THoughts on a chicken coop

[Deberosa]

It's time to start building up Deberosa II and I have a long weekend to get started...

We had many different kinds of chicken coops at Deberosa I. Some were tractors, some were fixed to the barn, etc. I know we'll have more predator issues here so any coop will need to be very solid. THings I never did like about the old coop that was on the barn was that the wood floor meant shovelling it out regularly... I want Deberosa II to be as low maintenance as possible because we aren't getting any younger for sure and need to save as much time and effort for building up instead of maintaining.

Sooo... I remembered Bee-Pipes post on his turkey hooch from a while back and I am thinking of a variation of that... I am thinking a 4 ft by 8 ft "hooch" on legs a couple of feet off the ground - may be built on a slope so the back legs may be shorter than the front legs... Hardware cloth floor. THe back would be 4 ft high ( a 4 by 8 sheet of wood) cut in half and hinged so it opens. I am thinking putting the nesting boxes just inside this door - and making them so they can lift out... ON the front (facing south I think) would be another 4 by 8 sheet and above it a 2 ft panel of the clear ribbed plastic. Then a slanted room with roll roofing on top. Roost would be across the tall portion of the hooch and a door would also be in which ever side seems most convenient for the chicken entry/exit.

Or maybe the "tall side" needs to be on the side with the opening for the nest boxes so the rain doesn't run down (or catch the rain with a gutter?) Of course there isn't the constant rain here that we dealt with in Washington!!!

I have free the ribbed plastic and the 4 by 8 sheeting - enough for two of these. One with nests for layers and the other can be used without nests to cycle through turkeys, guineas and meat chickens until we can get more made as needed... We also brought all of the hardware like hinges and hooks so that is ready.. There are other pieces we could use too laying around here and I even have collected free paint to make it look pretty!

I am thinking to go stationary for now instead of mobile, and with it off the ground we could rake out the droppings for compost quite easily... If things got clogged up inside we could lift out the nest boxes and rake across the wire to free up the droppings.

Any thoughts on this design?

[bee_pipes]

I am disappointed with the hardware cloth floor on the turkey hootch. First, the turkey droppings are way too large to make it through the 1/2" mesh. That was the largest mesh I felt comfortable with for flooring. For a chicken tractor poultry wire is fine - the ground pretty much supports it, but suspended above the ground it would be like the birds were walking on cheese slicers.

Chicken droppings would likewise be too large to drop through. They may walk them through for you... So far as raking it out underneath, the higher the better. Rains do wash a good bit of the turkey droppings through, and they do walk some of them through, but there are usually a couple of fine specimens lying about and drawing flies. We throw straw underneath to keep down the flies and have fencing around the base as a skirt to keep dogs and chickens out from underneath. The dogs love eating the manure and the chickens are always looking for stray pieces of corn. One year I raked the dirt and droppings out from under the turkey hootch and used it for fertilizer. Tilled it into the ground and planted tobacco. About two or three dozen corn stalks popped up.

The cross members supporting the floor underneath are rotting out too. Granted, I didn't use the best wood - it was scrap and some of it was a little spongy on the ends.

The last pen we built has a dirt floor. We throw down straw and the birds seem to like scratching throuhg it. Much of the droppings are composted with only the top being hot. We could probably get away waith tilling it into the garden and planting a week or two after, but prefer to use it to cap and prime compost bins.

I have been toying with the idea of cutting the porch off of the turkley hootch, moving it to another location, and erecting a small wire pen on the front of it that has a dirt floor. The only inconvenience with this project is that the front pen has to be tall enough to allow me to stand up inside the pen. The turkeys can then take advantage of shade under the enclosed or house part of the hootch.

Just some random thoughts.... we aren't getting any younger either.

Regards,
Pat

[WRTN]

Pat & Deb,

I tried elevating the coop on some bricks turned sideways and that seemed to really help the dropping problem. The approx. 4 inch gap between the ground and the 1/2 inch mesh floor allows the droppings to fall through as the chicks walk around and shake the mesh acting as flooring.

