wife wants this question answered!

[yyz0yyz0]

Hi all,
My wife wants to me get some feedback from the experienced chicken raisers on this debate about where to locate our coop/run.

Because of seasonal wetness the only place that I can see to put our coop is behind our garage. The Garage is attached to the house with our Master bedroom over the garage, there is a 12ft workshop(Mancave!) extension on the back of the garage. So this means that the back bedroom window is already 12ft away from the back wall of the garage.

Ok, here's the debate. I want to put the coop/run right up against the back of the Garage extension. My theory is that this will allow me to use the wall as one side of the run and also make it easier to get to the coop for access and easier to run power, etc etc. If we don't put the coop against the building it will only be 10-15ft away from the same building wall.

So I want the coop/run up against the garage while she wants it moved away, it's her fear that the smell and noise will bother us up in our room. I feel that the 10-15ft away won't make that much of a difference so might as well put it as close as possible.


So will the 10-15ft make a difference? Are there problems with putting a coop against the back of a building, one downside I can see is the loss of access/ventilation to on one side of the coop.

so help me out here with feedback.
Thanks

 

[The Lazy L]

I'd leave a workable space between the garage wall and coop. If you ever need to paint, reside or do any maintenance on the garage exterior wall.

Sound wise the more of the man cave you have between the master bedroom and the coop the better.

I can't smell my chickens until I get within a few feet of their run.

 

[20736]

I would agree with your decision to have the coop up against the existing building, for the same reasons you stated. eventually, you will want to run utilities to the coop area and they will be closer and easier to get to.
The smell is controlled by how clean you keep the coop area.

 

[c2chicks]

I agree with Lazy L..our coop/run is directly below our bedroom window--no smell. Also agree about the "work space". Ours is only about 8-10 inches from the house, in the spring we'll make that a couple feet. As far as the noise, you're gonna hear an "egg song" or two either way...

 

[yyz0yyz0]

I hadn't thought about access to the garage with the coop in the way. My wife was exposed to chickens with her previous Husband, it was a very poor coop design with no cleaning. So it was very smelly and messy, that's what leads her to think the smell will bother us up in our room.

Another thing I was worried about was if the coop was moved out 10-15ft from the garage then it would be in the middle of the yard space behind the garage. So that would impact other uses for the yard space.

Is enough room to run a mower through between the garage and coop enough space or should I leave even more than that? If it is that close I might just make a grass free walkway in that space.

Another thought I just had would be to leave the coop/run out from the garage 4-5ft and run fence/gates from the permanent predator proof covered run to the garage wall with a gate from the main run. Then I could access this space when needed and also use it as a limited Free range area for the girls when I didn't want to let them out to completely free range. Does this sound plausible or would the girls strip that area anyway. At this point I don't know how much true free ranging they are going to get, so having a fenced area that I can let recover from their assault at least sounds like a good idea. Is it?

 

[Rustywreck]

One thing to consider if you place the coop next to the garage is the possibility of rain/moisture accumulating between the two. Moisture may lead to rotting wood, carpenter ants, etc.

 

[yyz0yyz0]

One thing to consider if you place the coop next to the garage is the possibility of rain/moisture accumulating between the two. Moisture may lead to rotting wood, carpenter ants, etc.

I don't think this would be a problem as I wasn't planning on building the coop actually against the side of the building, more like it would just be next to the building. But as was pointed out above it would probably be better to leave some space between the two for access.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

You also might want to double check your local chicken ordinances. I know where I live there is a legal requirement that the chickens much live a certain distance from my home and from any neighbors. Of course this only really matters if someone complains and you get inspected but it's always good to understand the law first and then decide what to do rather than be surprised later.

 

[yyz0yyz0]

You also might want to double check your local chicken ordinances. I know where I live there is a legal requirement that the chickens much live a certain distance from my home and from any neighbors. Of course this only really matters if someone complains and you get inspected but it's always good to understand the law first and then decide what to do rather than be surprised later.

We're a pretty rural area with woods behind the garage so I don't think anyone would complain to the town about the birds. Don't know if there are any ordinances regarding coop placement in my town but I subscribe to the "it's easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission!" theory. Plus the part of the building they will be near is only garage/workshop so I dont' think it's considered living space "code" wise.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Your planning on nailing right to your garage? As in use it as one wall of coop and run. If your OK with that then there's nothing wrong with it. Saves on building and securing an entire wall of the run/coop. You could use that savings to have a roof over the entire run area. Keeping water out of the run area greatly reduces both odor and messy looking eggs. Their muddy feet get on the eggs in nest.

Dry feces doesn't smell. As for cleaning out the coop I only do a cleaning three times a year. Late fall to ensure dry sawdust for winter cold months, Spring cleaning and in July. Depending if they are roosting in the egg nest or how many eggs get broken gives the mark of changing out the nesting box hay. I'll flip the hay a few times as needed then change. The only time I had problems with smell was from the feed. Before we switched to pellets the adult birds would knock the crumbles all over the ground, come snow melt and thawed ground (our run isn't covered) all that wasted fermenting feed smelled atrocious. It was so bad that first spring we moved the run and I shoveled 4 inches of the most acrid stuff into our compost pile and churned it in with that springs sawdust compost to try and control the odor. Once we switched to pellets there was next to no waste hence no more odor problems.