Tour of our first coop

[doublenerds]

I'm so excited, the coop is finally done and our 5 1/2 week old chicks have moved out of the house - woo hoo!

Here are the features:

• In retrospect I would have made it bigger, it's just the minimum size for our 6 hens (30 square feet, including 6 sq. ft. of nesting box)
• Will be using deep litter so we added 1 foot to the overall height of the coop plans (purchased on ebay)
• 2 layers of 1/2 inch hardware cloth over all vents and window. Our property is adjacent to a nature preserve and we have predators aplenty.
• Solar-powered door from https://www.chickendoors.com/
• Wired for ethernet for 24-hour chicken cam indoors and out
• Also wired and ready to route power from the house for supplemental lighting and cookie tin water heater in winter
• Water will be outside when chicken run is complete, we will be adding additional PVC feeders to the interior of the coop later this week.

I'm pretty pleased with the results.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

It is a cute little coop. How big will your run be?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

It's cute! Just think of all you learned that you can do when you build the next one. ......

 

[doublenerds]

It is a cute little coop. How big will your run be?

24' x 12', which is the compromise between my wanting it as large as possible and my spouse's concern about how much of our yard was going to be lost to the chickens

 

[Then I Will]

Very cute coop, doublenerds! Bravo for going with fun colors!
Yes, prepare for all that beautiful green grass in the run to become a mud hole. It's tough penning chickens up like that. Their destructiveness is so bad when their scratching space is limited. But if you have a lot of leaves falling in the fall, dumping them in the chicken run will provide your chickens with fun, your run with a new layer of topsoil, and perhaps even yourself with some great potting soil! It's amazing how quickly they scratch the leaves into tiny bits!
Also, I'm sooo jealous of your solar powered automatic doors! Husband threw up some osb ones I have to latch morning and night to open and close. Hopefully, in the future when they've rotted away, I can encourage him for an upgrade.