Two story coop????

[Tattoedchickengal]

I am not super new to chicken raising but still have tons of questions. The coop that I want and NEED for the size of my flock, my husband is drawing a line on. So my question is will the birds utilize a second story in their current coop if I build it? My current coop is a small walk in. I have a ton of room though from floor to ceiling. If I build a second floor with a ladder/stairs/whatever for them to get up to a second space would they use it? And would that be sufficient enough to accommodate space needs/bird until I can build the space that I truly need??

 

[Kiki]

Yes...they should use it.

Can you post a few pictures of your current coop?

 

[rosemarythyme]

"It depends" but keep in mind chickens don't stack for storage. You also need to compensate for an increased need for ventilation, roost space, etc.

Also depending on your location, if you are in a climate where birds might stay indoors due to cold or weather conditions, they will need even more space than the minimum suggestions you typically see on here.

 

[SourRoses]

"It depends" but keep in mind chickens don't stack for storage.

My mom and I joke all the time about the birds needing to stow away on their shelves for the night, since one coop is a former shed with built-in shelves we stripped to just the frames for roosts. When they're stored properly, walking in there feels like shopping somehow...


OP, may I suggest you also draw a "hard line" about some things? Like sandwich making?
I mean, I'm not one to fuss about buying things, normally, but anyone getting in the way of me caring for my animals would quickly find themselves not in the way.

I suppose a more, err... elevated... way of dealing with it would be to sit down and outline some ways you can bring in income from the birds. Nevermind that such projections are not often met, by the time you've got things rolling along nicely he may have mentally moved back to planning for his own hobbies (everyone needs at least one, right?).

 

[saysfaa]

...if I build a second floor with a ladder/stairs/whatever for them to get up to a second space would they use it? And would that be sufficient enough to accommodate space needs/bird until I can build the space that I truly need??

I tried it as much as I can. I've had mixed results. For the first six or eight or maybe 12 months, it made the problem worse because they not only didn't use the upper levels except to eat, roost, and get in my way as I cleaned the poop board, they also didn't like going under the platforms.

Even though I do as much as I can to encourage using the upper levels - putting their dust bath directly under a platform, their food dish up on a platform, and so on.

Lately, they have been hanging out on the upper levels and under the higher platform, though. I don't know what changed... possibly rehoming Spice (my problem child) contributed as they are doing even more of both since she left. They were doing noticeably more before she left, though.

If nothing else, it does work as clutter to give them more options to get out of the line of sight of each other.

Bottom line is it is worth trying but I wouldn't depend on it working well enough to count as floor space.

 

[Poppy Putentake]

Here is a video by someone who has done something like what you are talking about -- a multi-level coop. Note that, as he mentions, the birds prefer the higher levels, (remember they are birds) so the socially dominant ones grab those spaces, but there is still a good roost for all.

As another example of really going vertical, here is an article with another video, about a compost-making facility (which I have visited in person) where hundreds of chickens swarm over mountains of rotting garbage. At 1:49 minutes (and again at 2:47), there is a view of the dozens of nesting boxes in the barn that houses the chickens. There are two very long ramps leading up to the bare rafters of the barn (more than 10 feet off the ground!) which serve as roosting bars for the chickens.

 

[Anime2lover]

I am not super new to chicken raising but still have tons of questions. The coop that I want and NEED for the size of my flock, my husband is drawing a line on. So my question is will the birds utilize a second story in their current coop if I build it? My current coop is a small walk in. I have a ton of room though from floor to ceiling. If I build a second floor with a ladder/stairs/whatever for them to get up to a second space would they use it? And would that be sufficient enough to accommodate space needs/bird until I can build the space that I truly need??

They will roost as high as they can get. If you do that, for your sake it would be advised to make it easily accessible to you as well for ease of cleaning.

 

[imacowgirl2]

Mine isn’t two story but I do have a large storage shelf in there to create more “floor space” to allow extra space for the low hens on the totem pole to roost if they want, and also a place for the juveniles to hang out and roost. I added a picture where you can partially see the shelves above the nest boxes. There are four shelves total, with three of the four having small roosts on them. My flock size fluctuates substantially and temporarily throughout the year as we grow out 4-H prospects, and this additional “floor space” and roost space allows us to make do without having an additional coop. That being said, I would not want to rely on my setup for permanent additional space — but I don’t see why a full second story couldn’t be utilized more permanently, as long as ventilation is sufficient on both floors.

 

[Poppy Putentake]

A question that relates to all this is -- how good are chickens at hopping and flying around in a narrow space? Is there a risk of injury if they don't have a large "landing zone" or if they fall off a high roost? Is it good to provide little ramps so they can reach all the high spots without neding to hop up or down?

Yes, I know they *are* birds, but they are heavy for their wing area and can't fly as well as "dckey birds".

 

[imacowgirl2]

A question that relates to all this is -- how good are chickens at hopping and flying around in a narrow space? Is there a risk of injury if they don't have a large "landing zone" or if they fall off a high roost? Is it good to provide little ramps so they can reach all the high spots without neding to hop up or down?

Yes, I know they *are* birds, but they are heavy for their wing area and can't fly as well as "dckey birds".

I have a ramp up to my bottom shelf, and the perches to get in the nest boxes also serve as a take-off spot when going up. Once they are on the roost area or bottom shelf, they can go to the other shelves from the roost area, and there is also a little ramp from the roost area to the shelving. In my experience, even before I had the shelving, most of the girls would fly up and down from the roost instead of using the ramp. I make sure to leave a wide open landing space on the floor to accommodate this. Luckily when coming down from the shelving, so far they always seem to go to the roost area then fly down from there (though I really do wish some of the heavier hens would walk down the ramps instead of fly…darn hens can’t be told anything though