Sharing (badly drawn) plans of the coop/run we’re building!

[Sillyna511]

Alright, I thought I’d share the plans we came up with for the coop we’re building. These are just my hand-drawn scribbles and absolutely nothing is to scale… but here they are! Built to house 6 chickens (although we currently have 7 chicks).
We basically scoured the internet for weeks and came up with a way to combine all the things that we liked best about other coops. Our main goals were:
1) ease of access & cleaning
2) safe from predators
3) enough space for the chickens
4) proper ventilation

Essentially, the run is 8x10 feet. The full footprint of the run is open and accessible to the chickens giving them 80sqft of run space. The entire run/coop will be roofed and all the run walls are hardware mesh, with an 18” wide buried mesh apron all around the outside perimeter.

The coop footprint is 4x8 feet, although only 4x6 will be used for chickens. So 24sqft inside the coop. The other 2ft at the end will be our storage and it will have an access door on both sides - from inside the run, and from outside the coop for more flexibility. The space underneath the coop inside the run is 3ft tall, and open along the entire 8ft wide side, so if we ever do have to get a chicken or an egg from under there, we’re not having to crawl super low or into a tight space.

Nesting boxes accessible from outside.
The coop sits 3ft off the ground and the door will be the entire 4ft width, making it easy to reach inside and easier to clean without having to bend over.

The coop will have hardware mesh ventilation along the top 6 inches of all 3 sides (the 4th side of the coop is the wall that is storage on the other side). Total ventilation = 8sqft.

The nesting boxes will be 16” tall, 14” wide, and 12” deep.
We will have 2 roosting bars along the wall opposite of the nesting boxes. They’ll be staggered, with the lower one coming out 2 ft from the wall, and the upper one coming 1ft from the wall. The lower one maybe 8-12 inches off the floor, and the other one a foot higher. The 2 roosting bars will each likely be about 4ft long. They will be mounted with brackets that let us slide the roost bars out through the coop-access door when we need to clean them. At some point in the future we may do a “poop shelf” under the roost bars but it’s not part of our plan for now.

There will be a red light mounted inside the coop in the space above the door. And extra outlets in case we ever need to add a heater.

Food and water will be out in their run.
Extra bedding, food, etc will be kept in the storage space.

I think I addressed all the main points… if not, I’ll edit and add stuff as I remember.

We have started construction and I could share photos as it’s built if people care to see!

 

[GodLovesU]

I love the design!

 

[Sillyna511]

I love the design!

Thank you! I just hope it all works out like we're planning. And we're on a time crunch because of course we got chicks before starting work on the coop LOL! They are 3.5 weeks old, so we still have time. My husband doesn't work so he has the entire workweek to make coop progress, we're not stuck to only weekends!

 

[perkolator]

General plan looks ok to me.

You meet the 10sq/ft space per bird minimum recommendation with your overall footprint, but personally I feel this is definitely a minimum like a jail-like cramped quarters, and any animal caged up daily would likely appreciate much more space - and there's no room for chicken math!

To me it makes sense to have all dimensions based on using standard materials dimensions, such as 48", so there's less cuts and/or waste on your materials. With that said, the 6ft width of run doesn't make sense to me, so I'd bump that out to at least 8ft, possibly more like 12 or 16ft if you have the space

The interior I'd suggest installing roost on the short side, so they're not jumping down the short direction into a wall. They'd also prefer roosting on the taller end. Nest boxes look fine, you'll probably only need one for 6 birds

Alternative design considerations - to be different than 95% of coops, I put my nest boxes and storage area underneath the raised coop floor. Part of the decision was to have less confined space to retrieve bird/egg (non-issue really, I've had to get an egg down there twice in 4yrs) but also because I've dealt with 4 different chicken coops that had outboard nest boxes, and every one of them leaked water during rain at that wall/box connection. Storage is definitely necessary to me, it's surprising to see so many people who don't add a storage area to their homebuilt coops.

Good luck to hubs and fabrication week

 

[Sillyna511]

General plan looks ok to me.

You meet the 10sq/ft space per bird minimum recommendation with your overall footprint, but personally I feel this is definitely a minimum like a jail-like cramped quarters, and any animal caged up daily would likely appreciate much more space - and there's no room for chicken math!

To me it makes sense to have all dimensions based on using standard materials dimensions, such as 48", so there's less cuts and/or waste on your materials. With that said, the 6ft width of run doesn't make sense to me, so I'd bump that out to at least 8ft, possibly more like 12 or 16ft if you have the space

The interior I'd suggest installing roost on the short side, so they're not jumping down the short direction into a wall. They'd also prefer roosting on the taller end. Nest boxes look fine, you'll probably only need one for 6 birds

Alternative design considerations - to be different than 95% of coops, I put my nest boxes and storage area underneath the raised coop floor. Part of the decision was to have less confined space to retrieve bird/egg (non-issue really, I've had to get an egg down there twice in 4yrs) but also because I've dealt with 4 different chicken coops that had outboard nest boxes, and every one of them leaked water during rain at that wall/box connection. Storage is definitely necessary to me, it's surprising to see so many people who don't add a storage area to their homebuilt coops.

