Too much of a coop elevation?

[aart]

Do you think the 4.5ft elevation would be too high for the chickens?

Probably not, main concern would be access to coop for the keepers,
to gather eggs, clean, and examine birds off roost at night.
What is the size of the platform, in feet by feet?
How often does this flooding happen?

Oh, and... Welcome to BYC! @B-flock
Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, and then it's always there!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Probably not, main concern would be access to coop for the keepers,
to gather eggs, clean, and examine birds off roost at night.

x2 - I'd be less worried about birds getting up and down, and more about how you're going to get bedding, feed, eggs up and down. We're in the coop 3, 4 times a day... call me lazy but I don't want to keep climbing up. If you're young and fit maybe it's not an issue for you, but you might find it's less appealing as time goes on.

It really is a very cute playhouse though, and just eyeballing it looks like it should be big enough for 6.

 

[B-flock]

Thank you everyone, I’ll keep all of your tips in mind! We’re in coastal Virginia and I’ll go fill out the profile after I type this reply. We’ve lived in this house for 7 years and saw the water come up into the back yard once. According to the previous homeowners, the water came up about 3-4 feet/to the top of the front steps on our elevated home during hurricane isabel. So, we always have worries of another Isabel-like storm in the back of our minds. We’d try to work out some kind of evacuation for the chickens, just like we would for our dogs though.

 

[yakitori]

My coop is about 4ft above the ground from one side, but the other side is only about 2 ft up. It’s the perfect height for cleaning the bedding, but I need a small step ladder to reach and clean the roosts (almost 9ft above ground).

I plan on building the nesting boxes on the 2ft side, for ease of collection...

 

[333113]

That looks like a great plan! The elevation will be great for flooding. Just seconding what @Kireh said-make sure to have a good size ramp with the area around it clear. You probably want lighter, better flying breeds like bantams. Some good standard breeds could be leghorns. Anything really heavy bodied might injure themselves landing, so avoid dual purpose breeds as they're meant to get large.

My Crevecoeurs love to roost high. So they would absolutely love your setup. They are black, crested, and lay white eggs.

Livestock Conservancy has a good comparison list of chicken breeds:
https://livestockconservancy.org/index.php/heritage/internal/chicken-chart

I love my Delawares, but they are not high flyers, nor are my buff Orpingtons. My Welsummers like high roosts, too. Mine are brown, and lay speckled brown eggs.

On the bantam side, I can heartily recommend Nankins. Great layers of medium to small eggs that are just perfect for pickled or devilled eggs, or, if you don't pick up the eggs and you have a rooster or just put in fertilized eggs, they are wonderful parents. And the roos are good parents, too. Nankins are cold-hardy and self-sufficient, and kid-friendly, too!

 

[aart]

My coop is about 4ft above the ground from one side, but the other side is only about 2 ft up. It’s the perfect height for cleaning the bedding, but I need a small step ladder to reach and clean the roosts (almost 9ft above ground).

I plan on building the nesting boxes on the 2ft side, for ease of collection...

View attachment 2322272

@yakitori have you been thru a winter with this?

 

[Compost King]

We’re turning our daughter’s swing set/playhouse into a coop and run and I’m looking for elevation advice. The plan is to use the playhouse part as the coop, with the nesting boxes inside it and have the run underneath it with hardware cloth, to include the span of swing set. Do you think the 4.5ft elevation would be too high for the chickens? We’d make the chicken ramp go into the run as much as we can, so it’s not too steep. We get tidal flooding in our yard about once a year with big storms, so if we lower it, we don’t want it lowered too much. We don’t have much experience with chickens, so I’m hoping you wise and more experienced owners could give be some insight on what kind of elevation you think the chickens would prefer! Thank you! View attachment 2320843

It really looks like an ideal set up to convert into a coop and run.

 

[RubelliteRose]

We also elevated our coop due to occasional wind driven flooding from Back Bay. I found this article to be very helpful when designing our ramp. https://www.thefeatherbrain.com/blog/chicken-coop-ramps