]

Sorry to hear that, after all your hard work. Sorry about your husband's job too. It's hard enough without people being jerks.

 

[Growley Monster]

I am painting the floor of mine, then laying down linoleum. Mine is big enough to get inside of and work, 8x8, 8' ceiling, gable roof, standard human door with chicken door planned, outside access to nest boxes. The linoleum will make cleaning easier and help preserve the floor. Pine shavings for bedding and so the birds don't skate and skitter on slick vinyl.

Round hatches for kayaks and small fishing boats are excellent for getting to nest boxes from outside. Just buy the appropriate size hole saw, make holes, mount hatch rings, and there you go. Mine are 4" so I made my holes with what... I think a 4-3/8" hole saw chucked into a half inch drill.

Roosts. You want roosts or they will all just live and poop in the nest boxes.

It is a nice looking coop, I'll give you that. The builder just didn't know all there was to know about chicken coops but he knew enough about building in general to make something you can definitely improve and use.

 

[ATP]

Sorry to hear that, after all your hard work. Sorry about your husband's job too. It's hard enough without people being jerks.

Thank you for reaching out and posting your reply. It means a lot to me.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I wrote that on the 23rd May this year when I had no clue of what was causing the cracks. Now I know. It is the wood and the way it was put together.

We had some heavy rain over the last few days. The inside of the coop was all dry–before the rain came. Now, the (DE) fillings are wet again.

View attachment 4148015

I'm SO glad that I filled the cracks with DE this time. Otherwise, I would have not discovered these small leaks.

The coop was great during high temperatures a while back–nice and cool–but it is quite humid in there now.

Long story short, no matter how much I would love to finally be a chicken mom, it is not going to be UNLESS I can have a walk in shed / chicken house with a walk in chicken run. I'm no longer trying to make the best out of this coop and/or run.

It is not only a struggle with the coop/run at the moment, but we were hit with a few hardships this week, too. My husband lost his job after 12 years, and it was an unfair and mean way of how they did that.

I will still come here to read, and, LORD willing, some day I can share a better story. For now, though, I have to let my dream of having chickens go.

Thank you for reading.

I’m so sorry! Dreams can be postponed; all we can really do is deal with today. I hope that your husband will soon find a new and better job, one where employees are treated with respect.

 

[BDutch]

We had some heavy rain over the last few days. The inside of the coop was all dry–before the rain came. Now, the (DE) fillings are wet again.

In the adjusted childrens playhouse I get such wet DE spots too after heavy rain. Mainly on the west wall where the heavy rains comes from. It dries again as soon as the weather gets better. No problem.

I can imagine you prefer a bigger coop where you can walk into though. But the DE getting moist on the inside is not a problem.

If it was my coop, I would give it a try to start with a small group of chicks/ chickens in it. I would rebuild more encountering unexpected problems and start building a new one if you encounter problems you cant solve.

Or build a bigger coop or convert a shed in the meantime anyway. I an sure this coop will be fine long as its summer /autumn.

There is a good article that explains why it’s more convenient to have a walk-in coop. But if you don’t have long periods with snow and cold (frost) it’s not a must-have imo.
I have 2 small coops and for me and my chickens this is okay. People in England often have coops that aren’t very big either.