What’s missing?

[Sloane Chickens]

What else are we missing from our home made coop?

the power tools will be removed. No tradie chickens here

Different level roosts due to chicken ages/sizes.. there is a ramp for the upper level nesting boxes too.

 

[Debbie292d]

It sure looks nice. The one lower rooster in the third picture looks too close to the wall but that's probably just the picture or optical illusion. They should be 18" from the wall. Having the one over the other will cause the ones on the bottom to get pooped on though. They'll also want to roost on your nest boxes as those are the higher roosts they'll want. Just put yours up higher and they shouldn't do that then.

Otherwise, you need bedding, a feeder, and a waterer! Voila!

 

[aart]

Those roosts are totally inadequate, way to thin and poorly supported and spaced.

How many birds do you have?
You only need 1 nest for every 3-5 layers.
The nests also need a perch in front so they can jump up onto to enter the nest. The fronts should be 4-6" above the nest bedding.

Oh and also...in order to give a true and accurate assessment we need to see the whole coop, inside and out, and know your climate/location.

 

[K0k0shka]

I agree that the roosts need to be reworked entirely. They're too thin and would snap under the weight of the chickens. In the first picture, why do you have so much roost space so low to the ground, and just a tiny awkward board in the corner high up? Chickens want to be high up, they're not going to use that bottom roost if there are other areas higher up (like the nesting boxes). Roosts should be parallel to the wall, otherwise there's a lot of roost length in the corners that won't get used because it's too close to the walls. The areas of roost that they do use need to be much farther from the walls too, so they can maneuver and turn around on the roost. And to avoid them pooping all over the walls. If you're going to have two heights of roosts, they need to be staggered in a ladder formation with the lower one farther out than the higher one, so they can jump from one to the other. In the third picture, you have it backwards - the top one protrudes farther out than the bottom, so they can't use the bottom roost to jump up to the top one. They won't use the bottom one at all - it's almost touching the wall so no room to even sit on it, they can't use it to jump up to the top one, and they won't even try to sleep on it because the nesting box top is higher and more comfortable.

To make this better, I would switch to thicker roosts. I don't know what standard measurements of boards you have in Australia, over here in the US we have these common boards that are about 5x10 cm that work well for roosts (flat side down). Or you can use thick tree branches that are at least 8cm in diameter. Give them proper supports against the wall, too - something underneath the roost, either a large corner brace, or a block drilled into the wall (the metal walls will make this complicated, but that's one of the many downsides of a metal coop that you'll have to navigate). And place the roosts about 40cm away from the wall, at a height higher than the top of the nesting boxes. Give the chickens something halfway up that height, to help them get up there because not all of them will be able to jump up there from the floor (they might when they are nice and young, but think into the future - old age, injuries, etc.)

Your pictures have left out one of the most important parts of a coop - the ventilation! You'll need LOTS of it if you have a metal coop in Australia, to keep it from turning into an oven. The bare minimum year-round recommendation is 30 square centimeters per chicken, and you need a lot more in the summer when it's hot (or if you live in a hot climate). So, large vents protected from predators and weather, and lots of open protected windows as well.

 

[Sloane Chickens]

It sure looks nice. The one lower rooster in the third picture looks too close to the wall but that's probably just the picture or optical illusion. They should be 18" from the wall. Having the one over the other will cause the ones on the bottom to get pooped on though. They'll also want to roost on your nest boxes as those are the higher roosts they'll want. Just put yours up higher and they shouldn't do that then.

Otherwise, you need bedding, a feeder, and a waterer! Voila!

Yeah we moved the under ones once I realised poop would be a problem lol.
They’ve got bedding. But food and water was located outside. Should they have it inside too? They free range daily so I didn’t consider food inside and out!

 

[Debbie292d]

Yeah we moved the under ones once I realised poop would be a problem lol.
They’ve got bedding. But food and water was located outside. Should they have it inside too? They free range daily so I didn’t consider food inside and out!

Our food/water is inside of the coop. Ours free range so food would get wet or be available to rodents and birds if left outside.

If you don't have room in your coop, I've seen pictures of folks who made outdoors food/water stations for their chickens by building a solid wall about 4' x 4' square, and putting a roof on it. That wouldn't work here unless we enclosed it as we have a lot of wind with rain and snow. It would still get ruined.

 

[Sloane Chickens]

Our food/water is inside of the coop. Ours free range so food would get wet or be available to rodents and birds if left outside.

If you don't have room in your coop, I've seen pictures of folks who made outdoors food/water stations for their chickens by building a solid wall about 4' x 4' square, and putting a roof on it. That wouldn't work here unless we enclosed it as we have a lot of wind with rain and snow. It would still get ruined.

We have enough space inside to do food and water. I just didn’t consider it given they have access to it outside aha.
I’ll have a look at putting it inside their coop or making an outdoor food/water station.. thanks heaps.

 

[Sloane Chickens]

Thanks everyone. The roosts hold 20kgs. So I wasn’t overly concerned about the weight issue. I’ll grab some thicker planks though.

As put in the original post we have lower planks for the babies and we’re going to adjust them higher once they got to a bigger size..

The coop has ventilation - huge window, coop doors have windows too. And we’ve installed a whirly bird on the roof .

 

[nuthatched]

The roosts bars are far too flimsy, they won't last long, I'd recommend some 2x3s. And remove the lower roosts since they won't use them.

 

[MountainWoman73]

Looks good . I think you'll find they like to roost on top of those nest boxes. (And will poop up there a lot.) So, have some plan to deal with that or add a slanted board on top to prevent them perching there. You'll figure out what they like as you go.

My personal favorite coop innovations:
1.) separate storage area to keep them from pooping on extra hay bales, feed bags, etc.
2.) chicken door on a pulley so you don't have to go inside to open/shut it (some people go fully automatic but we're not that fancy)
3.) small shelf for your coffee cup when you set it down to collect eggs
4.) trap door in the floor for shoveling out poop and bedding