Interior design of my coop

[dchurch]

Hi, Im new to BYC and chickens in general. I spent a few weeks on these forums reading posts, looking at lots of great pictures of coops...

Unlike most, I live on a farm, and have ALOT of barn space, that up until I built my coop was just sitting empty. Most of the pictures I've seen for coop designs are complete units, usually built to get the most bang for the smallest size, to fit into residential neighborhoods.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to design the ultimate coop, or chicken room, when space isn't really an issue. My only real limitation is natural light, I just put a window in my coop to give my girls some much needed natural light. I have not yet cut a door in for them to venture outside, the area outside the wall of my coop is still burried under 4" of snow.

I am planning on fencing in a run for them along the side of the barn, will be difficult to let them completely free range, we have dogs here, and have chased, and eventually caught other pet chickens I've had here.


My coop is 12' x 16' and currently occupied by 14, 55 week old layers... It's about -5'c inside the barn, so I have actually moved a waterer under the one heatlight.... the birds havent really shown any interest getting under the heatlight for warmth.

My nesting boxes I've built are a little too open on the inside, considering closing some of them off to give them more privacy, my birds, do not roost at all, I think it may have something to do with them being commercial caged layers, and they don't have strenghth, or even balance to roost. I've gone out at night and taken them out of the nesting box, and onto the roost, with no luck, they fall of, and then run back into the box.

this coop is on one side of a barn, occupying maybe 1/16th of it, all open around it, used for hay storage, and just open space. Right now 2 sides are housed with chain link from a dog run, and the front of it is sold wood up 4 feet, and then chicken wire on top. I built is this way for lots of venatation in the summer time, planning on maybe inclosing the entire area in this fall for winter. The barn is not heated.

I'd love to hear some comments on this, and what I should be adding for the best, most functional coop or pen... here is a drawing of the barn design.



I have ordered some nipple waterers, and plan on adding this to the coop. I have 40 barred rock chicks coming in a few weeks, that I'm going to raise in the basement of the house, in a stock tank.

 

[Dogchickenboy]

Thats awesome

 

[dchurch]

Bump

 

[Going Quackers]

Looks good! i wonder whether a lower 2x4(2x6) roost would be an option, i have no experience with your type of bird but i know mine like to be able to cuddle down onto their feet, i know ours really like this with the cold that we have.

I admit my nest box was 'supposed' to be divided down into 3 which is way to many lol but we built the coop pretty roomy and the nest box couldn't go smaller... yet, i have not, mine seem ok with it being wide open, it's pretty roomy.

Have you had them long? perhaps it will just take time for them to adjust. I think it's great what you did with the light, natural light is really important imo, so that was a good step. What do you feel it's lacking? i find coops are so personal, yes, there are basics but after that depends on the space, birds and so forth.

 

[dchurch]

I've had these girls for just 10 days, I'm keeping track of egg production, and changes, and I've watched the number of eggs from from 10 and 11 on the first 2 days to and average of 7 eggs for the remainer, as high as 8, but as low as 5.

When I first brought them home, I had enclosed them in a pen with NO natural light, in a 10' x 10' dog run... I was convinced the reason why production was down was due to the crappy lighting... I had a 6500k daylight bulb on them 16 hours/day. But after a few days in this new pen, with natural light, and it doesn't seem to be making a change. These birds came from a comercial egg laying barn.

I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can do, to make them as happy as possible.... and hope thier production comes back to normal levels... the 10-11 eggs per day, for 14 hens I've read is normal.

Also, I have the luxury of space, I want to take advantage of it... this is my first attempt at keeping chickens, my barred rocks are coming in a week or so... I want to do it right the first time, and have a good environment for them. I'm not overly handy building these things, and it takes me much, much longer than most. I hate to spend alot of time to build something, to a few weeks later take it down, because I've thought of another plan thats more efficent.

Already with my barred rock day olds coming in, I've concluded that I will likely raise them in my basement, because I don't have a heated or enclosed space to do it in the barn. and if you look at my plan in the pictures above, I do plan to add another pen beside the main one. The issue I now see is that although they are side by side, I have no way to move them from one pen to another, without going out of the pen, and back in. I've used a 12' chain link panel on the ends, that will be between them, once the second is built.

I'd love for a person who has raised flocks to almost design an ultimate layout, for a coop, incorperating all elements needed to raise chicks from day olds, to raise some for meat, and others to keep for eggs... in say a 15' x 30' room.