Whats your favorite, must have, feature of your coop(s) at home?

[Gallo del Cielo]

Layers of shade! I live in a climate like yours and I can't emphasize how important shade is to survival in our kind of heat. In the best possible situation your coop should be completely in the shade where the sun's rays never hit it. If your coop is going to be directly exposed to the sun consider constructing layers of shade, which are more effective than a single layer. I use shade cloth, which allows for movement of air and two layers of it limit most sunlight from entering the coop. You can see what I did on my byc page.

 

[OHhappychicks]

Quote:
Elmo! I love the idea of poop trays!

When we built our henhouse 3 yrs ago, I wanted one with the wire mesh over it, but I thought the poo would just plop on the wire with very little going through, so we didn't put anything under the roosts. We just put extra wood chips under them. I never thought of the boot trays. Where did you purchase them? I love this site!!

 

[msudawgs56]

I too would like to know about where you got the poop trays. Can you post a picture? thanks

 

[Alabama ee]

Wheels.

Ours is a tractor. It has a welded wire floor. The poop falls through to the ground. I just move it around. Once a week, I hose it down and let it dry.

 

[KimberlyJ]

My favorite must have feature of my coop/run is security. Be sure any outside nest boxes lock securely to keep out racoons (and maybe even neighbors). The run needs to be made of hardware cloth-not chicken wire. And make a apron to deter digging under.

 

[OHhappychicks]

Sorry Katydidit! I was so excited about the poop trays!!! One of the things we like in our henhouse are the rubber mats we put on the floor. All we do is kinda roll them up and take them out and dump them. We clean out the hh about once every month or 6 wks. We then about every other time power wash them off. Our hh is about 10x12 (?). I know it sounds like a lot of effort, but it only takes my dh and I about 30 -45 min to clean out the entire hh when we power wash it. So if yours is smaller, having something you can just pull out and dump is nice. It saves your subfloor. If we ever stop having chickens (

bite my tongue!) We can use the hh for storage. Also, we have a small storage room,about 3x10 where we walk into our hh. We keep the feed in there and also the access to the nest boxes so we don't have to go into the actual living quarters of the girls, except to feed and water. It works for us just fine. There are so many ingenious people on here, I'm sure you will find alot of wonderful suggestions!

And Welcome to the wonderful world of chickens and BYC!!!

(by the way, one of my dd's name is katie. I remember KatieDidIt!!!)

 

[PapaChaz]

the poop tray idea sounds great! i made my whole floor so i could pull it out, a drop down door across the whole wall, slide the plywood out and sweep/scrape/hose away the poo n goo and pine shavings, check my page, even my petite DW can manage it by herself. I also made my coop and run with removable partitions so i can quarantine new hens or chicks for the appropriate length of time, yet have all used to the same house....lots and lots and lots of GREAT ideas on coops and runs here, this site is great!
@perchie-girl - i too am trying to figure out a through the wall feeder i can access from outside. there was one coop on here that used a baby pig feeder, said he got it at TSC, but none of my local ones can figure out what i'm talking about. Let me know what you come up with!

 

[damselfish]

Movable roosts!

We have a four tiered stepped roost, and all but the closest roost to the wall drop into slots and can be lifted completely out to clean under the roosts without stooping.

I'm actually not fond of poop trays. We had them for a while and it was smelly and gross each day to scrape them off and hose them. I prefer lots of good shavings under the roost, then pull the roost branches out of their slots and scoop out the poops (like cleaning a litterbox). The chickens free range all day, so the poo in our coop tends to be concentrated only where they sleep.

You will find your right way. Have fun with your chickens!

 

[Ivywoods]

I have this antique roll-out egg nest in my coop. It is a "community" nest, in that there is only one compartment that the hens lay in. That part is about 24" x 36". It came from a farm auction and I gave $20 for it. I have 30 hens that use this nest. They love it and so do I. The hole to the nest is located to the inside of their house, and the rest of the nest sits on a bench in the walk in portion (supply and feed part) of their chicken house. I just lift the front lid and the eggs are right there for me to pick up.

It's not the prettiest feature, but it sure is functional. I like the fact that it came from an old farm nearby. The elderly lady was selling the farm and moving to assisted living. She had raised chickens and sold eggs for years and years.

Now it is located in my layer coop which is made from an antique horse drawn blacksmith wagon that we bought and did a little creative "adaptive reuse."

I'm getting ready to build a barn for my breeder birds, so I am reading and planning what I want for my new barn. I will build roll out nests in ALL of the pens.

Another feature I read on another thread that I intend to incorporate is roosts that are "hinged" at the top so you can swing them up against the wall or the ceiling to make a clear path for cleaning. No more head-bumping when cleaning the coop!

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Edited to add: I think I stated the dimensions wrong. I think it is closer to 48" long.

 

[aussiedude248]

If you have Flies where you live you can put a screen over the wire IN THE RUN (Screen like on a Pool cage) And it works amazing.