- Jul 31, 2014
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I'm planning a rebuild of my coop for this spring. It's been 5 years since I commenced chickenkeeping. My coop complex grew as needed and never according to a serious plan once the initial coop was completed.
Over those 5 years, I have learned a lot, including the importance of proper ventilation!
The current coop complex is in a former equipment shed bolted onto the north side of the garage. The shed measures about 10' x 24'. Most of the exterior walls are insulated with R-31 or R-19 batts. The rear 10' of the exterior, north-facing wall is covered by the insulation but the front 14' has the original soffit vents. I've added windows to the west (rear, where prevailing winds come) and the east (front, where we also leave the door open during the day) walls. Those are open at least a quarter of the way unless it's really stormy and blowing rain or snow into the coop.
The rear window. Those bars are occupied only on the outer ends during winter. In warm weather, they cluster in front of the window.
The view from the front of the coop to the rear. The Infirmary is behind the hens on the roosts to the right. These front roosts are the preferred location for hens in the winter night. At one point, I had a recessed roosting area enclosed on 5 sides, elevated with a poop board as the bottom. The 18 hens I had at that time loved it. I'd like to incorporate a similar roosting area in the new configuration.
A slightly different perspective of the scene above.
The view from the outside in. The area just inside the door is devoted to storage and a workbench.
The enormous amount of snow we have this year...It drifted into the coop and kept the door from closing completely.
Winter weather is bitter cold here in northern Maine and after the first winter I stopped heating the coop. Oy! My January electric bill was $400 with one heat lamp! I've only had a few minor frostbite issues, mostly on roosters with huge combs and wattles. Only one hen has died on a night where the temp dropped to -31 degrees. I suspect she had vulnerabilities because after her death, I got no more eggs with a depressed area of the shell. The chickens just hunker down and tuck their heads under their fluffed-up feathers. With the snow piled up 3' deep (6' this year!) outside the pop doors, I keep the chickens in for months. I've had too many in there for the past two winters - 60 at the peak. My plan is to maintain a stable winter flock of 20-25.
I love the concept of having different areas of the coop devoted to different purposes. I did enclose a raised box (24" x 30") outside the initial coop as an infirmary. That has been used as a brooder (with Mama Heating Pad!) as well as isolating injured hens. I know I need a grow-out area for chicks. A neighbor reported me to Animal Control last year for free-ranging chickens (I think they discovered her garden; every morning when they were released, a sizable contingent headed purposefully up the hill) and I installed the Henitentiary, a 6' chain-link fence. When we designed it, we included a 8' x 14' area behind the coops with its own pop door and a gate into the main hen yard. That will be the grow-out area, once I reinforce the chain link with hardware cloth for 2'.
@aart, what are the other areas you now wish you had included?
I currently have a space for feed and litter storage, a workbench with a wall of tools, the Infirmary, the grow-out coop, and an area for the adults. The grow-out area and the adult area can be combined or separated as needed. I like that flexibility and will formalize the division.
Should I uncover the rest of the soffit vents? I'm considering adding a couple of other window panels that I scrounged from demolition in the area, inoperable for ventilation but adding lots of light.
Any feedback and suggestions are welcome!
Over those 5 years, I have learned a lot, including the importance of proper ventilation!
The current coop complex is in a former equipment shed bolted onto the north side of the garage. The shed measures about 10' x 24'. Most of the exterior walls are insulated with R-31 or R-19 batts. The rear 10' of the exterior, north-facing wall is covered by the insulation but the front 14' has the original soffit vents. I've added windows to the west (rear, where prevailing winds come) and the east (front, where we also leave the door open during the day) walls. Those are open at least a quarter of the way unless it's really stormy and blowing rain or snow into the coop.
The rear window. Those bars are occupied only on the outer ends during winter. In warm weather, they cluster in front of the window.
The view from the front of the coop to the rear. The Infirmary is behind the hens on the roosts to the right. These front roosts are the preferred location for hens in the winter night. At one point, I had a recessed roosting area enclosed on 5 sides, elevated with a poop board as the bottom. The 18 hens I had at that time loved it. I'd like to incorporate a similar roosting area in the new configuration.
A slightly different perspective of the scene above.
The view from the outside in. The area just inside the door is devoted to storage and a workbench.
The enormous amount of snow we have this year...It drifted into the coop and kept the door from closing completely.Winter weather is bitter cold here in northern Maine and after the first winter I stopped heating the coop. Oy! My January electric bill was $400 with one heat lamp! I've only had a few minor frostbite issues, mostly on roosters with huge combs and wattles. Only one hen has died on a night where the temp dropped to -31 degrees. I suspect she had vulnerabilities because after her death, I got no more eggs with a depressed area of the shell. The chickens just hunker down and tuck their heads under their fluffed-up feathers. With the snow piled up 3' deep (6' this year!) outside the pop doors, I keep the chickens in for months. I've had too many in there for the past two winters - 60 at the peak. My plan is to maintain a stable winter flock of 20-25.
I love the concept of having different areas of the coop devoted to different purposes. I did enclose a raised box (24" x 30") outside the initial coop as an infirmary. That has been used as a brooder (with Mama Heating Pad!) as well as isolating injured hens. I know I need a grow-out area for chicks. A neighbor reported me to Animal Control last year for free-ranging chickens (I think they discovered her garden; every morning when they were released, a sizable contingent headed purposefully up the hill) and I installed the Henitentiary, a 6' chain-link fence. When we designed it, we included a 8' x 14' area behind the coops with its own pop door and a gate into the main hen yard. That will be the grow-out area, once I reinforce the chain link with hardware cloth for 2'.
@aart, what are the other areas you now wish you had included?
I currently have a space for feed and litter storage, a workbench with a wall of tools, the Infirmary, the grow-out coop, and an area for the adults. The grow-out area and the adult area can be combined or separated as needed. I like that flexibility and will formalize the division.
Should I uncover the rest of the soffit vents? I'm considering adding a couple of other window panels that I scrounged from demolition in the area, inoperable for ventilation but adding lots of light.
Any feedback and suggestions are welcome!
) The metal roof dumps into the Henitentiary, blocking that pop door. The coop shed is a few feet shorter than the main gambrel roof, and the snow from the upper roof comes down more frequently and in front of the rear pop door and beside the main man-door. I would like to rig up a roof that extends over the rear run to permit the flock access through the winter. That would mean I'll have to wrap that run in whatever the fabric is called that blocks snow but allows air to go through it.
