I HAVE RAISED CHICKENS FOR 50 YEARS, IN THAT 50 YEARS I HAVE ONLY HAD A HANDFUL DIE, FRESH WATER, FRESH FEED, SUNLIGHT, LOT OF WOOD SHAVINGS, WORKS PRETTY GOOD, I LIKE YOUR VIDEO.
Tip: I saw a video of a man who built a pull-out chicken coop floor like a drawer. The cool part is he cover the floor in linoleum so when he pulled the floor/drawer out he could easily rake or sweep of the debris and wash it off in minutes and push it back in. That was genius and took the burden of cleaning out of the equation.
I haven’t yet watched the entire video- Things I wish I had added to my coop/run are: *Two separate areas in the coop, one area for last years hens and the other for this years hens (to keep egg production up I want to only keep young layers and butcher last years layers- I will pressure can the older hens so the meat is tender) *another area for sick birds so I don’t have to bring them into the house area *an area for chicks so that everyone is acclimated and in view but bio security is top priority and I’m not sure best way to set that up *Totally agree about having a cover over the run area, I live in the high desert mountains of Idaho and we can get bitter winds, heavy snow, days of double digit negative temps and in the summer it can get terribly hot during the day… so covering the run will help keep heat in the winter and shade in the summer as well as prevent wild birds spreading diseases *thought about putting polycarbonate panels/greenhouse panels for sections of the run cover for winter since we have longer cold weather conditions and I can add a shade cloth over that easily in the summer * agree with having a good dust bath *I would like to also have secure space in the coop to keep feed, scratch and poultry first aid I’ll finish watching and respond if something comes up
Built my coop summer before last. Used vinyl flooring and ran it up the sides also - love it! But I also covered the walls with 1/4" plywood first that I painted with 3 coats of poly seal. Then I applied the vinyl and I caulked all the seams in the vinyl and added a painted trim piece to the top of the vinyl sealing that part also. I use the deep litter method with hemp (it absorbs better) adding one new bail the first of each month. Twice per year I shovel it all out with a plastic snow shovel so I don't tear the vinyl and blow the dust out with a leaf blower. Works great. So far no illness, or mites, or rodents. I did loose 7 chickens to a fox this winter while they were free-ranging - but that's a whole other story.
I did the linoleum in our coop and I’m really happy with it! I also made a multi level roosting bar that is on hinges and can be raised and clipped to the ceiling for easier floor cleaning.
i am going to be building a new coop this year, and we have found that a great way to keep out the rodents and even birds, is hardware cloth. i am going to be putting it under my floors and up the bottoms of the walls to keep rodents from chewing through and getting in. i use it currently in my windows that i open, to keep birds from coming in. my current coop has no run, but its large and tons of room for the 6 birds i have, and i have electrical in the coop for led lighting to keep them on a regular schedule due to the short daylight hours of winter. with the electrical, i also use an old crock pot and put it on keep warm during the coldest days to ensure no freezing, so they always have fresh water.
I built a sandbox underneath their roost. Most of the pooping happens at night. Every morning I pick up their droppings with a kitty litter scoop (you can make a bigger wire mesh scoop for larger flocks) and put them into a covered compost bin. It keeps their coop clean and no smell builds up.
I’m doing further research, but I have heard that nesting boxes should be just tall enough for the chicken to stand up and turn around. Not a full stand as that allows them to poop in the nesting box. Making it shorter means they will choose to go outside the nesting box to poop, therefore, cleaner eggs and cleaner nesting boxes.
In 12 years no one has pooped in the amazon boxes my girls lay eggs in under the table on the back porch..... They sleep in the tree next to the porch. They do have a storm coop under the porch for bad weather. No one hatched and raised here have had health issues or been sick...
Also, if the nesting boxes are lower than they want to roost, they will not roost (and poop) in the nesting boxes. Ground level nesting boxes I have seen are "roost poop-free."
For your friend; reclaimed lumber and building materials help cut down the costs. Also, when construction companies bid a job, they allow for extra materials. Many of them don't "carry over" materials from one job to another, so your friend can talk with the general contractor on a jobsite and ask about unused lumber, siding, etc. A few companies throw this stuff in the dumpster as trash and will allow you to take it instead. But always, ALWAYS ask first, and if their policies don't allow people to scavenge their unused materials, don't sneak onto their construction site and steal stuff. Just look for other sources.
