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

[aart]

This looks like an old time photo to me

Siding is definitely 'mid century antique'

 

[edeveraux]

I set my small hutch on a wooden pallet. It is off the ground which keeps it dry and level. It fit almost perfect and made it easier to clean and gather eggs.

 

[Sseckel]

Well I am definitely in the minority here. My coop is 11x14 and 8' high. The walls sit on cinder blocks and the interior has a dirt floor where I use deep litter and clean out once a year, twice if we have a wet summer. Otherwise I let it compost in place and put it directly in the garden beds each spring.
I keep the roosts pretty high so even if a raccoon got it it would be hard for them to get that high.
The only real predators we deal with are dogs though. And adding hog panels and an underground fence around the coop and run have worked wonders for them. There are lots of other predators but they have easier prey to go after than my chickens, for the last few years at least. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
I am considering adding a raised coop in the middle of the garden though, kinda more of a hang out spot? Not sure but I think it could be cute.

 

[Jessie_james]

I’m new to chickens but I read that you at least want an elevated place to them to nest and roost. If it’s not elevated, they might not want to deposit their eggs in the place you make for them. I have a small coop. It’s a single unit with an elevated roost area with a metal pan you can pull out to clean easier. It’s got the two-nest box overhanging outside. The rest is fenced in for a few feet of space under and past the roost box. The crappy thing is that when I need to grab a chicken from in there, there’s only one door to the ground level and I cannot reach my chickens if they go hide under the roost box area. I was stuck out in the rain for a while a few days ago, trying to grab my chicks so I could take them back inside. My younger ones are on the wild side and only 5-6 weeks old and I bring them outside for the day. This coop was free but if I had to make my own Or buy another, I would make it accessible to all areas.

 

[Chickenclaude]

All my coops I have build up on stilts... but now I am asking myself why I did that... and I think it goes back to "that's just how I always saw it done". But now 10+ years into chickening and I really can't come up with many benefits. Maybe I'm just missing something I take for granted... but here's my main thought points:

- Initial thought: a raised coop with a wire bottom would be easier to clean. 10-Years in thought: getting poop that doesn't go through the wire, off the wire, is a nightmare. Seems like a flat wood bottom with shavings would be a lot quicker/easier.

- 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 will provide better ventilation. 10-Years in thought: I'm sure the open bottom helps, but I have open rafters too and getting good ventilation is easy.

- 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.

- Initial thought: a raised coop will help with mites. 10-Years in thought: just like my bees, the concept was a wire bottom would allow dislodged mites / other undesirables to get out of the coop... but turns out I don;t have much mite issues and when I do, I just knock them out with Mite powder now.

- Initial thought: a raised coop gives the chickens more space / cover. 10-Years in thought: I let my chickens free range anyway, and they literally never go under the coop. If they were confined in a run, I could see this space as being important, but for me it is pointless.


Sooooooooooooooooooooo... am I blatantly missing something? I'm about to start building an new, large coop and I'm really not seeing a big benefit of having it off the ground. Thank sin advance!

I like a raised coop because I don’t have to bend to get my eggs. The cleaning is up and the space below is another secure spot in inclement weather. They can be out in any weather.

 

[Chicken Heel]

My four coops are off the ground. This allows for the chickens to get under it for shade and dusting as it generally stays dry under them. I have had coops at ground level in earlier times but rodents do tend to be drawn to those areas without chickens to deter them. And I lost my best ever mouser, Millie, to IVDD back in 2016. She would lie under my last ground level coop for hours on end and was hell on any rodent that dared to enter. She was a sweetheart too.

 

[centrarchid]

Rodents, harvesting feces and some predators.

 

[Chickenclaude]

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.

I move my house around but still, nothing grows underneath.

 

[Sseckel]

I’m new to chickens but I read that you at least want an elevated place to them to nest and roost. If it’s not elevated, they might not want to deposit their eggs in the place you make for them. I have a small coop. It’s a single unit with an elevated roost area with a metal pan you can pull out to clean easier. It’s got the two-nest box overhanging outside. The rest is fenced in for a few feet of space under and past the roost box. The crappy thing is that when I need to grab a chicken from in there, there’s only one door to the ground level and I cannot reach my chickens if they go hide under the roost box area. I was stuck out in the rain for a while a few days ago, trying to grab my chicks so I could take them back inside. My younger ones are on the wild side and only 5-6 weeks old and I bring them outside for the day. This coop was free but if I had to make my own Or buy another, I would make it accessible to all areas.

You definitely will have happier hens if your roosts and nesting boxes are elevated, they feel much safer when they can get off the ground at night. Plus it's easier to gather the eggs if you don't have to keep bending down. While the floor of my coop is not elevated (actually there isn't even an actual floor, just dirt) like so many others everything inside it is. I'd never fit everything in there if it wasn't, lol. Darn chicken math keeps getting me. I have to add more roost space now to accommodate my new chicks and add a couple new nests boxes as well.

 

[D-Bar-B]

My coop is ground level and just on what was once grass and now is just dirt and the straw I put it in. We’ve had no problems with it!