Critique my coop

[Honeysucklefeathers]

Just a thought. What if you enclosed the bottom of the table with plywood and cut a hole with a little ladder for them to go down. You could perhaps make a small door for your access to clean. It would make a more secure area they could run to if they felt threatened. Would also double your space

 

[CT]

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Thus doubling the number of chickens I can keep. I LIKE it!

x2 =

(that last one is my DH)

 

[CT]

Based on your suggestions, I've made some improvements. I feel confident now that my coop can withstand any predator except humans and rats of NIMH. I'm willing to take that level of risk.

In a few days I'll get the straw bales needed for my plans to cozy up the place, and at that time I'll post a full update and pics, but in the meantime, if I may pick your brains...

*I have figured out what a poop board is and why it's under the roost, but do folks use this with deep litter?
*Why are roosts so often above the nest box? Is it just wise use of vertical space or is there some other reason? (I'm long on horizontal space, so I was planning to place the roosts opposite the nest box.)
*I was planning to put a big dish of sand in the coop for dust-bathing, but use wood shavings as bedding. Now I'm reading about sand as the bedding and I don't know what to think. Should I use sand in the entire coop? Would that still be a deep litter method (because DL was part of my keepin'-it-warm-in-the upstate-NY-winter plan)? Will they simply fling sand and shavings so violently about that even offering a sandbox is a laughably newbie idea?
*Is play sand OK or do I need to call the local quarry or landscaper for washed river sand?
*Has anyone used a heating pad like this http://www.amazon.com/3093-Outdoor-...?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1315077425&sr=1-5 to keep chickens warm in the winter?

--Caren

 

[citychickx6]

I will answer what I can.
The nest boxes under the roost is most likely for space. I have mine off to the side of the roosts. Keep the nest box height lower than the roost if you do not want them sleeping in the nests or on top.

I do the full clean thing not the deep litter so not much use there.

For dust bathing I have found that mine avoid the sand and use a dirt patch in the run. I am going to put a tub of pete moss in the coop and see what happens. I read on here about an experiment someone did and they preferred the pete.
I would skip the heating pad idea. Poo on it would be icky.

Keep posting I am looking forward to seeing the finished coop.

 

[teach1rusl]

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[CT]

I finished my coop, and will get pics tomorrow, but I went ahead and put the chicklets in tonight. First thing they did was attack the dust bath, which I filled with peat moss. Then they had a big meal, and fell asleep on the windowsill in a pile. They don't seem to have noticed the roosts yet. Maybe still too high for such little birds.

Anyway, I think I won't do the heating pad. I read some reviews, and while there are always a few reviewers of nearly any product that get a bum unit I was afraid that in an environment of pine shavings and straw a heater that was in contact with the floor was too risky. I think I'll stick to my heat lamp, and just buy a lower wattage bulb for it. Right now I have it mounted outside the coop, pointing through the hardware cloth, but with a lower watt bulb, I think I could safely mount it inside the coop from the ceiling and waste less energy by heating more directly. DH feels that any heat source above the birds is going to be more wasteful than one below them, but given their roosting habits and the flammable nature of their bedding, I think heat from above makes more sense.

I know this is off topic, but they are just so cute! They really enjoyed the space so much. It's huge compared to the pack-n-play they were in (and that is huge compared to the bin they had a mere week ago!) and it doesn't have a terrifying sheet on top of it. Oh, they really hated when that sheet moved, but without it I had chickens all over the basement. But, now that they are outside, I want to check on them all the time. I feel like I did when my kids were newborns, checking them in their sleep "just to be sure."

 

[CT]

These are the improvements I made to the coop. below you can see that I stacked two straw bales to make a wall toward the back, making a section that is walled on three sides. Inside that area are the roosts. In front you see the file cabinet I picked up curbside. It was a little wobbly, so I added some screws to brace it and then cut off the back to make a nest box. I figure I only need one nest box for 4 birds (and I think now only 3 of them are pullets), so the top drawer I left alone to store empty egg crates or something. The drawers are on a pallet and a cinderblock is beside it. These keep the deep litter from coming out when I open that side. Another cinderblock near the window holds the food and water--for now. I already need a bigger waterer and will soon need a bigger feeder. You can see the chicks enjoying a dust bath in a bin filled with peat moss. The heat lamp is outside until I get a lower wattage bulb, as I'm afraid of fire.

DSCN1473 by CT122, on Flickr

Here's a close-up of the bath:

DSCN1476 by CT122, on Flickr

The view of the back of the nestbox, and future layers Hawk, Annie, and Annie 10 (from front to back):

DSCN1481 by CT122, on Flickr

Pet, the suspected roo, on the pallet beside the nestbox:

DSCN1484 by CT122, on Flickr

Sorry, this picture's a little tippy, but this is the roost area. A disused stair frame, already with hardware on the foot of it, was easy to screw into the table's surface. I put nails in at an angle to hold up one end of the ash saplings my husband cut. This way I can change them out if they get moldy or if the birds outgrow the size. The other end is crammed into the straw bales, which was actually the hardest part of the roost construction. You can see my daughter is in there with the birds. She fits right through the window:

DSCN1485 by CT122, on Flickr

This is the view from outside. You can see my daughter in there, and a nice reflection of me if you look closely enough. This is where the yard will eventually be.

DSCN1471 by CT122, on Flickr

Finally, the door to the barn, which you can see some marauding creature violated the very first night (either that or the door was so rotted that it just couldn't take the stress of being closed for a whole night). Good thing I wasn't counting on that door to keep my chickens safe! It is partly opened in this pic, and slides along the inside, so it looks too short, but it really does close all the way, for whatever good that does (well, as a windbreak it's pretty good).

DSCN1472 by CT122, on Flickr

Once again, thank you all for the help, and if you have other suggestions, I will appreciate them. Always a work in progress!
--Caren