So.... I just happened to stumble on your video. I don't know if you are a Christian or not, and it really doesn't matter, but it helps me explain this. 2 1/2 years ago, I had a dream with explicit instructions to enclose my animals just for this reason. Last year I completed a 15x 25 enclosed run with an attached coop much like your design. The floor to the coop was done in waterproof vinyl plank flooring. The interior of the run was coated in a 6 inch depth of sand. Every evening when they go to roost, I take a telescopic doggie scooper, scoop the droppings, put them in a bucket, and remove them to the compost pile. Every month I spray the interior walls and screen with my garden sprayer. I use a vinegar/water mix. I use apple cider vinegar in their water and diatomaceous earth is mixed into the sand for dusting. This winter, I enclosed the screening with greenhouse plastic as well. I have not had an ill bird at all. You are definitely doing people a service by warning others of this. You are the first person I have even seen address it. Be blessed!
Very interesting. I built my chicken "palace" two years ago and did exactly what you are advising. I researched a lot before building and it did sort of mushroom in size but I just didn't want to build something that still allowed predators, etc. to access my birds. I worked too hard to raise those babies. Many a person rolled their eyes, told me I was going overboard, there wasn't any danger, etc but now two years later all my original birds are still healthy and alive, no issues at all. I'm loving being a crazy chicken lady. I have a double sided henhouse, each side is 4x8, they are three feet off the ground and open into separate 8x20 runs. By being elevated there is also the area under the henhouse for extra space. On one side, I divided the 8x20 area into a corner 8x8 and an 8x12 for exactly what you mentioned, quarantine, broody hens, etc. I have a solid roof over the entire area, both hardware cloth on the outside and the interior is divided by kennels made for dogs. I put a predator apron around the entire bottom, have a contained gravity fed watering system, etc. You will love yours for sure. I know I do.
Crazy chicken lady here too! I had my (doubting) husband put chicken wire from the roof and down the wall of the large covered (glass, perspective, plastic - for light) hen run (their house is all wood with a glass window) , under the earth and over to and up the other wall to the roof - no one gets to my ladies! The, hubby insisted they need to listen to classical music, so he installed that too! Our neighbors smile... We love our hens and eggs, and it's fun too! All the best to you and yours :)
I dropped a 5' length of 4" PVC into a hole (drilled w/ auger). It's capped at the bottom and holds water. I set the drinker over that and the ground heats the water in the pipe - which keeps the drinker thawed in the winter.
Good ideas, and the pro-active adjustments make a lot of sense! In our gamebird pens we actually re-plant small saplings and fir trees in the run - with the chickens only some survive because they are a little rougher on transplants!
I can add is that spring and fall are the times that the chickens are more at risk due to migratory bird spreading disease and Diatomaceous Earth is excellent as an additive to the dust bath.
I have a lot of wood ash from my wood stove that isn’t being used for anything. I’ve not heard of people using it for dust baths though. Could you share more about why you use wood ash?
I found that using a deep bed of wood pine shavings in the coop (especially in winter) is much cleaner and dryer than straw for bedding. Just add a light new coat of shavings once every week or so and it's completely dry and no odor. It's been a game changer for me specially in winter where i want to avoid moisture in the coop. When cleaned out every 3 months or so it makes a great compost starter also.
A neighbor grew something like "Triticale" ? that I bought from him and use as bedding in the lean-to that my free-rangers are thriving in - very DRY and keeps the open-ended lean-to fairly warm. We get down in the teens & 20's so it's working well. Spring time it will go in the compost pile!
This is what I settled on after trying other methods! 8 to 10 inch deep bedding, using white wood shavings. If you scatter down a handful of corn every day, the hens will spend hours foraging for it, which keeps the bedding mixed (so new poops are quickly coated and dry out fast) and keeps the hens entertained- double win! I also set a poop-catching board under the roost, which improved the whole system. Then I could easily scrape off and remove the nighttime poop every couple days. This reduced the overall moisture in the coop, and reduced the “work” I was expecting the bedding to do, so the bedding stayed cleaner and dryer. I did find it essential to prevent any bulk water contamination, though, like rain or snow blowing in. Or if they spilled their water somehow. If that happens, then the saturated portion of the bedding needs to be removed quick before the hens mix it in, because any bedding that stays wet will mold. Changing the bedding just once a year in about August turns out to be the best for me, on the rainy side of Washington State. Then by the time the wet weather starts in about October, the bedding is nice and dry and working well.