Good luck to hubs and fabrication week

Thank you. The plan will be to also let them out to roam the yard in the spring & summer when we’re spending time outdoors. But if they can’t be watched over they’ll be in their run. It might be “just the minimum” but our yard is only so big. Thankfully chicken math can’t happen at our house, because the city we live in doesn’t allow any more that that LOL.

The width of the run is 8 ft, not 6ft. The overall size is 8x10. The only thing that will be 6ft is the coop-portion of the 8x4 elevated building, since the other 2 ft at the end will be storage. We didn’t want to put storage under the coop because then that takes away from the sqft of the run and we wanted to maximize that.

We originally thought of installing the roosting bars on the short (back) end but we opted for the long end so that we could remove the bars for cleaning easier. Putting them on the back wall against the storage area would mean we’ll have to climb up inside the coop to remove them. The roosting bars will have 2-3 feet of space in front for them to hop down. And roosting bars on the tall end wouldn’t work because that’s where we need our access door.

Hopefully can keep the nesting box fully rain-proof. It will be underneath the overhang of the coop’s roof, so that should greatly help!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Unless all the birds are giant you don't need such wide nest boxes. Doesn't hurt but you might be able to save some material that way. If 6 is the max number you are ever going to have just 2 nests would be plenty as well.

Space between roosts should be more like 14-16" apart. You might want to think about putting them all at the same height unless you have some breeds that will struggle to get up on higher roosts (i.e. Silkies, some giants).

There will be a red light mounted inside the coop in the space above the door. And extra outlets in case we ever need to add a heater.

Red light for... your visual usage? Not a heat lamp right? Just get a regular white bulb if it's for your benefit.

You will never need a heater in Tacoma's temperatures, not for feathered birds, unless you're talking about a heated waterer.

 

[ChaosMom]

Thank you. The plan will be to also let them out to roam the yard in the spring & summer when we’re spending time outdoors. But if they can’t be watched over they’ll be in their run. It might be “just the minimum” but our yard is only so big. Thankfully chicken math can’t happen at our house, because the city we live in doesn’t allow any more that that LOL.

The width of the run is 8 ft, not 6ft. The overall size is 8x10. The only thing that will be 6ft is the coop-portion of the 8x4 elevated building, since the other 2 ft at the end will be storage. We didn’t want to put storage under the coop because then that takes away from the sqft of the run and we wanted to maximize that.

We originally thought of installing the roosting bars on the short (back) end but we opted for the long end so that we could remove the bars for cleaning easier. Putting them on the back wall against the storage area would mean we’ll have to climb up inside the coop to remove them. The roosting bars will have 2-3 feet of space in front for them to hop down. And roosting bars on the tall end wouldn’t work because that’s where we need our access door.

Hopefully can keep the nesting box fully rain-proof. It will be underneath the overhang of the coop’s roof, so that should greatly help!

I have the feed and water in the open area under the raised coop. I also don’t have the run litter under that (small) space, so spilled food and water doesn’t hit the litter. Mine’s only 2’ off the ground, and I can bend my aged and decrepit body down to move bowls around etc., so this might be an option with some of your under-run space.

I like your design!

Edit: under my coop, I should have said

 

[Sillyna511]

Unless all the birds are giant you don't need such wide nest boxes. Doesn't hurt but you might be able to save some material that way. If 6 is the max number you are ever going to have just 2 nests would be plenty as well.

Space between roosts should be more like 14-16" apart. You might want to think about putting them all at the same height unless you have some breeds that will struggle to get up on higher roosts (i.e. Silkies, some giants).


Red light for... your visual usage? Not a heat lamp right? Just get a regular white bulb if it's for your benefit.

You will never need a heater in Tacoma's temperatures, not for feathered birds, unless you're talking about a heated waterer.

Okay we can probably reconfigure the roosts spacing!

We have mainly barred rock which are large and we don’t want them to feel too crowded and avoid using the boxes. We can add curtains to the front if it seems like they want to feel even more enclosed. I told my husband we only needed 2 boxes.. so that’s why he’s only building 3 instead of the 4 he wanted originally!

Red bulb (not heat) was recommended to prevent aggression, as if any get injured and the rest see blood that can trigger pecking & cannibalism. But maybe that’s less of a common thing than my husband was led to believe?

We have no current plans for a heater in the coop, but we did have a heated water in mind for winter. Since he was running electrical anyway, he figured better to put in more outlets just in case of any future needs!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Red bulb (not heat) was recommended to prevent aggression, as if any get injured and the rest see blood that can trigger pecking & cannibalism. But maybe that’s less of a common thing than my husband was led to believe?

That seems to mainly apply to chicks, and maybe battery conditions (where the birds are attacking each other from crowding stress)? It doesn't hurt to install a light inside regardless, but I'd just be doing it for my benefit since the inside of a coop can be pretty dark in winter gloom, even with windows.

We have no current plans for a heater in the coop, but we did have a heated water in mind for winter. Since he was running electrical anyway, he figured better to put in more outlets just in case of any future needs!

Doesn't hurt at all to have outlets! Just wanted to reassure you that the chicken won't freeze in our climate (but the water will), since I was unsure if your original plan was to heat the coop for winter.

 

[aart]

the inside of a coop can be pretty dark in winter gloom, even with windows.

Why I use a headlight set on low.