What Do You Wish You Had Known Before You Bought/Built Your First Coop?

[rosemarythyme]

But I do have one question to ask those of you experienced chicken tenders concerning light requirements. I don't mean artificial light for laying, but just natural light through windows. I have a 1ft x 4ft sliding window our house contractor purchased in error (and couldn't return), so between that and a storm door with a tall window in it, is this enough natural light so the place isn't cave-like?

Depends on how you orient the windows. If one is facing the rising sun and the other the setting sun, you should get a pretty good amount of light to navigate by in there.

Where I live, we have a lot of gloomy days in fall and winter. Even with 5 windows facing 3 different directions I sometimes need artificial light so I can clearly see inside during daylight hours in order to clean up.

 

[h2oratt]

That chickens could fly.

 

[EmmaRainboe]

That chicken wire doesn't do

 

[Hermits Garden]

Depends on how you orient the windows. If one is facing the rising sun and the other the setting sun, you should get a pretty good amount of light to navigate by in there.

Where I live, we have a lot of gloomy days in fall and winter. Even with 5 windows facing 3 different directions I sometimes need artificial light so I can clearly see inside during daylight hours in order to clean up.

I should be good then--one will face east, the other west. But I do plan to have a little light fixture & switch in there, because the nesting area is on the "dark side" of the L-shape. Ooh--maybe I'll do a little chandelier! (Kidding...mostly.)

We'll have electric run to the coop/shed because we want to keep the brooder out there rather than in the garage or house.

 

[Isadora]

This is a hard one! My husband is an engineer and plans his projects pretty meticulously with lots of research so I'm not sure there's anything I would change. we built a woods style open air coop. It has plenty of ventilation and light and ample roosting space. I joke with my husband that the chicken coop is nicer than our house (we live in a fixer upper, so it's true!)!
Time will probably show us something we will want different but I think it's good for now.

 

[3KillerBs]

This is a hard one! My husband is an engineer and plans his projects pretty meticulously with lots of research so I'm not sure there's anything I would change. we built a woods style open air coop. It has plenty of ventilation and light and ample roosting space. I joke with my husband that the chicken coop is nicer than our house (we live in a fixer upper, so it's true!)!
Time will probably show us something we will want different but I think it's good for now.
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Yes, if the chickens don't work out for you then you could rent it out as a vacation cottage.

 

[Hermits Garden]

This is a hard one! My husband is an engineer and plans his projects pretty meticulously with lots of research so I'm not sure there's anything I would change. we built a woods style open air coop. It has plenty of ventilation and light and ample roosting space. I joke with my husband that the chicken coop is nicer than our house (we live in a fixer upper, so it's true!)!
Time will probably show us something we will want different but I think it's good for now.
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I hope my chickens never see this coop. I might have a mutiny on my hands!

 

[SueT]

That my hens would prefer to nest in plastic milk crates on the floor than in carefully constructed wooden boxes attached to the wall.
And that adding more chickens is not necessarily a good thing.

 

[3KillerBs]

I'd like to add that I wish I'd known back in town how easy it is to work with electric poultry netting.

 

[Krugerrand]

That my goats would prefer its raised floor to their own goat shed?

Ok, more useful for others - I set the floor just high enough that a cart or wheelbarrow could be rolled under it (accounting for deep litter) so that I could simply rake out the spent bedding periodically straight into the cart and roll it off for use elsewhere. That was good.

I failed to consider that ducks nest on the ground (Ok, I did, that's why I made it two level - chickens on the raised floor, ducks below). I failed to consider that ducks NESTED on the ground, where I would daily have to crouch down and walk/crawl/waddle/shimmy something to get the eggs they left at the far corners of the house, out of my reach from the central access.

Unless its planned as a walk-in shed, a dual duck/chicken coop is a load of problems - I'd have been better off using the materials I spent on the raised floor extending my walls another four feet (at least), and adjusting their height to provide more under eave ventilation.

Pardon the ignorance of an almost young city dweller .... but what purpose do goats serve? Do you milk them? That's all I know of.