I'm a fan of it on the roof, it should be great on the floors. We had a sheet that lasted years on a coop at one house that I've done it twice. Tarps work well for me, but this summer I want to try soaking a wet cotton drop cloth in thinned titebond to mimic fiberglass. Really curious how water resistant it would be and how well it took repairs.
I put a linoleum remnant on the floor of my coop then a layer of sand on top. Keeps down any smells and easy to clean. Also a dropping board below the roosts. It also has linoleum and sand. It catches the majority of the mess and the floor stays fairly clean.
Also ideas for my run include an area where I can toss seeds for treats. Something that can be covered with wire for a few weeks while the seeds sprout and get some growth, then I can drag that cover to another spot and toss down a bunch of seed. Also a dwarf fruit tree that will put out some scaffold for roosting. Also beds on the south side of the exterior of the run for grapes to grow up and shade the south side.
Third Coast Craftsman has a video on his coop. What I find inspiring is his droppings clean-out under his roosting area. (About 2/3 through the video) So simple and functional. Palm to forhead, why didn't I think of that? Best of luck. Title, "Ultimate Backyard Chicken Coop Build".
I built his coop this past summer and it's a dream in so many ways. The droppings board is very easy to clean and lets me keep a better handle on the ladies health by having better view of their droppings. And with the board being elevated, they still have the floor space underneath it. I put linoleum on the floor and that makes it easier to clean as well. The covered roof on the run has been a game changer for the ladies because it's extended their "coop" space during the cold winter days. I cover most of the exterior run area with green house plastic so that with the roof is amazing. The angel of the metal roofs allow the rain or melting snow to drain off easily. It was costly to build, but now I have a solid set up that will last a long while and certainly makes it easier to care for and enjoy my ladies.
Brother built his last coop, he did the linoleum roll thing. Years later the lino around the corners is cracking a little, but it still makes cleaning a LOT easier!
I built a two story (in chicken stories) coop. The upper level is for roosting. It gives me the full floor space for roosting. Then the food, water and nesting boxes are on the first floor. It keeps the food and water buckets cleaner. It allows chickens more space when eating and drinking. And it reduced the "footprint" of the coop to half while maintaining space. And I still have a "walk out basement" where they have outside protection in the winter. Only change I would make is put some nesting boxes on the 2nd level. They seem to like to nest there better.
Paving stones in your runs will keep critters from burrowing up. Cover with topsoil, shavings, or whatever you like, and scoop out regularly to compost. You can scrub them down with disinfectant and not worry about mud puddles
I have a large coop and a small one. The small one is covered with vinyl flooring on the side walls and floor. BEST IDEA EVER! It's so easy to clean up and like many have said just don't use a metal shovel on it, only use a hard plastic shovel so you don't tear up the vinyl flooring. I wish I would have known this with my large coop because it's super easy to clean. I LOVE the idea of you making different coop areas inside of your new coop plans. I'm going to do the same next time. One area where it's covered with greenhouse plastic just for the winter so that the chickens can still have as much light possible in the dead of winter yet have a cover over them for when the snow, sleet, rain and so on comes. I also LOVED the idea I saw of a man that has a small barn with perches WAY WAY up at the top of the ceiling and also lower ones for those that don't want to go that high up. He said it helps to give them MANY places to get away from each other as some of them don't always get along while others do.
I've had a small flock for about a year and I let my chickens free range. I have a small coop and I like the ideas you have for your larger coop and can't wait to see the progress.
Florida here. I have dirt floor bottom coop. And 12 inch raise bed sides. I throw hay grass clipping dead leaves etc. I also liquify my kitchen scraps in a blender with loads of water and pour this below the bedding on the ground before my start of hens. As I go adding I will lay a board over the bedding after pouring in the worm and creature loving micro nutrients so the hens don’t eat before it can break down a bit. I have a cement skirt with fencing enforcement around the perimeter so no one‘s getting in there to eat any of my girls or my system. I have going a nice compost system. The ground underneath the bedding is allowed 6 months to a years before raking and turning the top 3 inches.
I will be updating my coop this summer, and plan on making a large hardcover run, similar to what you have shown in your design. What I will be adding to my coop is two separate outdoor spaces that lead back to the coop and I can choose which space they can go into. My idea is having a grazing area with greens for them to graze on and rotate as they scratch it down. I do have a hawk issue, (lost to chickens to Hawks last summer) so I will be covering the grazing areas with mesh netting hanging from the trees. I purchased a 50 x 50 netting on Amazon so I suspect my grazing areas will be roughly 50 x 25 each.
