What improvements should be made to this coop?

[Cassiopia89]

My daughter hatched eggs at school and we agreed to take a chick home. We were planning on keeping it for a few weeks and then letting it live with a friend who has chickens. We ended up buying a friend for Danana after I read that they are social animals. And then Cat and Danana became part of the family, so with us they will stay! I wanted to build a new coop but realized that it may be an impossible task with little kiddos running around and quickly needing to relocate our chicks to a bigger abode. I purchased a home for them but want to make sure it is the best it can be. Please let me know if you see anywhere we can make improvements.

I am sorry that all the pictures are sideways. They are not saved that way to my computer and I am unsure how to fix them. We We live in Texas where is gets hot and rarely very cold. The coop is enclosed with the run. A few questions I initially have are:

1. Should we enclose the coop from the run or is it okay to leave it open?
2. Roost floor is hardware cloth. Should we put something down on top of that or leave as is?
3. What is best hardware for the doors? We do have lots of animals around here that I am sure would want to make a meal of our pets.
4. The whole thing is made of cedar and has been stapled together-should I go in and put screws?
5. What is the best thing to use to line the egg boxes?
6. There is one roost but it seems to be low, where is the best place to put a roost?
7. Should we put food and water containers up on a cinder block or is it best to suspend them?

Thanks in advance for any help we can get!


1. Egg box


2. inside egg boxes and wire coop floor. Outside door to coop



3. My niece making herself comfortable and sitting on the coop floor.


4. The roosting bar


5. Latch for the doors to the coop.


6. A boy and his chicks hanging in the coop.


7. The interior of the roof-Can i put a roosting bar up here?


8. Another one of the boy and his chicks!


9. Location of the coop under a giant Oak tree that will give it lots of shade. The Egg boxes are on the far side and face NE. The long sides of the coop face West and East at an angle and the screened short bottom faces SW.

 

[DaQatz]

Should we enclose the coop from the run or is it okay to leave it open?

You're in Texas it's best to leave it open. ventilation is key in a coop. And Chickens are very cold hardy.

Roost floor is hardware cloth. Should we put something down on top of that or leave as is?

Hardware cloth is fine, should be easier to keep clean because the poop will generally fall through.

What is best hardware for the doors? We do have lots of animals around here that I am sure would want to make a meal of our pets.

What ever material you made the rest of the coop out of is fine. Most critters don't know what a door is. And will try to go through the screen, or dig under the coop.

The whole thing is made of cedar and has been stapled together-should I go in and put screws?

I would use screws. The better put together the less likely an animal can break their way into the coop.

What is the best thing to use to line the egg boxes?

I like to use hay in boxes. I would also recommend straw. But the hay is softer on the birds.

There is one roost but it seems to be low, where is the best place to put a roost?

Chickens like the roosts high up. But you don't want the roost so high it's in the "heat catch" of the roof.(Assuming the roof is not vented). Pretty much if it's off the ground it's good though.

Should we put food and water containers up on a cinder block or is it best to suspend them?

Depends on your feeder. If they are standard feeders that they could scratch out or stand in, suspend them. If you have "no lose" feeders, that the chickens have to stick their heads into elevate them on blocks instead.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your new coop.

 

[Cassiopia89]

Thanks for all the advice! I am going to do a skirt around the coup to keep out diggers as well. The feeders are just plastic top with the round metal bottom with holes in it. They love to kick their pine shavings in to it right now. I am looking at getting nipples and making a waterer for them because they make a mess in their water right now. Do we need a container with sand for dust baths and one with grit?

 

[DaQatz]

Sand, mixed with a little wood ash would be a good addition for dust bathing. They have access to the dirt, so they will likely find their own grit. But wouldn't hurt to give them some extra.

Also that's not a huge coop. With the addition of a set of wheels on it's boxed side, and a handle on the the other. It it becomes a good sized chicken tractor. Which would let you move the coop around to give them fresh weeds/grass to eat.

