I’ve experimented with tree limbs of various thicknesses, and 2x4’s narrow side up or narrow wide side up for roosts. My conclusion is that people care about this a lot more than the chickens do. But since it is custom built, you can ask them to lay it flat if that’s important to you. From what I’ve observed the chickens don’t consider either one right or wrong. At least the roost is higher than the nests. That is good.
I also have concerns with ventilation. I assume you are in the Sacramento area. Your weather doesn’t get that viciously cold, summer heat may be more of a concern for you. That roof does not have overhang. A real easy way to provide good ventilation up high is to have a bit of overhang and leave the top few inches of the wall open but covered with hardware cloth against predators.
I don’t like the way the roof slopes. Rainwater is directed straight to your run. You don’t want water going into your run, you want it flowing away from the run. I don’t think you can add a gutter and downspout to that design to get the water away.
I think you access the nests by raising the lid. I’m not sure how he flashes that to keep rainwater from getting into the nests but maybe he has that covered. But the run extension is shown under the nests. Will it be in the way of looking in the nests? Maybe you can talk to him about moving that run extension to behind the building instead of on the side? That could help with water running into the run also.
I also would like to see inside better. That poop tray that slides out can make cleaning easier but I’m not sure how necessary it really is. I don’t know why you couldn’t back a wheelbarrow or a plastic bin under that opening and just rake bedding into that when you clean. That may actually be easier if that tray gets in a bind or is hard to slide out. That could make it less expensive to build.
In general I’m not a fan of those pop door openings in the floor. They tend to take up too much floor space. But in your climate I don’t see that as a big problem. They should have all the run available to them whenever they need it. Chickens do not differentiate between coop space and run space. They just see space available, wherever that is.
Best I can tell he is using decent hardware, not the real flimsy stuff you often see. But those locks don’t look all that raccoon proof to me. Can you put a lock or some type of closure on there to really lock them closed?
It’s small, looking at coop plus run, assuming you get the run attachment. I would not put more than four hens in there.
Access to the run is OK but limited. You’ll do any cleaning in there on your knees. That run looks about two feet high. That’s plenty of height for the chickens but I hope you have a good back. Lots of people live with that though.
Those photos show two different kinds of ramps. I don’t know that one is any better than the other. They both should work.
I think he is avoiding a lot of the normal flaws with those online coops. You will probably get a pretty well made coop. Since it is custom built you might discuss some of this with him and let him convince you which way is best to go. He may have reasons I’m not thinking of to do things this way.
