FH's Bantam 4x8 coop build

[feralhound]

Another couple weeks worth of work done. Been slow going, afternoon showers every day just about and me picking up extra work shifts plus petsitting.
Everything is pretty much painted, all the windows are on, the door is finally on, and today I had to completely redo my pop door since the first idea didn't work and went with a more simple old school method. Made the nesting box layout and a door from the outside to the nesting boxes. My dad surprised me one day by putting solar power flamingo lights all around it as well lol. Finishing a few details tomorrow and finally putting the chicks in!

 

[Hokum Coco]

Your coop is the exact same size as mine. I have kept as many as 24 birds in my 3 level coop with no issues through the winter with little to no use of the outside run.

This is my answer to ventilation. It seems to respond to every variety of situation. I will be changing the left hand door to a dutch door to give me even more options in the winter when ventilation is even more vital.









.

 

[feralhound]

Your coop is the exact same size as mine. I have kept as many as 24 birds in my 3 level coop with no issues through the winter with little to no use of the outside run.

This is my answer to ventilation. It seems to respond to every variety of situation. I will be changing the left hand door to a dutch door to give me even more options in the winter when ventilation is even more vital.

Wow, 3 stories and 24 chickens in a 4x8 ft coop? You're a lot braver than I am! I'm very happy with my 7 bantam chickens, and think I was able to supply them with adequate ventilation.

Since I'm going out of town tomorrow and there's a storm coming I went ahead and put my chickens in the coop yesterday, and am hoping to get the roost complete today. I have a temporary roost in now that I made when they were smaller, they're already outgrown it lol. With my chickens being so young I'm not worried about inserting the nesting boxes just yet wither. I completed my pop door, i incorporated the self locking hinge idea only my hinge will only fall one way, towards the inside. O have put a few washers on top of it for weight to insure that.
And I did splatter paint the inside walls with the teal, on purpose I wasn't a fan of the plain white walls.

 

[feralhound]

Woo hop came home from vacation and the coop stayed intact while the hurricane came through! Had put the chickens back in the shed before I left so they waited out the sti in a building I was confident in safety.

Did some work to the inside, added the roosts and poop board, organized the food/water. We're going to try working on the run soon.

Poop board construction: made a stand seperate from the actual board, so it just sits on top and if I need to I can take it off/move it/replace it. The bottom was a scrap piece of heavy T siding in the 70% off rack at Home Depot; I just screwed furlong strips to the edged, painted, and covered the bottom inside with leftover BlackJack.

Roost

Plan for the run: use the frame for the old carport. Not exactly sure how big it is, I think my dad even customized part of the braces from when I used it as a patio covering for my old house, but I do know it's at least 9 ft wide, and over 7ft tall at the peak. Part of the frame is on its side here.

The inside as of now

I need to figure out how to make a ramp up to the roosts. They can fly up there, but have a little trouble.
There are three roosting bars, each a ft appart and each are 2ft long. I think that should be plenty of space for 7 small breed birds?

A little 5ft lip keeping the bedding in, easily removed with sliding lock pins when comes time to shovel everything out

We also added a little 3x4ft "platform" level with the door, and one step up to it.

To do still:
- the run
- nesting boxes
- inside storage cabinets
- ramps for pop door and roosts

 

[feralhound]

So been a long time since I edited this, and boy have my babies grown up! I've had one casualty, one of my favorite Duccles, Georgina, who while free roaming decided to roost in the of the trees and the next morning- well I suspect one of the neighbors cats got her. Since the cats have been hanging around more everyone has been on lockdown in the run.

This week I finally finished the nesting boxes and almost done with the storage area, of course the girls have been laying for a month now haha. But they like the boxes so I'm happy!
The boxes can slide in and out, and the middle wall of the nesting boxes can slide out if I want as well.
Oh yes and I need to clean my poop board ^^;

Below is before I finished the cabinets, this is how I have my inside ramps set up. The ramp going up to the nesting boxes will most likely be replaced, it was originally just leading up to the roosts and only consist of t-1 siding cut and painted, so it's warping some. The litterpail is only there to keep the birds out until I can put a piece of wood there, plan on using that area for storage as well. ]

(Below) from the outside looking in at the boxes!

(Below)So currently the storage doors are screwed shut with extra pieces of wood because I found out after installing them the board is warped and that lock isn't keeping them shut :/ anyone have any ideas for better locking mecinisms I can use?

I'll have to get pics of the completed run, its completely enclosed with chicken wire and has welded wire around the bottom that aprons out.