 

[Blooie]

I must beg to differ with the hardware cloth floor. If you are counting on the poop dropping through it for easy pickup from underneath, what you'll end up with instead is hardware cloth crusted with poo. Chicken droppings aren't sparrow droppings...they are usually large glops (some can be almost the size of a pullet egg!) and they are sticky. They poop a lot when they are roosting, too, and it doesn't take long to end up with poop piles concentrated in one or two spots. So I'd come up with a different plan for the floor. Maybe look into deep litter or sand. For a coop that size, you could even put in plywood with Sweet PDZ as the substrate to make for odor prevention and easy clean up.

Otherwise what you have should work fine in your climate and for the number of birds you have. As DaQatz said, you'll need to reinforce well with screws and the addition of hardware cloth where ever possible. Screw the hardware cloth down with large washers and screws...staples can be pulled out by even a lazy raccoon! In your area remember that snakes can be a problem, and they love eggs as much as we do. So keeping food and water off the floor will cut down on the little occasional rodent looking for a free chicken crumble meal and the snakes that follow. Again, hardware cloth strong enough and small enough to keep them out will help. Good luck and enjoy your chickens!!

 

[Cassiopia89]

Thanks!

I must beg to differ with the hardware cloth floor.  If you are counting on the poop dropping through it for easy pickup from underneath, what you'll end up with instead is hardware cloth crusted with poo.  Chicken droppings aren't sparrow droppings...they are usually large glops (some can be almost the size of a pullet egg!) and they are sticky.  They poop a lot when they are roosting, too, and it doesn't take long to end up with poop piles concentrated in one or two spots.  So I'd come up with a different plan for the floor.  Maybe look into deep litter or sand.  For a coop that size, you could even put in plywood with Sweet PDZ as the substrate to make for odor prevention and easy clean up.

Otherwise what you have should work fine in your climate and for the number of birds you have.  As DaQatz said, you'll need to reinforce well with screws and the addition of hardware cloth where ever possible. Screw the hardware cloth down with large washers and screws...staples can be pulled out by even a lazy raccoon!   In your area remember that snakes can be a problem, and they love eggs as much as we do.  So keeping food and water off the floor will cut down on the little occasional rodent looking for a free chicken crumble meal and the snakes that follow.  Again, hardware cloth strong enough and small enough to keep them out will help.  Good luck and enjoy your chickens!!  

Thanks! Would you put the plywood on top of the hardware cloth? Also currently there is no roosting bars above that area-should I put on in for them the only roosting bar is down low (picture 4)

 

[Cassiopia89]

Sand, mixed with a little wood ash would be a good addition for dust bathing. They have access to the dirt, so they will likely find their own grit. But wouldn't hurt to give them some extra.

Also that's not a huge coop. With the addition of a set of wheels on it's boxed side, and a handle on the the other. It it becomes a good sized chicken tractor. Which would let you move the coop around to give them fresh weeds/grass to eat.

I have thought about putting wheels and a handle. How diffcult does that become though with a hardware fabric skirt attached to the bottom?

 

[Blooie]

Thanks!

Thanks! Would you put the plywood on top of the hardware cloth? Also currently there is no roosting bars above that area-should I put on in for them the only roosting bar is down low (picture 4)

Well, I must confess that I had a hard time trying to see your pictures. Old eyes and an old neck just wouldn't allow it. But it looks like the roost is almost on the ground, and that just won't work as well as a roost up higher. You can keep that one in there, though, and they'll use it as a hop-up to a higher roost.

I don't know what the dimensions of your set up are....like how big the area you'll use for nesting and roosting is and then how big the run area is. But you might look into those trays that go under rabbit hutches filled with PDZ or sand, or a combination, and then you could just either slide the trays out and scoop them or go inside to scoop poop off them. If it takes a couple of them to fill the space under the roost that's still fine - as long as you can clean it easily. Plywood would also work well, but I'd cover it with linoleum scraps or something to make it easy to clean. If you used the trays or covered plywood, you can still pull them out once in awhile to hose them off.

 

[Cassiopia89]

Thanks!