Getting started.

[Dirtautoguy]

My wife and I have wanted a flock for as long as we’ve been married.

This year we finally got some chicks and are super excited for the adventure. I myself have been around farms,geese,ducks but Iv never had one of my own. My wife grew up having chickens so it’s not a totally foreign subject to us but we still have a lot we can learn.

We have:
3 sapphire gems
1 production red
1 cuckoo
1 Pekin duck
1 smaller duck I cant think of the breed. It’s black and will have a green shimmer as an adult.

We bought a coop but we haven’t put it together yet. We plan to start tonight. I wanted a nestara coop but it was a little spendy and then one we got was a really good deal. From what I can tell it is in between the nestara medium and large coops just going off of measurements. And is rated for 8-10 chickens. (I understand it will probably be a little snug) it has a little run underneath but depending how things go I’d like to let them have rein of the back yard we have a fully fenced in yard and very few land predators. Hawks and our own dogs are our biggest worries.

So finally now we are to the reason I’m posting this. I want to take care of this coop and make it last as long as possible. So in my infinite wisdom of my head this is what I came up with though I’m looking for thought and Input before I do it.

We have harsh winters here in Wyoming and I want to insulate it and make it as easy to clean. So I’ll know more when we start putting it together but I am thinking of using either flex seal or pond shield on the inside of the coop. The bottom has a alluminum/stainless floor so I’d probably worry more about the walls. My goal with this would be to eliminate drafts make for easier cleanup and help wood from rotting. I would leave the holes up by the ceiling for ventilation so avoid ventalation issues. If I can fit it (I think I can) I’d like to get some foam insulation board on the walls/ ceiling maybe just in the winter time.

On the outside I’d like to use the same product preferrablt in a clear variety to help with the same things.

I may build a larger run later anyway just so they have somewhere to be if we go on vacation or something like that but for now I’m looking to just get the coop going. The chicks should be about 6 weeks old in the middle of may but I’m trying to have this all setup before they are ready.

Am I crazy? Are there better products? Any better ideas? What’s your thoughts?

 

[KyCoop]

Welcome to the wonderful world of chicken (and duck) keeping. My husband and have found it to be a great hobby and really enjoy our girls.
Feel free to look around and ask all the questions you want. You will get lots of great answers and some unsolicited advice but it's all in the interest of your feather friends.

 

[aart]

From what I can tell it is in between the nestara medium and large coops just going off of measurements. And is rated for 8-10 chickens. (I understand it will probably be a little snug)

Probably really snug, most coop kits are rated at twice the number of birds than is really healthy.
Post a link to the kit you bought to get viable advice for weather proofing.

 

[Dirtautoguy]

Probably really snug, most coop kits are rated at twice the number of birds than is really healthy.
Post a link to the kit you bought to get viable advice for weather proofing.

https://www.bomgaars.com/oi-65451.html

Is the one we got we paid about half the listed price

This is the one we were looking at
https://nestera.us/products/chicken-coop

The top one I measured the interior of the demo one at the store and the measurements fell in between the “large” and “medium” nestera ones. Nestera brakes their ratings down. The medium will house 5 medium birds and the large will house 8 medium birds.

Where this one falls in between I'm hoping to be in the ball park.

 

[KyCoop]

The chickens in the picture are bantams and they are crammed together. Your ladies are full size. 0% chance they will fit in there. Your Gems alone will be quit full figured gals.
They don't like to be that close when on the roost especially in summer. They need at least 12 inches per bird for roosting. Even then you can and will have nightly roost wars.

 

[perkolator]

Aside from being undersized, I'm pretty sure you won't get ducks to climb that ladder to go inside an elevated coop. They'll also need a water feature and that little run isn't really going to accommodate it.

 

[aart]

The top one I measured the interior of the demo one at the store

What were the dimensions, in inches?
I'd guess that the enclosed coop portion is no more than 3' x 3'.

 

[Dirtautoguy]

If memory serves 31x34 excluding the nesting boxes. It’s easier for me to remember it was bigger than the medium nestera coop and just a tiny bit smaller than the large.

Note I was NOT going off the pictures to determine the amount for the coop. I have found that picture advertising on the enternet is very rarely accurately described.

What I was going off of was the chart nestera has they have it divided pending on the kinds of chickens. Example the medium nestera will house 3 large chickens such as brahmas Cochins etc. or 5 Rhode Island reds, Easter eggers, arcana’s etc. or 9 bantams, silkies etc.

I do not necessarily plan on using the run as a run unless we have issues with the dogs or something, and at that point yes I will be building a run for them.

I know I will need a water feature I am still working on that. And I figured the ladder would get turned into a ramp.

 

[Evadig]

I think the black duck with the green sheen is a Cayuga. Do you know the gender of the two ducks? If you end up with a drake, he may try to mate the chickens, which could badly injure them.

Ducks will make a mess of the place - especially with a water feature. Especially in that small of a space. And most likely, even if you did make a ramp, they would still sleep on the ground. I taught mine to go up the ramp but they preferred to stay downstairs, especially in hot weather. Also, make sure to give the ducks extra niacin to prevent leg problems down the line.

Like @KyCoop said, chickens like to spread out. With too little roost space, the lowest hen on the pecking order (and there will be one) will not have the ability to get away from her flockmates. One of my coops, for example, has an eight foot long roost for four chickens, and one of them still has to sleep somewhere else.

I'm sure the others have already covered all this, but that's just my two cents. I hope it helps .

 

[aart]

If memory serves 31x34 excluding the nesting boxes.

Yeah, no way that will hold 8-10 birds, even bantams.
Prefab sellers are notorious for over estimating the number of birds.
In your climate you're going to want a large coop(6sqft per bird) and/or a large weather proofed run.
Might seem fine in the balmy days of summer, but with freezing temps, feet of snow on the ground, and days long blizzards it would be nightmare.
I tried to use the 4sqft per bird my first winter, it was not pretty.
Chicken Cabin Fever is real.

We have harsh winters here in Wyoming

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