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We get frequent high winds here, and when it rains, it is often in heavy windy squalls that quite literally blow my birds across the yard. I am not at all happy with my current coop set-up when it comes to ease of use in lousy weather. I have 2 tractors ... a Catawba ark (wood) ans an Eglu cube with the attached large run, and then those are surrounded by protable field fencing so the girls can go outside when they want. I had to cover both the Catawba Ark, and the Eglu Coop and run with clear tarps , 10' long 1X3's hammered to the ends to weight them down and bungeed too. I have to mess with the covers in the wind and the rain just to access the coop doors. Besides looking awful, it is very inconvenient. The doors on the wood coop stick so much in this weahter, I have stopped using it all together until we get some warm, dry weather again. I am having a 10' x 12' walk-in coop built with an attached 10'X 20' covered run which can be closed into 2 10'x10" runs, and the entire thing is in a 35'X25' fenced area. I may put electric fencing around the 35'x25' fence. So long as the bear does not pay us another visit, the covered run and coop are predator proof (burried hardware cloth and chicken wire on run floor). The fenced area is not raccoon proof, but it should be dog-proof. I'm hoping to let my dogs loose in my 2 fenced acres, they will be able to patrol around the fenced chicken area, then when the weather is nice, and I am home, I will let the chickens loose in the 2 acre yard with the dogs locked in their run (16' x24').
My coop is divided into 2 sections for the chickens, and a narrow section for me to store chicken feed and access the nest boxes from the back side without having to stand out in the rain. I also have a solar-powered light in the coop. (turns on with a string - for my use. I don't provide the girls with extra light, and they still lay lots of eggs; I average 5 a day from 7 birds! No heat, no light. It's about to go up as my 2 SLW's started the "squat" today. The thing is quite pricey because I had to hire someone to build it for me. I'll take pictures when it is done (very soon, I hope).