Loved your ideas. I'm trying to talk my husband into just 4-5 chickens. Im hanging onto your site if I get them. Thanks for the vid. ❤❤❤ also just loved the stove & stone wall. Gorgeous
I like your ideas. I use many of them now. My run is covered, 30 x 40 , with hoop house plastic, open on one end and with roll up sides on two sides and one permanent side. Main is outside run, connected to the run and second smaller coop is within the main run with a divided run I’ve covered all plywood surface with washable surface floor and walls with a 3 1/2 “ airspace for insulation. Run us dirt, with dust bath areas snd some straw fir covering. It remains totally dry and wind or draft free, when I lower the two side walls. South side is always open Entire hoop house run is coveted in 1/2” hdw cloth, completely so as to be predator proof! It works well and you are doing great with your new coop/run-I just need to add a small brooder/coop for baby chicks etc. Really glad someone is doing all of these things as they are most healthy for the chicks. I use hemp or wood shavings and straw in coop, depending on time of year. I will be watching your videos 😊😊🎉
Then he will be watering the chickens with wild bird poo that lands on the roof. I think he’s trying to get away from contamination. I was going to harvest rain water on my rebuild this summer but now I’m thinking otherwise.
Once your ground thaws, laying some ground cloth just under the soil out about 18-24" around the perimeter will deter digging predators from trying to access at night. Cheap long-term insurance. I'm guessing that's already in your plan. Also, Nature's Always Right has a video with many good ideas he's used now for years, providing low maintenance, and diy food production I've never seen. The whole 1/2 hour video is worth watching, IMHO. Title: How to Design a Chicken Coop: Automatic Food, Water. Great work, as always!Wish I was there to help.
I just found your channel. So thrilled to find this content. We're making some of the same changes. We are hoping for a much larger coop that the chickens could comfortably stay inside during harsh weather, predators or risky illness times. At this point ours is large but mostly perches with little floor running space.
I was excited about the linoleum flooring idea when I first heard about it a few years ago, I live in a cold climate and the linoleum only lasted one season and then the temperature changes caused it to rip which made shoveling and cleaning a real pain. I’m back to wood chips.
Good ideas here. I will say that I have considered getting into chickens again after many years. The Avian Flu is making me hesitate. I will watch avidly as you do the heavy lifting for me, idea-wise. Thanks!
As a somewhat beginner at raising chickens your new chicken 🐓 coop ideas are ones that I have thought of for my coop. At the moment we are using the previous owners coop where they have a very large open run with lots of trees, as nice as it looks I really don’t like it. I plan to build my new coop by the end of spring to welcome the new chicks . 🐥
My coop is 6ft x 9ft. Along one 9ft length, I have a 2ft wide x 2ft high cabinet with lift and front doors to keep feed, scratch, Oster shell, straw, wood chips, etc. I have the nesting boxes on the cabinet also. The run is under a 12ft x 32ft peaked steel roof. It also he's 2 doors into the run along with 1 door from the run to the coop and one door from the coop to outside. There is a 3 ft overhang over the door into the coop and 2 ft overhang over the end of the coop, where I will put access to the nesting boxes eventually. There are also access doors from outside that lead directly inside the cabinet. This is my first year having chickens and my first coop. I've been told that I overbuilt it. I could use ideas for a tractor that I can back up to the chicken run to roust my chickens into it so I can move them out into the yard.
Big kennel trays on the bottom can be pulled out and dumped from the house area and sanitized. Building house around the size of trays you can get makes it easy. I always kept them filled with wood bedding or whatever I could get. Then bury it away from chickens or hot compost and bury or spread in woods. They easily slide in over the linoleum and reduce the “raking out” of the waste. Some people put hardware mesh on the floor of the coop, but that didn’t seem beneficial to me.
I enjoyed watching your video. I have learned from trial and error. Been raising chickens for several years now. Currently my hens enjoy a 10x12 steel covered gazebo with bird netting thrown over the entire gazebo all the way down to the 3' metal fenced perimeter of the run. I have a metal double open garden gate that I use to enter the run. 3 small chicken coops inside of run. 1 of those coops is used for chicks. It has a first story run under the actual coop. I also use this coop for separating injured hens when the chicks have grown up. This eliminates the stress the hen would feel if removed away from their flock into a totally different element. The base of the run floor is construction sand about 8" deep. I also throw in some DE for dust bathing. Gutters are attached to the gazebo roof and direct rain into a rain barrel that fills their water font. I will try the linoleum inside their chicken coops.
