Why are many coops elevated off the ground

[novanod1966]

where to begin...... off the ground :

1) keeps diseases that are in the ground and transmition of those diseases are kept to a minimum
2) drainage of rain water is kept to a minimum
3) if above ground (and wire floor) then poop can drop thru the wire.

if you have a coop underneath your deck i would be worried about:
1) diseases that humans can contract from chickens (ie. asperilogosis, bird flu, e.coli, and others)
2) inviting vermin into your living quarters: rats (carrying diseases), bugs, and snakes.
3) all the excrement that is in close contact with you (24/7)

don

 

[fairytails]

I am beginning to understand the space math now. Like a two story house, the area gets almost doubled! Do not worry, my birdies would get plenty of sunshine and I may need to shade even more because deck area faces south. There is little tree cover, just a wide open park next door.

I do not know much about the rat thing! We have tons of mice here, but think we have very few rats in MN. I have one mole in yard now, driving me batty so need to get one of those guillotine traps to set out. Nowhere near the chicks, just making a couple bumps in the yard. I have had a mole once before and they can make mincemeat of your yard in a few weeks until an owl catches them above ground to nab them.

 

[BlackBart]

Mine are all off the ground, 2 1/2 feet or so so they can go under the buildings if it rains or snows, also good for shade and shelter against flying predators.
Wood floors, proper concrete footings, no snakes and the dogs can get under it to chase away any rats that might be hanging around.

 

[fairytails]

Do the rats come because there is chicken feed out? Honestly, I see rat traps set out in more southerly parts of the country but are they tough enough for a MN winter? Mainly I see opossums and occasionally, raccoon in the area.

Ok, I confess to being a biologist and know about chickens carrying respiratory diseases. But is it truly much safer to have them, say, 8-10 feet away from a house as opposed to being next to it? If you are in contact with birds daily to feed them, you're in contact with bird disease.
The advantage of under deck space: 1) one of the most level areas in the yard. 2) when snow starts, not so much distance to shovel to get out to them and yes, sometimes shoveling is two feet deep in same day! 3) Already has footings and posts! Just construct stuff around them.
My plan would be to first heavy-duty screen underside of the deck, keep any flies from crawling up through. Then, construct the coop house area with an actual roof and finally, instead of my "semi portable" yard pen that's about 6 feet by 3 feet, build a real run. Getting tired of carrying pullets out to the pen now. If this is nuts, let me know!

I only have 4, not a dozen birds. In another thread, it seems i might have two roos so may be down to two hens soon!
I have rabbits on the porch in hutch and compared to the birds so far, rabbit urine is smellier! I am used to doing a weekly muckout anyway. Just bring on a couple hard frosts in late September and yessir, no more bugs!

 

[Cluckin49]

There are rats in Alaska even a whole Island of them. it is one of the reasons I elevated my specialty coops. I am also a big fan of hardware cloth in the walls, I really really don't like rats..................

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I do not want to make an awful design decision with my first coop. Why are so many I see on the site, up off the ground by a foot or two on stilt-like construction? Does this make for better ventilation? Are you putting a wire floor in or solid? Does it keep snakes out?
Or is it just easier to build using posts sunk in the ground or in properly prepared concrete footings, than to lay a concrete slab or pray treated floor joists do not rot.

Partly I ask because I am considering putting part of the coop under a deck. That space is only about 4 feet tall, and if I elevated the coop then it could be too short for me to get in to clean. But if the elevating is required, please let me know and I will foget about that site even though my best option.

Built my coop off the ground so that the chickens would have an area where they could easily get out of the sun.

Here's a photo of the coop from several months ago, before the run was finished.

 

[fairytails]

That looks perfect! Now I have coop envy. Guess I had better get to work! I have the same idea with stairs off of one end of the deck. Guess I had better start. Step one, clear and level out the ground a little, step two, build the stilt-frame and flooring, step 3-- onward! I am going to screen the underside of deck as it makes one step less if I ever wanted to turn it into a screen porch, too. Lots of mosquitoes here. Though I noticed one of my birds being very adept at catching a mosquito in mid air, great!

 

[babffel]

my coop is up off the ground and they like to go under it to get shade. its made out of left oveer materials.

 

[Izzymoon]

mine's off the ground because it snows a lot, ground freezes/thaws causing moisture, rodents (squirrels) also helps air flow in the run, height for easy egg pick up and cleaning.

 

[zorba1]

Roosters really hate rats, we let our flock roam fifty years ago, they pecked through the horse and cattle dung happily. We let them in to our grain bins hallways and they roamed in the barns, the roosters were kept busy tearing any rats to pieces.
We had very few rats and mice. We had about fifty Rhode Island reds and about that many Leghorns.
The only problem was collecting the eggs, they could be anywhere. But as there were five generations in that big old farmhouse, we were about a dozen or so kids, cousins all.
Egg collecting was one of our chores. We never bought feed for them, they did just fine on their own. There were two creeks on the 35 acres, they drank from them. Sometimes in August we would pump up one or two buckets of well water for them.The reds would sit and hatch their own chicks, we butcherd the males at 3lbs or so. I remember grandma breaking up the rooster fights with her homemade corn brooms. The reds were in constant turnover, we let them molt twice before butchering as roasters. The leghorns were butcherd during first molt and grandpa had another batch ready to lay at that time.The leghorns were not so good as an eating bird, kinda skimpy. But we loved the chicken soup.
Keep one rooster for each twenty to twentyfive hens.