Trying to come up with a coop design for my 8 girls. Take a peek!

[Cajunrose]

Ok, I jumped the gun just a bit on buying the chicks. I live in a neighborhood (that does allow chickens) but my yard is only so big...
We were going to build a tractor, but one for 8 chicks would be too hard for me to move around, I think. I was sitting outside giving them some outside time when I had a brilliant idea. We have an 8 x 8 playhouse that is 6 foot off the ground in the backyard. My husband built it for my 7 year old. Unfortunately, he built HIS design and not HERS and she NEVER plays in it. She slides sometimes, and swings all the time, but never plays IN it. So.....Why not turn the whole thing into a coop? He can tear the playhouse part of it off and use that wood to build laying boxes, perches, etc. It even has a sandbox in it in the corner that they can use to dust themselves (heard that is necessary here in the heat.) The floor of the playhouse will be the roof of the coop. We can do all of this nearly for free. I would like to let them loose as much as I can during the day...but it might be hard. My dog tried to run away with one of the chicks today. I hope they will get used to them.

So my question is this...I told my chicken raising friend about it..and she said that it will stink especially when it rains. If you clean it often, will it stink bad? It can't be ANY worse than the behind me neighbor that has 6 dogs and a postage stamp sized backyard with NO grass (cement and gravel). My gosh does that stink in the heat. Is it do-able? Money is tight right now and this would be the cheapest option for us...and we would be using up some wasted space.

Here is a picture.

Thanks

 

[seminolewind]

If you keep it clean it will be fine. And you can also get some garden lime and toss some in with the shavings and in the pen if you have one. Nice coop!

 

[Noymira]

That looks like a great backyard coop!

 

[mcostas]

You could keep the playhouse as it is and make it so the chickens can go under it, that way it would be easier to clean out the coop, you wouldn't have to bend over.


I use a dog kennel. I started out with a chicken tractor and believe it or not the kennel seems to stay cleaner. I think it's cause it's covered. Chicken poo won't smell much when it's dry. Keep in mind you won't have a nice grassy chicken pen. I use leaves as pen litter and put a little diatomaceous earth in it.


There are a lot of possibities with your playhouse

 

[Cajunrose]

We WOULD keep the playhouse as is, but nobody plays in it. We will use the wood to make laying boxes and stuff like that. We'll keep the floor of the playhouse as the roof of the henhouse...It'll be the same height and everything. nothing will change but the playhouse coming apart up top and there being a flat roof, railings, a slide and swing. Make sense?