My First Coop

[Kewpieteef]

Went and checked out the chicken coop and I love it! It's perfect for my small flock of four! It's a 6 x 10 and you can enter the run and the coop. Which will hopefully make cleaning, feeding, and changing the water so much easier than the previous one we looked at. It's made with a nice thick hardware cloth and its very sturdy and well built. Setting up a delivery date on Monday then it'll be here on the date we pick. While we were checking it over, we had a little visitor! An Australian shepherd came over and chilled out with us haha! Such a sweet boy. You can see him standing by my coop in the last photo. Truly perfect timing once I have it all set up the pullets will be ready to stay in the coop full time! I can't wait!

The Photos!

 

[Debbie292d]

That looks very nice! Congrats!

I'm sorta thinking they'll want a bigger run though or is this something you'll move around?

 

[Kewpieteef]

That looks very nice! Congrats!

I'm sorta thinking they'll want a bigger run though or is this something you'll move around?

I'm planning on semi-free ranging? Is the best way I can put it haha. Basically when I'm outside and watching them they'll be out of the coop and enjoying a lot of grass, bugs and weeds!

 

[Down Under]

Nice. It might pay to line the coop part with something waterproof, sloppy droppings stick to wood like no tomorrow.

 

[Kewpieteef]

Nice. It might pay to line the coop part with something waterproof, sloppy droppings stick to wood like no tomorrow.

Thank you for the tip! You just saved me from a headache!

 

[rosemarythyme]

It's cute but underventilated in the coop area. I'd suggest opening up a lot of the wall under the run roof if possible (the red triangle) and replacing it with wire mesh.

The roosts as shown are too steeply stacked on top of each other so birds on top can poop on ones below (I tried to place red to indicate a 45 degree slope). Roosts also look narrow maybe (just from eyeballing, maybe they aren't as small as they look to me) and more importantly need to be oriented so a flat size is up, not an edge (pretend green is a 2x3 or 2x4 or a round roost).

Also because the nest boxes are off the ground the entire roost setup may need to be bumped up higher as well, as chickens instinctively want to roost on the highest area whether it's a roost bar or a nest box.

 

[Kewpieteef]

It's cute but underventilated in the coop area. I'd suggest opening up a lot of the wall under the run roof if possible (the red triangle) and replacing it with wire mesh.
View attachment 4108363

The roosts as shown are too steeply stacked on top of each other so birds on top can poop on ones below (I tried to place red to indicate a 45 degree slope). Roosts also look narrow maybe (just from eyeballing, maybe they aren't as small as they look to me) and more importantly need to be oriented so a flat size is up, not an edge (pretend green is a 2x3 or 2x4 or a round roost).
View attachment 4108364

Also because the nest boxes are off the ground the entire roost setup may need to be bumped up higher as well, as chickens instinctively want to roost on the highest area whether it's a roost bar or a nest box.

Wow thank you so much! I knew something felt slightly off with the coop area but I couldn't figure it out. I truly appreciate the information!