What do you put in your coop utility /feed room?

[huntersmoon]

Hi

We are finally moving up from our mobile coop to a permanent one. I've got a great design a local chicken expert uses. We'll have a run opening into the coop, and a utility room on the other side of the coop. I'll have a screen door going from the utility room to the coop, and another screen door going from that to the run (with a smaller chicken door to the run of course).

In the utility room (what I would call a feed room for my horses) I'll have the backside of the nest boxes, as well as either a walled off (half wall half screen) area for chicks or a brooder box built at thigh height. I'll also have a sink and small fridge, and secure containers for feed, and shelves for bins of supplies..

My question is - if any of you have a setup like this, what else do you keep in the utility / feed room? It will be next to my garden yard, so I will likely have a small greenhouse function in one side of the room. Currently my size for this feed room is 6x15, (with coop at 10x15, and the run any size x 15).

I want to place onto my design the things I plan to keep in there so I allow for enough space and identify if I have too much space.

Thanks
Shannon

 

[teach1rusl]

Wow! A sink and small fridge!! That sounds fancy! Is that for the cold beer? LOL!!

Metal trash cans work well for keeping mice out of feed. I don't have that kind of coop set-up, be we do have a "hay storage room" in our alpaca barn. We use a small chest freezer (got for $20 - non-working) to store bags of feed - great for keeping mice out.

You'll also be keeping bags of bedding (at least if you buy the aspen/pine shavings) in the room, maybe a bag of DE. Whether you'll keep meds/de-wormers in your storage area (versus in your house) will depend on storage temps. required on the label.

 

[huntersmoon]

Thanks! It will be like a laundry utility sink, for washing injured birds or such. My laundry room will be happy to not have that use. The waterers will be directly from the rainbarrel, into the little beaker cups set off a pvc pipe, so if I get pinched for money I may forego the sink and use a wash bin outside. Definitely will have the dorm fridge, and I like the idea of the nonworking chest freezer for feed.

 

[mclanea]

Seems like you can never go wrong with a cabinet/counter combo. You could get stock stuff from Home Depot or Lowe's pretty inexpensively and you'd get some storage plus a nice work space for repairing things, workspace if you needed to get a closer look at a hen, place to store stuff, etc.

That luxury of space is something I wish I had!

 

[Weehopper]

I keep all of my animal meds, bandages, dewormers, etc. in one cabinet. That way, if I have an emergency with any of my animals (including chickens), I know right where to go.