Thoughts on this design

[LeverAction35]

I’ve had chickens all my life, but I’m only familiar with the coop design at our family nursery. I thought this looked like a well thought out design. I like the manure box under the roost. I would make a drawer from the exterior to pull out and empty easily. My nesting box will also be exterior mounted with the rollout trays. Other than that, I like the design how it is. Let me know your thoughts.

I’m torn on what to do about a run too. I have 12 acres so my initial thought is to just let them roam around and put the coop on wheels, but my wife and I are worried about our dachshund constantly rolling in the manure…

another thought was to get the electrified poultry netting…

or a fully enclosed run with chicken tunnels coming out of it

 

[DobieLover]

I'm not impressed with the coop. It looks like it wouldn't house more than 3-4 birds yet it has 6 nest boxes when it only needs one.
And the nest boxes are higher than the roost.
And the roost is too close to the wall.
And it doesn't have enough ventilation.
And it has no lip at the pop door to keep bedding inside.
And you can't walk inside it...

My nesting box will also be exterior mounted with the rollout trays.

That would be an improvement. If you're going to do that, make sure you properly flash where the nest box meets the siding and you have roof overhang at the front of the nest box. Have the access door it hinged down to collect eggs from the front. That way you won't have water infiltration through the siding.

electrified poultry netting…

This is what I do. I enclosed about 1/3 acre for my chickens. But they also have a fully predator-proof, solid roof run that they use primarily in the winter or in the morning before they feel like coming out and foraging for the day.

 

[Sally PB]

I would make a drawer from the exterior to pull out and empty easily.

My husband spent quite a bit of time designing and building this for our coop. About a month into having chickens, I realized a couple of things: 1) I will never be physically able to pull out a 4x8 section of floor, and, 2) The bedding will be skimmed off the top as I try to pull it out.

I have 4-8" of pine shavings on the floor of the coop. It will never "pull through" an opening 2" tall. I have that much bedding in there to cushion their landings when they jump off the roost, and also they can "nest" in it when the temperature is in the teens, as it is today.

 

[LeverAction35]

That just sounds like poor planning…

 

[aart]

That just sounds like poor planning…

Well, I hope you post the construction and successful operation(after a few months at least) of your poop drawer. I would love to see it.

 

[Skacha23]

Considerations: how many chickens, what is your predator situation?
Look up designs specifically for chicken tractors if that is what you want. Anything not designed from the beginning to be mobile is going to be a beast to move. I've got an omlet eglu cube which I absolutely loved when I didn't have a fenced yard. Where I lived when I first bought it there were black and grizzly bears, wolves, coyotes, foxes, skunks, hawks, osprey, eagles etc. Having a solid coop with a built in fully enclosed run that was meant to be mobile was key. I also used electrified poultry netting for added protection. Because of the predator situation I only let my girls out into the bigger poultry netted area when I was home and semi paying attention. Because I moved the whole thing every few days they didn't get bored.
If you live in a place with less predator pressure I would look at something like a "chicksaw" and use the electric poultry netting to enclose it. This would overall be lighter and easier to move.

 

[MapleLaurelFarms]

I’ve had chickens all my life, but I’m only familiar with the coop design at our family nursery. I thought this looked like a well thought out design. I like the manure box under the roost. I would make a drawer from the exterior to pull out and empty easily. My nesting box will also be exterior mounted with the rollout trays. Other than that, I like the design how it is. Let me know your thoughts.

I’m torn on what to do about a run too. I have 12 acres so my initial thought is to just let them roam around and put the coop on wheels, but my wife and I are worried about our dachshund constantly rolling in the manure…

another thought was to get the electrified poultry netting…

or a fully enclosed run with chicken tunnels coming out of it

You've got a lot of options, for sure. The design you showed isn't too bad with some modifications (like others said, lower the nesting boxes etc), but since you have the space and are going to this amount of trouble, I'd just go ahead and build a permanent, walk-in coop. From there, you can decide how you want to proceed and take things one step at a time.

Just as an example, we have a large, walk-in coop with a fully protected run off to the side that has a pop door to our pasture. I can open the pop door in the morning to let the hens out, and what I use from there varies depending on the season, grazing or containment needs, etc.

From the pop door, I'm always moving things around by using a huge variety of things (chunnels, kennel panels, temp fencing, etc) to allow my girls access to where I want them to forage. It's kinda fun to create new spaces for them when needed. It's beneficial to our pasture and garden, and it keeps our hens healthy and entertained. When we go on vacation or daytrips or we're having a really bad weather day, I just leave the pop door closed.

Edited to add - Be sure to consider that tractoring a fullsized coop can be tough! It's best if you have a real tractor to move it, and it also doesn't work well unless your land is fairly flat. We tried it for a year or two and quickly gave it up. We sold that coop when we built our current one and were glad to see it go!