What are your coop regrets?

[spook]

Quote:
AMEN!!!!!!!!!! (giggle) We have a beautiful 4x8 chicken house, its great even for size, yet both of us wish we had placed it front to back with the shed so the girls and I could have had more cover for winter use. (my dear mother had that final say not understanding what we wanted- we live with her due to her health issues and we try to keep her in the loop and involved, you all have moms, lol)

The best thing that DH did for me was to build a "porch" on the front of the hen house, chick wire and clear heavy plastic over that. When its sunny, I open the door and allow the girls out onto it, helps give them some heat that is seldom felt in the North East between snow storms. BTW, I keep a small camp seat on a nail so when I need time out each day, I go in, sit down and talk to them. Its one of my favorite forms of meditation.

 

[MrGreenJeans]

My only regret thus far (still building) is that I walled off part of an existing structure and I didn't have the foresight to at least make any single part of it an 8' length.
(really stinks having to cut EVERY piece I bring in...)

 

[cthrash1]

My only regret is that I didn't make it larger.

 

[pixiechick]

I wish I had painted the inside white so it would look cute and tidy like the outside.

 

[herechickchick]

I wish I had put the nesting boxes higher. They are close to the ground so the stupid silkies sleep in them and fill them up with poop! I have to clean them every morning. I am going to have to build some kinda drop down screen for the evenings to teach them not to sleep in them.

 

[Alaska animal lover]

I wish it were bigger! It's 8x8 and same as the other posters, that was more than enough for the amount we had, it still is, but I want MORE!

 

[Momo]

I wish it were bigger, too. I was going to just make it 4'x8' initially; then reading on here convinced me to make it bigger than I thought I needed so I made it 8'x8' (with a covered and very secure 24'x8' run including under the house which is raised 32" off the ground so my hubby can clean it out without hurting his back) and a 6'x8' feed/storage room for me (which I love but wish it were bigger). But now that the coop is populated, I want more chickens! and I'm trying to figure out how to add another little coop to the compound. So yeah, when the folks on BYC say you should make it way bigger than you think you need, they're onto something. I also wish it were set up better for isolating different populations of chickens.

My neighbour across the street regrets not going to the time and expense of making her run properly predator proof. Worked fine for about a year and a half but then carnage ensued and now her three surviving hens are bunking over at my place.

 

[Momo]

Forgot to add - what I'm particularly pleased with is the feed room area, the lino on the chicken house floor, the big doors like oversized cupboard doors on the gable ends to access the chicken house and clean it out etc, the exterior nest box with hinged sloped top for easy access from outside, and the securely fenced/fully roofed run that's over 6' high.

 

[Momo]

One other thing I would do differently is have a machine make a nice flat spot and use cinderblocks around the perimeter for a foundation. DH used cement deck blocks to support the 4x4 posts but the ground is on a slope and very uneven so although the structure is pretty level, it looks off, and the bottoms of the walls are at different heights from the ground. We used heavy gauge rabbit wire to fill the gap to the ground, and buried it outward so I think it's pretty secure, but it looks kind of silly.

 

[Eggseronious]

Not large enough.