We raise 8 ducks in ours recently and these guys are pooping machines.

[Deberosa]

Thanks for the feed back. We do have some metal poles that could be used to support the floor so that may help the rotting problem. Or maybe string wire tightly and put the hardware cloth on that... Maybe a stiff broom of some kind to run across the hardware cloth regularly for those droppings that don't fall through. The entire area should be reachable from the door the length of one side.

Didn't think about the dogs eating the poop! However now that Jake is without animals and pig food around he is much thinner - so he must have been munching on something all day long.

Randy - do you move your coop to clean under it?

Hmmm. Still thinking on this one!

[WileyCoyote]

My biggest worry here was predators. We have coyotes, skunks, weasels, badgers, and snakes, not to mention the drifty neighbor who can't keep her retriever penned up.

DH built the chicken tractors in an unusual way. They are solid wood boxes with wood floors, the "yard" has no floor so the chickens poop outside all day in the grass. At night they go into the little door between the yard and house - it is a small sliding door that we 'pin' open with a small dowel through a hole in a stick attached to the door. When they go in at night we lower the sliding door. But the coop part itself is wonderfully solid and as tall as me. the best part about it is that one whole side (from about 1 foot from the floor) is a hinged door. This means that in the AM, we open the little chicken door, bang on the coop, and the darlins run outside, we close the chicken door. Then we open the BIG hinged door on the side, and fill the feeder, waterer, take up the floor hay, sweep up, put down fresh hay - then open the chicken door and sweep the leavings outside. The entire contraption is on wooden runners, so the coop floor is slightly elevated off the ground and solid. The tractors are so heavy we can push them down between the garden rows, but to move them to the next row we use the riding lawnmower (he has eyes and rope attached to either end). The nesting boxes are tabbed collapsible boards that fit inside each other, and there is a dowel for roosting just under the roof (with headroom).

Come winter we will move both tractors into the pole barn side by side @ 90 degrees, and they will be their winter quarters as well.

You know of course of DH's handicaps; this was the best he and I could come up with that meant ease of cleaning, ease of access, and mobility. We did get a 75 MPH storm wind yesterday that blew one of them over, but the chickens were already inside and were irritated but fine. (What they say about Barred Rocks is soooo true - these chickens are MELLOW.)
Fortunately DH had already planned for this, went out and attached anchor stakes and there was no more problem. The first one we made was taller than the second one, which meant less wind resistance.

I am nervous about ANY dirt or rippable flooring. I know how sneaky critters can be that are determined. The rooster coop (temporary housing for the ones who are being fattened solely for table) sits in a permanent yard where the fencing is buried six inches down on three sides, and the fourth side is against a garage with a cement foundation. The angular coop is against the garage and is crawl-space only with the tabbed removable nesting boxes. We rake it out from the side-angle door. The yard itself is low, but the top wire fencing has a piece that we attached a handle to and can fold back for access and cleaning.

Congrats on getting settled in your new place, BTW! :D

[Deberosa]

Still thinking on this - thank you Wiley for the welcome back!

We are thinking of using the two 8 ft cattle panels that came in with our stuff as the floor of the layer pen with the hardware cloth on top to give it support instead of wood. I think it may still sage along the 8 foot legth. We also have a cage made of something like 1/2 by 1 inch squares - maybe that would be better for them to walk on but the droppings still fall through. Planning on a trip to Lowes to see if we can come up with something better.

I like your idea too Wiley of moving them around, how thick is the wood floor? Has it held up well to the moving and such? I think the raised pen might be good for many uses once it's built if it doesn't work out for chickens. We have several wood boxes in the shed for nest boxes - yeah!

Debbie

[WRTN]

Randy - do you move your coop to clean under it?

Hmmm. Still thinking on this one!