Your set-up sounds like a fantastic chicken palace! Using rain water off of a roof (where wild birds poop) as drinking water seems like it could be a route for disease transmission, though. Maybe there’s a way to have a disinfection holding tank, where you add bleach and let it sit a few days before using? If you had two tanks, you’d be able to be disinfecting one as you used the other.
@@Alluvial. Wow. Good point. My yard is pretty small, and I don't have anything to attract other birds in this time of year. Knock on wood. I do give my hens ACV and a vitamin B in their water year-round. None of them have ever been sick. Thank you for pointing this out. Perhaps I will hold off on giving them water from the rain catchment this time of year. Our area only has bird flu problems in the spring. God has been keeping them healthy so far. I am blessed and just a steward tending to and enjoying these hens.
Thanks for the idea about lining the coop with linoleum. I have some pond liner I was going to put on the floor, but I have more than enough to line the walls.
I used linoleum for the floor and 6" up the wall in my chicken coup. Linoleum Thoughts: 1) Mice chew through the linoleum and make runways. They did this where I didn't think I needed to put in some 45 degree corner molding. EVERYWHERE that you are going to have the linoleum change direction, you should make sure that there is a transition piece with no gaps for mice runways. I used 2x2" boards that I cut at a 45 degree. I would recommend a larger transition piece if you can get away with it. The 2x2's work though. 2) Pay attention to hot cold expansion. The cold expansion made it so that my door caught the linoleum..... Once the tear started, it got bigger and bigger. 3) Where I stopped the linoleum on the wall, I should have put a piece of that floor transition metal (like where wood floor would meet a carpet in the house). I should have also done a better job on the seam on the floor where the linoleum meets. It is starting to pull up after 1.5 years use. I put in Electricity and Insulation. I went a little overboard on putting in outlets and two separate ceiling light setups. BOY AM I GLAD I DID! Electricity and Insulation thoughts: 1) I put in more outlets than I thought I would need as once the inside was finished, I was not going to modify the electrical later. I ended up moving my food and water barrels around as I didn't think about the water freezing more by the chicken exit (Duh). The oil barrel heater that I use on my water barrel (plastic 55 gallon drum) is AMAZING!!! It did cost me some money and the mice want to chew the barrel heater plastic to get to the warmth but even if I have to replace that heater every 3 years, I would still go that route!!! In the future, I hope to build a mouse-proof enclosure just for the water barrel and heater. 2) The two separate light connections allow me to hang heat lamps and put them on a timer while still allowing me to have a light in there when I add more food or clean etc. With the insulation, I haven't really needed/used the heat lamps unless it got below -20 F or when I had chicks in there. 3) If you are looking at this as a long time build, good insulation saves a LOT of money instead of heating. Buy once, cry once, but have warm happy chickens, would be my thoughts here. Windows/ventilation. I put in windows for light. But.... Window, Ventilation, and Clean-out thoughts: 1) I should have put in windows focused on ventilation as compared to light. If I could do it all over again, this would be my biggest change. The coup is warm and dry. Thus, it gets pretty dusty. When I clean, I HAVE to use water to clean as compared to "turning an exhaust fan on" and shoveling or sweeping out the light and fluffy stuff. While this works great with the trap door I have (in the summer), winter cleaning is not really an option. 2) I have a trap door that I put in as an alternate exit for the chickens if I want to use it but more importantly: with the slanted floor (1/8" every 12" like a sewer line) I have a really wide, short door that I can let the water and poop wash out. I should have put some concrete or cinder blocks on the outside where the poop lands. That would have made shoveling the poop much easier. The nesting boxes are on the opposite side from the trap door. Thus, I can open the nesting boxes and trap door and start pressure washing. I have other lessons learned but don't want to overwhelm anyone. A picture is worth a thousand words but I can't put pictures here. Good Luck!!!
Thanks for taking the threat of bird flu seriously. I am concerned about its spread, due to the devasting effect it can have on our domestic cats. I never see anything in the news about that aspect of the virus. I think people would care more if they realized it will kill, paralyze, or blind cats who come into contact with infected birds.
Just found this channel. I'm thinking of doing the same with my chicken run. Because chickens get sick all on their own. No since in helping the flu along.
I also use vinyl flooring in our coop but I also use rubber mats or boot rubber mats under perches so I could pull them out easily and clean them thoroughly and also clean out the rest of coop with little effort.
