Does an A-frame coop/run need a real floor or can it be open air?

[InvertGang]

Hello everyone!



I'm designing a coop for 4 red sex link hens and 1 rooster of unknown breed who I'm going to look for on kijiji to give a new home to after the hens are settled.



My idea is an A frame chicken tractor with no floor and a partial roof over all of it, with full roof over the back "enclosed" part. I have a mediocre diagram here:

Lengths are in feet.

The grey box is "usable internal area", meaning spots with at least a foot of headroom.

The yellow lines are roof area. On most of the coop the roof ends a foot above the ground, but at the back enclosed section it goes all the way to the ground.

The red is 19 guage 1/2" hardware cloth. It is also going to be on the whole bottom of the coop for predator protection as we have problematic least weasels here.

The front of the coop is all hardware cloth.

The back of the coop is a wall with an openable vent at the top in case more ventilation is needed.

There is no wall between the more open and more closed part, the only solid wall is at the very back where the pink W is.

There will be two roosts in the enclosed section running across. Also a nest box in the back (in blue) somewhere with a hinged door that opens to the outside for collection. The whole back wall will probably be hinged to come down for access .

I measured the area of the bottom section just where there is at least 12 inches of space. The usable ground area is around 57 square feet total.

My neighbour said I can keep my chickens in their coop over the winter so I'm mostly concerned with spring/summer/fall.

Is this sort of open air coop viable? Or am I barking up the wrong tree here?

These are my first chickens and I want them to be happy.

Thanks!

 

[InvertGang]

I adjusted the title to make it more clear what I'm asking. The bit I'm unsure about is related to the no-floor and open air nature of the coop. There is no wall separating the run section from the coop section, and the coop section is just longer roof and some roosts. Do the chickens need a wall between the two? Is 57 square feet enough room for 5 chickens?

 

[aart]

Is this sort of open air coop viable?

Sure.

chicken tractor

Meaning it will be movable?

I measured the area of the bottom section just where there is at least 12 inches of space.

No idea what this means.

 

[InvertGang]

Sure.


Meaning it will be movable?


No idea what this means.

I saw on another thread that you can't count the area for the square feet if the chickens don't have at least 12 inches of space from their feet to their head, because they can't walk on it. So I didn't count the edges of the triangle in the square footage.

I'm hoping my partner and I will be able to move it together to new grass every day or so. I'm hoping this will reduce how much we've got to clean bedding and stuff.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

There are no predators in your area? Also, depends on weather, but isn't there a chill at night? Ground in the shade of your structure will be cold as the sun never warms it

 

[InvertGang]

There are no predators in your area? Also, depends on weather, but isn't there a chill at night? Ground in the shade of your structure will be cold as the sun never warms it

I'm hoping to put 1/2 inch hardware cloth underneath as well to prevent weasels and stuff getting in.

Will being up off the ground in the roost on the fully covered part be enough to keep them warm? Since there would be a wall behind them on that side and the roof would go all the way to the ground.

These are very helpful questions because they're pointing out things I didn't necessarily consider, and are exactly what I was hoping to get from the post. Since it's my first coop, there's a lot I wouldn't think of, so thanks

 

[aart]

I'm hoping my partner and I will be able to move it together to new grass every day or so. I'm hoping this will reduce how much we've got to clean bedding and stuff.

A structure this size will be difficult to move unless you have adequate framing to support the weight, good wheels and flat ground.
I suggest you do a scaled drawing plan(graph paper work well) before even attpemting to build anything.

I'm hoping my partner and I will be able to move it together to new grass every day or so. I'm hoping this will reduce how much we've got to clean bedding and stuff.

I'm hoping to put 1/2 inch hardware cloth underneath

The poops will not fall thru this size mesh, you'll still have to clean.

 

[InvertGang]

Yeah it seems like this isn't going to work as well as I thought. I think I'll make a new design that's more traditional fixed coop + run.

 

[paddock36]

I adjusted the title to make it more clear what I'm asking. The bit I'm unsure about is related to the no-floor and open air nature of the coop. There is no wall separating the run section from the coop section, and the coop section is just longer roof and some roosts. Do the chickens need a wall between the two? Is 57 square feet enough room for 5 chickens?

So if you use 3 square foot per bird then yes you absolutely have enough room. As far as the open floor, I believe that depends on your area. I had an open floor A-frame tractor and had one end closed as a laying area. It worked fine, but I also had 6ft surrounding privacy fence with no danger of dogs or other predators,and I live in FL so no snow.

 

[McChooky]

A frame chicken coops are cheap to build.This is one of my favorite ones .I found it online recently.My coop would need to be bigger than this but I love the design of the 'run'