We move it about once a week to every few days depending upon the poop load. When the grass shows a pretty good bit of droppings, we keep moving the coop over to fresh grass. That way the droppings get obsorbed by the grass and the birds still have a little grass to graze on. We just keep moving it all over until they are big enough to turn loose on their own. Then the yard gets a free aeration and fertilizing. We have about 60 of various sizes and ages altogether so the yard get a good grazing, scratching, and pooping. Makes for a great lawn in early spring. :O)

[WileyCoyote]

I like your idea too Wiley of moving them around, how thick is the wood floor? Has it held up well to the moving and such? I think the raised pen might be good for many uses once it's built if it doesn't work out for chickens. We have several wood boxes in the shed for nest boxes - yeah! Debbie

The runners are the length of both the chicken yard and the coop, and the floor spans the runners. It is 1/2 inch plywood, as is the rest of the box.

Here you can see the box and yard on the runners, as well as the hinged side that folds up for interior access (note the wood-spinner door latches):

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk312/WileyCoyote_NE/Critters/IMG_0722.jpg

My neighbors think our chicken tractors are really funny; for some reason they think they are painted to look like a famous chicken eatery's 'box'... ahem. We have one in the East garden (5 hens and a rooster) and one in the West garden (also 5 hens and a rooster). Folks round here had never heard of, much less seen, chicken tractors.

Here's a shot of the sliding chicken door into the yard - the wood swelled and was sticking so DH cut a piece of old angle iron into 4 pieces (two for each side of each tractor door) and used them as the rails for the door to slide up and down. You can just see the dowel in the hole, holding the door open on the slat that we use to pull the door open and shut. You can see the tow rope on the end - and the rope tie-down on the side for our heavy winds!
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk312/WileyCoyote_NE/Critters/IMG_0720.jpg


Something tried to get into the "rooster coop" (the one on the ground) last night; we think it may have been a skunk. It dug a hole about three inches deep and about a foot wide before it gave up. (Yes, I know there's a couplea hens in here - so the chicken sexers were a little mistaken, roast hen is still good!)

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk312/WileyCoyote_NE/Critters/IMG_0726.jpg

[Deberosa]

Thank you for the pictures! Actually now that I see it, we have a box just like that also! We built a crate to ship the life size carousel horse that I refinished. I know - not practical but the crate sure can be!

The sides aren't quite as heavy but maybe they will do. I think they are quarter inch.

[WileyCoyote]

There were several reasons we built it out of 1/2 inch - we wanted something that could withstand being tumbled about (predators) and would last thru the summer and winter - being dragged in the summer, and protective against snow and ice in the winter. Because even in the pole barns, blizzards occasionally pile up snow and ice! Temp extremes here are VERY extreme - 100 deg in July (no humidity) and -40 in the winter (during a bliz). We knew that we may end up drilling a random hole to place a heat lamp, etc. The air here is VERY dry - not like VA or WA - and wood doesn't rot. At all. It dries up VERY quickly!

OK, so moving your carousel horse was "impractical". So was moving my shop full of heavy ceramic molds, my two kilns, my clay - all of which added about 1500 lbs to the load! I'd love to see that horse BTW - I have a deep love of 'em. I understand - I've moved with less than a carful of stuff before, but over the years I've gathered things that mean a lot to me. If You CAN move it and keep it, why not do it rather than be miserable about it? Besides - now you have a chicken coop! :D

Are you going to keep your 'old' blog or start a new one?

[Deberosa]

There were several reasons we built it out of 1/2 inch - we wanted something that could withstand being tumbled about (predators) and would last thru the summer and winter - being dragged in the summer, and protective against snow and ice in the winter. Because even in the pole barns, blizzards occasionally pile up snow and ice! Temp extremes here are VERY extreme - 100 deg in July (no humidity) and -40 in the winter (during a bliz). We knew that we may end up drilling a random hole to place a heat lamp, etc. The air here is VERY dry - not like VA or WA - and wood doesn't rot. At all. It dries up VERY quickly!