A man in the Italian Alps used diatomaceous earth spread where his chickens nested, around the floor and up the walls where mites, ants any insects could go. It saved his flock. His chicken coop is gorgeous.
My coop now has a droppings board under the roost. I use a pizza oven rake to scrape the poop into a bucket and into the compost pile. To maximize space, nesting boxes are under the board. I rarely have to clean the pine shavings on the floor.
I wish I had bought a coop that had a human size door opposite from the chicken door allow to go in without crawling 😂 Also linoleum up the interior walls. We just painted the raw wood (Amish made coop). Attached a greenhouse for a covered run ❤️ especially this Winter. Convenient to keep feed in.
can't disinfect sand though...hpai can survive months in ocean, 7 months in feathers on the beach. They can get from rodents and flies and it's airborne besides highly effective fomite transmission. Transmissible to dogs, cats, goats, humans etc without proper PPE and biosecurity... Which even with that ...not always possible. APHIS website has info on biosecurity if it's still there or check Canadian and UK websites. I think risks outweigh benefits depending on location but I really appreciate open discussion and improvements to your biosecurity.
We r planning on adding on to the south side of our coop for next winter. In MN it can b bitterly cold and snowy. We plan to use mostly clear hard plastic sheets for the south side of the roof and side walls .
I built one that worked well. It was off the ground about 2 feet , it had a 1/2 wire mesh floor so droppings fell through. Ig had 1x12 walk ways for people cleaning was easy , just rake out under it and spead some lime . There was one door for people and 2 dors for chickens opening to 2 different runs. So as one got dirty they could go in the other to rest the first
I live in the tropics, so my coop is hurricane proof, I call it the chicken bunker, most of my designs came from Carolina coops, I believe they have the best coop designs out here in the chicken world, but i also used designs from other children keepers and incorporated my own technical designs for watering my chickens automatically with little to no maintenance, my only problem is, i dont want to add a hard roof because of hurricanes, I'm growing passion fruit on top as roof, but mud is a problem, im already planning a cement floor in run area to stop the mud problem, my chickens free range, and i could always throw straw on top of concrete. My coop is very different, it has a lot of features based on a year of reaserch, build video on RUclips if you want to see a real hurricane proof coop with a ton of modern features.
My next coop: - Cement floor and cement sides going up atleast 2 feet up the wall. - a larger "feed room" area. - more privacy for the nest boxes. Note: our girls free range a fenced in 1/2 acre of pasture that is only their "space" I've had hens for 40+ years. And maybe only a dozen sick hens over the years. Clean food and water is a key.
I put in a poop board/tray under the roosts. I then put Sweet PDZ in that tray. Every couple of days, I scoop the poop out with a scoop made for kitty litter. The PDZ absorbs moisture and reduces smell. It is dusty so I am thinking of changing that up in some way. I love the idea of linoleum on the walls! Mine are painted but linoleum would make really cleaning so much easier! I am also expanding the runs because the girls will spend more time in the runs.
My coop is a converted dog run. I have hardware cloth covering most of the chain link on the south side. The top is a quonset-like set of rebar archesset into the fence post or chain link. Over the rebar is a wire roof topped with tarps. The only wood is the nest area and perches. When it is winter, I have a window leaning cold frame-style on one half of the south and have used both old blankets and thick shower curtains on the other. The two best features are wire caging under the roost to let the waste dry where they can't track through it, helping keep some of it out of the bedding. I have been using orchard grass bales and sometimes timothy hay over the concrete run floor. If you notice the deep litter looks dirty, either add more or put part or all in your bedding compost and start fresh. Have raised chickens since 2009. This setup is about a decade old, but gets tweaked every season. We are in 6b and only 3 hours from Canada, but I only worry about them when it hits the low teens.
Only a couple things to add, that is NO rainwater run off. Give the birds clean water from the get-go. Just like you might expose the birds to pathogens from wild animal feces on the ground, same is true from run off from the roof across bird feces. Also, use hardware cloth at about 1/2 inch squares no lighter gauge than 19 gauge to prevent small critters from getting inside the run.
I like the idea of a poop platform under the roosting bars to reduce the amount of manure in the coop. It’s easy to scrap out into a bucket and lessens the amount of time to clean out the coop
I used vinyl flooring on all floor with straw on top of that. I added fresh straw as needed. When I decided it neded to be removed it was much easier to really clean it out. My covered run got straw a well but no vinyl. Everything got composted and annually into the garden. Worked for me no sick birds.
