Your experienced opinions appreciated

[Punkybrewster]

Close up the bottom run of the coop but keep plenty of ventilation. Take out some of the flooring in between top coop and new bottom coop.

Put some roosting bars down there, problem solved. Bigger coop.

Your run is a good size for 4 chickens. As long as the coop is only for roosting at night and egg laying, you should be good.

 

[aart]

Put some roosting bars down there, problem solved. Bigger coop

You don't want roosts lower than nests.

 

[Punkybrewster]

You don't want roosts lower than nests.

Ahh. True.
But that can be fixed.
Trying to readjust the coop without the expense of replacing it.

Move the nests to the lower level.
It would be easy to gut the coop after enclosing the bottom and reconfigure roost bars and nesting area.

 

[LalaP]

All of your advice has been very helpful and I’ve been upgrading the coop. Anybody wanna take a look and chime in? I feel like I have a million more questions and every turn of this process.

So after considering many options i decided to drop the second floor down 6 inches, remove the ramp and make a pop-out for the nest boxes. So they will still have an upstairs and downstairs but I can put a 4.5 ft long roost with lots of head room. The roosts will be 7 inches off the floor (second floor) and they will have between 11 inches and 22 inches of head room. (Variation is because the roof is pitched but directly above the roost there is 20 inches). I think this is enough for them to jump up, right?

I also got hardware cloth and covered the existing windows and I’ll make more windows.

My question right now is about how much ventilation to leave. The coop sits and inch or so from the side of my house so on that side I was thinking of leaving the area from the second floor up to the frame/roof open with hardware cloth. It’s not super exposed because it’s near the house but it’s some air flow. I was thinking of boarding up the upstairs section on the other side and covering the downstairs section in hardware cloth. Additionally there are triangular windows on either side up near the roof. In the photo there is a side with wire mesh that will be where the nest box pop-out will be so no ventilation there. So is that enough ventilation? Do you see any problems I’m missing?

Is 7 inches off the floor good for the roost?

Also I’m realizing that a predator can easily dig under the coop and get in. Trying to figure out the easiest and cheapest fix. I have lots of chicken wire, I could set the whole coop on a piece of plywood. I will also have some of that wire mesh with the holes that are 1in by 2in. Opinions?

Thank you

 

[rosemarythyme]

The hardware cloth is good, though if you have some scrap wood, for extra security, sandwich wood around the perimeter of the wire to make a frame and fasten that over the edge of the wire. It'll make it much harder to a predator to pull it out (think coons and their nimble little fingers).

Roost: I assume you're running a roost lengthwise? 4.5' sounds great for your flock. 7" will hopefully be enough... if the girls use it, then it meets their approval, which is all that matters.

Floor: If you're going to set the coop on wood, it'll need to be protected from ground moisture. Mine has a wood floor, so the coop itself sits on pressure treated skids that sit on concrete blocks, and the inside is waterproofed with a rubberized paint.

The other option is to replace the floor as it rots, but you'll need to stay on top of checking it and replacing it as needed.

My question right now is about how much ventilation to leave. The coop sits and inch or so from the side of my house so on that side I was thinking of leaving the area from the second floor up to the frame/roof open with hardware cloth. It’s not super exposed because it’s near the house but it’s some air flow.

I think that'll work well as long as the house provides enough weather protection. It should, but only you can test for that.

 

[LalaP]

Ok I think I’ve done it! I hope.

Here’s the new pop-out nest box from the inside I’m gonna add curtains to create more privacy. I may or may not add a divider between the 2 dish pans. Any advice on that?

Here is the 4.5 ft long roost. They all roosted last night. It’s working!!

This photo is a bit dark but it’s the door to the downstairs area. Dropping the floor caused a gap where you can see a few inches of the upstairs through the door. When the door closes there isn’t a gap. Any reason I should board that up? Do you think they’d hurt themselves?

Here you can see the pop out nest box which I painted red just to weatherize. I’m going to add a piece of corrugated plastic to the top for rain and I still need to get a latch for the access door. It is screwed shut at the moment.

I put the whole coop on a piece of plywood which is resting on 9 cinder blocks. Should I block the holes up? Can they hurt themselves. When I was a little kid we had chickens and I remember that one of them broke it’s neck by sticking its head in a hole in the barn floor. So I worry about protecting them from themselves as well as predators.

I’m so thankful for all the good advice I got here through this process. Feel free to chime in with any further suggestions.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Here’s the new pop-out nest box from the inside I’m gonna add curtains to create more privacy. I may or may not add a divider between the 2 dish pans. Any advice on that?

Dropping the floor caused a gap where you can see a few inches of the upstairs through the door. When the door closes there isn’t a gap. Any reason I should board that up? Do you think they’d hurt themselves?

I put the whole coop on a piece of plywood which is resting on 9 cinder blocks. Should I block the holes up? Can they hurt themselves. When I was a little kid we had chickens and I remember that one of them broke it’s neck by sticking its head in a hole in the barn floor. So I worry about protecting them from themselves as well as predators.

Divider may not be necessary, but should be very easy to install one if it's needed, in case you end up with birds sitting next to each other harassing each other.

on the roost!

For the gap in front of the door, I would block it off solely to keep bedding from spilling out of the roost section. Thin scrap plywood or some cheap furring strips would be sufficient.

For the gaps between the cinder blocks, I would optimally cover them with hardware cloth (1/4 or 1/2") mostly because rodents would LOVE to hide under there. I also have my coop skirted with hardware cloth (you can see it screwed around the base behind the cinder blocks) but you might be able to just pin yours in place if someone can help you lift and tuck the wire around the base.