OK, so moving your carousel horse was "impractical". So was moving my shop full of heavy ceramic molds, my two kilns, my clay - all of which added about 1500 lbs to the load! I'd love to see that horse BTW - I have a deep love of 'em. I understand - I've moved with less than a carful of stuff before, but over the years I've gathered things that mean a lot to me. If You CAN move it and keep it, why not do it rather than be miserable about it? Besides - now you have a chicken coop! :D

Are you going to keep your 'old' blog or start a new one?

Yes, there are just a few things that have to go along! We packed a 28 ft trailer with not an inch to spare and still left much stuff behind. Mostly furniture because we wanted to bring all of the tools and materials with us. Here is a picture of the horse at my old place:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b340/deberosa/Oneofmycraftprojects.jpg

When I add up the value of what got moved compared to the cost of the trailer, it made sense to bring as much as possible.

I hope to start adding to the blog soon. I did one post about the new Deberosa, but haven't had much time! Decided to keep it all in the same blog.

[Deberosa]

Here's a link to pictures of the coop so far. After hearing experiences we decided to go with a solid floor, haven't decided for sure where to put the nest boxes yet in this one, but there will be a large door in the front opening for cleaning. Still have to cut in a small entry door for the chickens too, but the basic part is done!

http://www.photoworks.com/photo-sharing/shareSignin.jsp?shareCode=AA2E1C3C8CD&cp=ems_shr_alb_pml&cb=PW

[bee_pipes]

Nice sized structure there. How many birds are you going to keep inside?

So far as nesting boxes go, it would be handy to hang them on the outside so they can be accessed from the outside. That would involve cutting pannels off of existing walls - you may not want to go to that much trouble....

Regards,
Pat

[Rick]

Nice looking coop Debarosa,

My coop started out as a 3'x3'x8' duck pen covered in 1/2" hardware cloth with a hinged roof and a small door in the front, and a tarp on top to keep out the rain.

One time I caught a raccoon in a homemade box trap covered in 1/2" hardware cloth and the little furry critter promptly tore a raccoon sized hole in the hardware cloth and made his escape. Thinking of that experience, I covered the duck pen with another layer of chicken wire, hopefully taking duck off the menu.

On to the chicken house conversion, I put in six nesting boxes in one end that have a couple hinged doors to access the nest from the outside. They are solid all round except for the front. By next weekend there will be a more permanent roof made of corrugated something or other and a solid wall on the side opposite the nesting boxes. The area of the back that is still wire will have a solid hinged wall that can be propped open for added ventilation in the summer, but be closed down for the winter.

The floor and ceiling are 1/2" hardware cloth. The front wall not covered by the nesting boxes will be left open, but if need be I can cover it with a bit of plastic sheeting in the winter. The chicken run is about 10'x14' and half covered with tarp for shade, the other half is a lift off frame made of 2x4s and chicken wire (to keep out hawks and cats during the day, at night the ladies will be in the coop).

Everything is fairly modular. The frame on the top of the run lifts off; the run itself is an old chain-link dog kennel 6 feet high. The roof of the coop lifts off. The coop itself is sitting on a frame and can be lifted and moved, although not easily. It was a two person lift before I started adding nesting boxes and solid walls, now I'm gonna need some more beer to get it moved.

The coop is sitting on a stand, about three feet high, which can be moved. The stand is/will be covered on three sides with hardware cloth with a chicken wire door on the back to facilitate cleaning under the coop.

Whew, a picture really is worth a 1000 words. Luckily, I had most of the materials laying about to make these modifications. This way I figure I'm keeping the price of eggs down to about $80/dozen.

[Deberosa]

Of course - put the nest boxes on the outside!! That's perfect and I have that designed now but need some different lumber - I'll be getting that tomorrow. I plan on keeping no more than 20 chickens in there. I'll have another one for guineas and turkeys that won't have the nest boxes. It's only going ot be a roosting place mostly - they'll be out ranging during the day on most days. It's in a spot far away from gardens and such.

[WileyCoyote]

Really nice coop, and great pics!

I am very jealous of the carousel horse, BTW. Color me green - it's Beautiful, and worth keeping! :D