I would keep the compost pile a ways off from the chickens. Birds get in mine all the time so I have to keep the chickens away. By accident I learned that if you're cleaning/washing off coop area, where the runoff goes becomes a place black soldier flies lay eggs and they grow into chicken feed. If I were planning this area, which is thrilling and filling to chickens, I would also section it off and cover it. And I would avoid bleach for cleaning or anything else harmful to chickens or bsfl. Take that shelf elsewhere to disinfect. The linoleum is great and will help protect their feet in cold weather. I also disinfect the 2x4 roosting bars in bleach water in a 25 gal pot, flipping ends around & scrubbing it all from time to time.
I have a nursery under my coop. If a momma has chicks it works wonderfully. I also let her out and the babies end up with plenty of space and a safe area to continue growing.
When I was living in Costa Rica on the southern Pacific side I had friends who lived in a shack out in the middle of a cow and horse pasture. They have a fence making an area with no cows around the house and there's a mango tree right next to the house. The trunk might be 10" from the house and it makes some shade. But it's also the chicken roosting tree. They have a flock of maybe 30 or so birds. When young roosters get old enough to make noise or fight they get eaten. The hens get eaten occasionally too. Best chicken meat EVER. They eat seeds and fruits and nuts and bugs and even little snakes and lizards. They chase my buddy across the pasture if he carries a machete that way, he chops open coconuts that fall out of the tree 100 yards from the house. Those birds will eat every speck of coconut meat out of the shells if they get access. I don't remember any of his birds looking sick, maybe they get sick but I imagine the sick ones get eaten by the local critters. They have plenty of animals that eat chickens. But out in the pasture they do okay, enough new ones are born to replace the ones people or pests eat. I really hope they don't have the bird flu down in Latin America. There are chickens like my friends have all over down there and people depend on them. They also have quite a lot of cattle that they don't need getting sick.
There are recommendations regarding how many birds can live in a given space. I have 30 percent less. It hurts the economy of having birds but i have happy birds.
You have such interesting build projects, I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. We have a flock of about 50 birds, one dozen American Bresse cross in the barn coop, and the balance fully free-ranging with shelter in a lean-to next to the barn (which they seem to be thriving in, both physically & mentally) We only raise meat birds in the spring & early summer to reduce the heat stress, and they go straight from the brooder to a tractor set up. Best of luck. (BTW Our creditor level is LOW. Dogs keep them all at bay thankfully)
As soon as my chicken coop had all the wood in I use DE slurry to paint all the cracks and crevices then I painted overhead as I figure that would be the most annoying place to paint in case I got tired I could quit and paint the bottom then, but I had grandsons that came in and they were small enough, they got in there and painted it for me this protect your chickens from having mites. Also, I always put in a DE dust bath a.k.a. dish pan in with any broody chicken
We made a new coop just at the end of October. So our spring project is a covered run. They have a fenced in run under some trees. Lots of bugs. 😊 But we want something more secure. I really like many of the ideas in this video & in the comments. It's been a while since I've had time to watch so i probably have a lot of catching up to do.
I keep no more than 8 chickens in a mobile coop with an attached run. (Coop is 4' x 8', run 8' x 8') Since I don't have predators that would tunnel under, there is no floor. I move the coop to a fresh spot in my orchard every few days. My chickens are happy and healthy. More importantly, I haven't cleaned the coop in 2 years.
That works great if you are not in the northern climate where there is snow. We have moved chicken tractors around in the summer months but they don’t work for people who have chickens that live in winter conditions.
@ Agreed. A month ago, I got enough snow to pull out the snow blower for the first time in 4 years and it persisted for 3 weeks. While I had the blower out to clear paths, I cleared a path for the chicken tractor.
Cover ventilation holes with hardware cloth (metal mesh) to keep out wild birds and mice. My design has ventilation in places rain cannot get in and that doesn't allow a draft to blow on the roosting chickens, but with hinged covers so I can close down during ultra cold weather.
