Waffling on where to put Coop on Small Lot

[Glorybee]

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View attachment 1438830

We talked about this earlier in the thread. Thanks for the tips.

 

[Glorybee]

Photos are funny things - looks no where near that wide in the pic . Honestly I'd go with that option - you could do a really lovely coop and secure run with that space and then let them freerange up the hill if that is what you want to do (and if there is access between the 2). I think the back looks too shaded and if you said it is really wet that is no good an as much as i love my chooks I don't want them living under my deck (if I had one ), I have enough trouble shooing them off my terrace (why do they choose to come there to poo??).

I agree. The in front of the retaining wall seems like a good place. Challenging as far as building with a retaining wall though and the coop would have to be smaller than we want.

 

[Glorybee]

Goodbye coop ,hello chicken tractor. Less feed no clean up and pretty green grass

But that hill is very steep. I love the idea of chicken tractors but we'd have to install anchors or something to keep it from sliding down. Only one small flat area.

 

[KikiLeigh02]

Any of those areas look like you could make them work pretty well! I would probably pick the area that is the flattest to make building easier. I got distracted looking at the shelf you have sitting in the alley area thinking about how easy it would be to convert to nesting boxes lol.

 

[townchicks]

Just a couple more things to factor in. Which areas will be quickest and/or easiest to get to in bad weather? They will still need to be tended to every day, and slogging up and down a wet muddy hillside gets to be a drag fast. Next is which area will it be most likely that you and the family will want to sit outside and watch/enjoy the chickens. That is one of the joys of having them, and if everyone wants to congregate in one place, and you can't even see the chickens, it starts to be easy to ignore them. To me, the retaining wall area looks the most promising, with the under deck second, unless you can add a small sitting area for people too. my biggest concern for under deck would be flies, you can put fly traps out, but they stink worse than any chicken poop, IMO. If you build a run to accommodate deep litter, smell is not that bad, and only when things get damp.

 

[Nardo]

Prime real estate under the deck? What would you do under there? It's still dirt, no concrete.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/76561262387426892/

My brain went to something like these. Looking at the plain paver ones, not the super expensive retaining walls. In my world, it wouldn't happen overnight, but we are so starved for shade here that we get crazy when we see an opportunity!

 

[Glorybee]

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/76561262387426892/

My brain went to something like these. Looking at the plain paver ones, not the super expensive retaining walls. In my world, it wouldn't happen overnight, but we are so starved for shade here that we get crazy when we see an opportunity!

I have to admit, that is amazing. Now you've really got me thinking. We usually just enjoy the space on the deck, but this could be good. Only way it would be better is if we could get away with a fire pit. That's probably a major code violation to have a fire pit under a deck though!

 

[True Patriot]

The retaining wall area has possibilities. But, how much hill is above it and how much runoff is there when it rains? Another question is how many chickens are you looking at? Roosterrob's idea of doing a tractor instead might be worth some thought.

 

[Cryss]

My brain went to coop size.
If going with the 6ftx3ft quail house that's big enough for 4.5 chickens. You'd also need 45sqft run with that. Your 35ftx4ft area there is more than enough for a dozen birds. Maybe you could make that coop 2X bigger for your 8 chickens.
As for under the deck, your plans for the coop size is perfect for 8 chickens and still have enough room for a run that would hold about 17.
Of course you would want to only have as many chickens as the smaller structure (coop vs run) can hold. In your case option one has the coop with 4 and option 2 has room for 8.
Just some info for you to add to your considerations. I didn't check too much about the other options you mentioned. Just keep in mind coop needs 4sqft per bird not counting nest areas, run needs 10sqft per bird.
Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Glorybee]

The retaining wall area has possibilities. But, how much hill is above it and how much runoff is there when it rains? Another question is how many chickens are you looking at? Roosterrob's idea of doing a tractor instead might be worth some thought.

A tractor for the hill? It's steep and we'd have crooked chickens trying to walk the slope. It is such a nice space grass wise, just not super useable. It does get wet up there but it doesn't hold it like behind the house. There isn't any puddling in front of the retaining wall even though there are drainage pipes in the wall to there. Partly because we have some bark chips there and partly because behind the retaining wall is a hole. The wall was build about two to three feet in front of the end of the slope. We just get a lot of blackberries growing there.

We have 8 chicks who we need to get the home figured out soon and a rooster that can't stay with us once he finds his voice. We may raise a couple meat chicks next year, but I'd say not more than five at a time. We kind of like the pallet coops and are planning on a 4x8.