The coop is finished for all practical purposes. It still needs some caulking, which might happen tomorrow, and then we will prime it and then paint it and maybe by the end of the week the first batch of chickens can be put in there. With each picture, I’ll try to answer questions that readers have asked. First, about the sick chicken. She’s doing ok and she’s back with the other chickens but I still don’t think she’s right, though I don’t think she’s “sick”. She’s real short and fat . . real fat! When I pick her up, she almost feels like she has a growth or something. She doesn’t feel like the other chickens but she doesn’t seem to be in distress. She waddles instead of walking and sometimes the others run over her. She’s a strange one.
The bantams are doing fine. They’re so tiny and so cute. We are going to keep them in a separate coop with a separate run and probably not put them together.
Someone asked in an earlier post about why the coop is off the ground. Vince built both our coops off the ground like this so he can slide the wheel barrow under the door and rake the straw/shavings and droppings into the wheel barrow instead of having to scoop it up. He lined the bottom of the floor with heavy duty vinyl so if we keep the straw or shavings on the floor, it’s very easy to rake them out once every 10 days to two weeks and keep the coop clean.
As far as the plans, Vince found several designs on the internet and combined and tweaked the designs and then did the math and figured it all out. There are some plans available online for a very similar coop but since we didn’t use them, I can’t tell you how closely they compare to the coop we now have. The inside of our coop ended up about 7′ x 9′. We started at 5′ x 6′ and went to 6′ x 8′ but I believe the final measurement is 7′ x 9′.
As far as decorating the coop, I don’t think you folks realize how much we have going on right now. I still have nails inside the house where the former owners had things hanging (I asked them to leave the nails) and I haven’t even unpacked our decorations so that tells you how far down the road I am from worrying about decorating the chicken coop.
OK . . here’s the coop almost done.
From the front – the windows still need the vinyl coated hardware cloth over them to keep bad critters from breaking the windows to get them. See the hinges at the bottom of the windows? That’s the egg door. The nesting/egg laying boxes are underneath that. I’ll simply lift that door and can use the latch between the windows if I need to prop it open, gather the eggs and close and latch that door back. The human door is to the right and the chicken door, with the ramp, is to the left.
Above is a better shot of the nesting boxes before the coop was finished. Four (on the right side) are nesting boxes and the one on the far left will be for the heater.
The above photo shows the egg door open and you can see inside a bit to see the two roosts.
This is the little side door and ramp the chickens will use. It will be closed at night once they all go into the coop and will be opened in the morning and kept open all day so they can come and go as they please. The area on this side of the coop will be fenced for them to hopefully stay safe and have some tree cover to keep hawks from flying in and getting them.
This is the back side of the coop. There’s a drop down “vent” opening on this side. It will be opened for cross-ventilation but can be closed when it’s cold.
Karen says
really nice! a very good sensible construction for ease to get the eggs and for cleaning.
Karen
Marie Mann says
Absolutely, definitely, the epitome of Chicken Coops, got to have prize winning layers living in that coop. Vince is amazing, that is fabulous. It looks absolutely splendid. Vince is an engineer? I think I read that somewhere, makes our chicken coops look like shanties (when we had them – aeons ago – not now- no chooks.)
Cheerio.
Marie
Cindy B. says
You have room for a LOT of hens. The rule of thumb is one square foot per hen. We never crowded our hens that much but, you could easily have three dozen chickens.
Judy Laquidara says
We go by the 4 square feet per hen rule.
Dar says
The chicken coop is so nice. Your flock is going to love their little condo! Wish I were closer and I’d help collect the eggs out of their cute nest area. Great coop plan. Vince did a great job designing it. I thought we might have gotten chickens when we moved to our current house, but DH didn’t want them. Instead he did agree to a large organic garden for a few years. We were not as young as you two and he’s a city boy.
Sonya says
Very nice coop. Those chicks are gonna love it:)
SarahB says
Very well done! I like it a lot, but I have a couple questions… First, where do you store your food and bedding? Second, when you say the box on the left is for the heater how does that work? Do you just use a space heater in there facing towards the coop? How do you keep the chickens off it? Doesn’t most of the heat go out the top? Etc…. Third, are the nest boxes level with the floor? And last but not least, do you have roosts all the way up to the ceiling in there? Seems really tall inside! Thanks and congratulations on the coop being “almost” done… :o)
Judy Laquidara says
We store the shavings inside the metal barn. The extra bags are kept inside the barn in Rubbermaid containers that are hopefully rodent proof. The bag we’re using is kept in a separate sealable comtainer and also in the barn.
Yes, it is a space heater and that box is sealed with just a metal vent into the coop so the chickens can’t get to the heater, nor can they scratch the straw or shavings close enough to the heater to cause a fire. It’s the same setup we had in MO where we needed a lot more heat than we will need here. I’m sure some of the heat is lost but we only use it when it gets less than 12 to 15 degrees outside.
The nest boxes are level with the floor but there’s a board across the bottom of the front so they have to kinda hop in which gives them a bit of privacy and makes sure no eggs roll out when they get to scratching around on there.
The roosts do not go all the way up. One is about 8″ off the floor and the other is about 12″ off the floor. We wanted to be able to walk around in the coop comfortably if we ever need to.
Shirley Albertson Owens (sao) says
It really looks nice! I am so happy that you have your chicken house – it is absolutely adorable and the chicks will be very pleased to have such a fancy new home!
sao in Midlothian, VA
Lynn says
It is such a cute little building, my grandkids would want it for a play house or fort!
Sharon Spingler says
Have you checked the sick chick that she may not be able to poop? I have this problem with my Finch sometimes.
Sandra Neel Hutchins says
Don’t you just love country life?
Wann Hart says
Judy, not one picture of Vince that you’ve posted, show him watching TV. He looks happy with what he’s doing working daylight ’til dark! I wanted to tell you that there’s an article in the April issue of Southern Living called “Tour the Texas Hill Country” and Brownwood is mentioned. Just thought I would tell you since I don’t think you’ve had much magazine reading time! Take care…
Doe in Mi says
The coop looks absolutely great and has great ideas contained in it. The idea I like is the raised floor – making it so much easier to clean. Did Vince think of that? Smart idea. And the egg nests – another smart idea. Easy. When I was a kid on the farm, you had to go in to get the eggs and the floor was cement and not easy to deal with to clean. Yours is just great. Can’t wait to see it painted – gonna be cute.
barbara says
does each chicken have a nest of it’s own? or do they take turns? being from the city i don’t know how that works. i thought there would be a shelf or something halfway up the walls the length of the coop and all the hens could have a nest on the shelf. what do i know about chickens (except dumplings?) and where do the guys live? in a dorm? 😉
Linda S says
Very nice coop! I also like the off-the-ground for scooping out the ick-stuff idea. I looked for that in the design I chose. Who knows? By the time I build mine next year, I may choose another design. I like yours as well, but I think the one I have will be better for my smaller yard.
Kris says
You’re gonna have some happy chicks!
Karla says
Love Love the coop and will look great in the colors you have chosen. I understand about the nails because I have just moved also and feel like I have been unpacking boxes for ever…even though its just been a week or so.