Ventilation

[Jjfester]

We are getting ready to start our chicken coop for our 4 chickens. My husband has some basic plans set out, and was thinking about leaving a small gap between the roof and the coop for ventilation.

Will this let too much air to come in? How far down would we put the roosts?

We live in the Pacific NW and usually have fairly mild winters and summers, but the last few years mother nature has been throwing a tantrum so I have no idea what is to come this winter.

Help would be appreciated.

Also we plan on having a raised with the underneath part fenced in for a small run area in addition to a regular run and free ranging during the day. How tall should the floor be from the ground for this to be feasible?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

You can and should have a gap front and back of the slanted roof. Just remember to hard wire those two openings closed. I use 1/2 hardware cloth for the coop openings and 14 ga. 2x4 welded wire for the run.

For the height of the coop floor from ground is really up to you. I think about what height would be comfortable for me to shovel out old pine shavings and how tall my feeder is that will hang under the floor outside. A compromise of those two factors works best. The feeder base should be shoulder height of chickens or a bit lower.

When making the coop don't forget that all openings have to be adjusted up to accommodate the coop bedding depth. If you plan to use 4 inches of pine shavings or whatever make the chicken door 5 or 6 inches above floor, make the nesting boxes same height. The side or back clean out/ maintenance door should be that wall with over hang of floor so when open it's a flat shovel along floor to empty. Just makes things easy if you think ahead about these things.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Actually Purina has some decent plans for a hutch like what you want. Some things I'd change on it are, get rid of sky light, reduce the number of nest from 3 to 2 and lower the nests to same height of door by moving door to side. Oh, and you could make the chicken door swing up and latch open, latch closed.

If you look down the page of link you'll see small thumbnails of plans, click on them to enlarge:

http://www.mansfieldfeed.com/news-updates/build-your-own-chicken-coop-2014-02-3056