What's the point of raising your Coop off the ground? My Thoughts / Asks

[Folly's place]

Some of us more mature individuals won't want to get under 36" either!!!
Mary

 

[perkolator]

My coop is built off the ground, with a solid floor, I wouldn't do it any other way personally.

Main reason for ME is ease of maintenance - simply raking out contents into a wheelbarrow vs having to shovel from ground-level is sort of a no-brainer and my back appreciates it. I do deep bedding on solid floor; I don't understand people who want daily chores with non-deep bedding systems.

Solid floor is to hold deep bedding/easy rake out, but also so predators can't chew on toes. Inlaws have a "free range" hen house, with no run and a mesh floor about 18" off the ground -- some animal was able to hang out underneath the coop at night and chew off toes of pullets before they were big enough to hop up to the roost bars - eek!

Rodents living underneath ground-level floor is another reason for me. Our old coop was basically a converted shed, built like a shed on a slightly elevated wood foundation -- had issues with rodents excavating and living underneath the coop where we couldn't really get access to for eviction. It even had a mesh skirt, but it wasn't deep enough to keep out rodents that were somehow digging tunnels from like 10ft away. Being able to see underneath the coop is what I like - I don't wanna have a rattle snake popping out a hole while I'm standing there collecting eggs

 

[Mtnboomer]

Some of us more mature individuals won't want to get under 36" either!!!
Mary

Theres no need to go underneath them other than with a push mower

 

[aart]

Theres no need to go underneath them other than with a push mower

WTH would you need to push a mower under a chicken coop?

but here's my main thought points

Great post...had me chuckling.
My coop is raised(building already was) and it's nice because it's often the only shade and is the only shelter from rain/snow as my birds are confined and run roof is mesh. I did limit the area they can go, didn't want to crawl under too far for injured and/or broody hen and/or eggs.
Before adding coop and run to big shed:

 

[rosemarythyme]

- Initial thought: a raised coop would be easier to work with. 10-Years in thought: it is convenient to have the coop at standing level, but that can also be achieved with a ground-based coop. Additionally, when the coop is up in the air, it needs to be smaller/lower which limits the roost options.

- Initial thought: a raised coop helps with weather/rain/water issues. 10-Years in thought: just getting off the ground at all is adequate, like on concrete blocks. But honestly for ease of cleaning I'm now leaning towards just pouring a concrete slab high enough up to shed the water.

A raised coop doesn't have to be that far off the ground, and can still be tall. My roof peaks at 8 1/2' interior, so with concrete blocks and roof and all it stands about 10' on the outside.

And after this past winter, I'm very glad my coop is off the ground. We had about 4" of fast rushing water flooding through the entire front lawn, the run, and under the coop... TWICE. The flooding destroyed my gravel walkway, picked up and carried off a half dozen 4x4s, and washed stepping stones hundreds of feet away into a pond. But because the coop is up on concrete blocks and skids, the flood waters didn't do any damage to it and the chickens were kept safe and dry inside.

 

[Mtnboomer]

WTH would you need to push a mower under a chicken coop?



Great post...had me chuckling.
My coop is raised(building already was) and it's nice because it's often the only shade and is the only shelter from rain/snow as my birds are confined and run roof is mesh. I did limit the area they can go, didn't want to crawl under too far for injured and/or broody hen and/or eggs.
Before adding coop and run to big shed:

Keep the grass short.....i dont get the question. Its a free standing coop at the edge of the yard. Im not letting the grass get uneven to the rest of the yard

 

[aart]

Keep the grass short.....i dont get the question. Its a free standing coop at the edge of the yard. Im not letting the grass get uneven to the rest of the yard

Must be a small coop(for sun to reach grass),
with no chicken access(cause they'd 'take care of' anything growing there).

 

[Mtnboomer]

Must be a small coop(for sun to reach grass),
with no chicken access(cause they'd 'take care of' anything growing there).

They have access. They have access to the whole 28 ac so they dont wear any part out. The coop is small (8x8 total floor area). Its bare in the middle underneath where the use it for dusting. But the riding mower misses about a10" ring of grass between the dust and the yard. We can't have that.

 

[BaaKaaawk]

Great post...had me chuckling.
My coop is raised(building already was) and it's nice because it's often the only shade and is the only shelter from rain/snow as my birds are confined and run roof is mesh. I did limit the area they can go, didn't want to crawl under too far for injured and/or broody hen and/or eggs.
Before adding coop and run to big shed:

[/QUOTE]

Your dog matches your shed pretty much perfectly. This looks like an old time photo to me... I just couldn't help myself in converting it...

 

[Tre3hugger]

Where I am, were having a lovely spring snowfall. 8 of my 10 birds are under the coop right now. It's also where I place my feeder when it is snowing or raining. Aside from shelter, my main reasoning was added square footage in the run. My coop is raised about 18 inches on 4x4 wooden legs.