Living north Florida, I have ducks, chicks, cats, and a dog. I ran a large open run and they free roam, normally wildfire eats a bird here and there and every year I get new birds, it weeds out the dumb ones... the chickens with a lot of water present... tend to get injured and I've yet to have sick birds... I let them struggle more in life one could say. They life along with minimal effort, now I take good care of them and we have them forging a lot and they have a lot of feed... and multiple different bird houses, depending on weather... they tend to favor this open floor that poop drops to dirt and the bird can get in the house either under and in or thru the middle window flap thing. The ducks for some reason occasionally sleep being pooped on... they have thier own place but some nights... either way. The open air and open to the ground poop design... keeps things natural. I prefer finding ways around daily cleaning when I can... time for more games in my book.😂
Another thing I've heard people talking about is making sure to get heritage chickens from smaller farms it aren't sourcing from the same limited line of chickens that the mega operations use.
we had free-range chickens for many years, at night time some stayed in the very primitive :) coop behind the boxes of our horses, some on top of a tree even in snowy weather... we give MgCl (20gms in 1 Lt water solution) added to the water of all of our animals (cats, dogs, horses and chickens) regularly. it is protecting them from whatever illnesses there are around.
I have been raising back yard hens (6-10) for the past twenty years. The most important design of a coop and run is protecting the ladies from predators and wild bird disease. I use 2inch by 4 inch 14 gauge welded wire and connect the wire with J clamps which are cinched together using a special pliers. People who raise rabbits build their rabbit cages using this method. The pliers costs a couple of bucks and a sack of a thousand J clamps is maybe 4 bucks (Little Giant AGRI & Pet Products, Miller MFG Co So St. Paul Minnesota 55075) available in most farm stores. I over lay the 2X4 welded wire with chicken wire and then wire: sides, top and bottom. The bottom will rust out after 5 years and will need to be replaced. A good mousing cat is also a good thing.
I HAVE RAISED CHICKENS FOR 50 YEARS, IN THAT 50 YEARS I HAVE ONLY HAD A HANDFUL DIE, FRESH WATER, FRESH FEED, SUNLIGHT, LOT OF WOOD SHAVINGS, WORKS PRETTY GOOD, I LIKE YOUR VIDEO.
Exactly.
free wood chips from local tree guys keep me no mud no sick Very healthy and alway keep as dry
No need to yell tho.
Sounds like you've got a great system going! Thanks for watching!
Free-range and cage-free or Nothing at All.
Tip: I saw a video of a man who built a pull-out chicken coop floor like a drawer. The cool part is he cover the floor in linoleum so when he pulled the floor/drawer out he could easily rake or sweep of the debris and wash it off in minutes and push it back in. That was genius and took the burden of cleaning out of the equation.
I used a cheap peel and stick lanolin flooring in my coop. Keeps bad stuff from being absorbed into the porous wood floor.
I have that coop video saved. Let me know and I’ll send to you.
I did that in my parrot cages. 😊
I haven’t yet watched the entire video-
Things I wish I had added to my coop/run are:
*Two separate areas in the coop, one area for last years hens and the other for this years hens (to keep egg production up I want to only keep young layers and butcher last years layers- I will pressure can the older hens so the meat is tender)
*another area for sick birds so I don’t have to bring them into the house area
*an area for chicks so that everyone is acclimated and in view but bio security is top priority and I’m not sure best way to set that up
*Totally agree about having a cover over the run area, I live in the high desert mountains of Idaho and we can get bitter winds, heavy snow, days of double digit negative temps and in the summer it can get terribly hot during the day… so covering the run will help keep heat in the winter and shade in the summer as well as prevent wild birds spreading diseases
*thought about putting polycarbonate panels/greenhouse panels for sections of the run cover for winter since we have longer cold weather conditions and I can add a shade cloth over that easily in the summer
* agree with having a good dust bath
*I would like to also have secure space in the coop to keep feed, scratch and poultry first aid
I’ll finish watching and respond if something comes up
Built my coop summer before last. Used vinyl flooring and ran it up the sides also - love it! But I also covered the walls with 1/4" plywood first that I painted with 3 coats of poly seal. Then I applied the vinyl and I caulked all the seams in the vinyl and added a painted trim piece to the top of the vinyl sealing that part also. I use the deep litter method with hemp (it absorbs better) adding one new bail the first of each month. Twice per year I shovel it all out with a plastic snow shovel so I don't tear the vinyl and blow the dust out with a leaf blower. Works great. So far no illness, or mites, or rodents. I did loose 7 chickens to a fox this winter while they were free-ranging - but that's a whole other story.
I did the linoleum in our coop and I’m really happy with it! I also made a multi level roosting bar that is on hinges and can be raised and clipped to the ceiling for easier floor cleaning.
i am going to be building a new coop this year, and we have found that a great way to keep out the rodents and even birds, is hardware cloth. i am going to be putting it under my floors and up the bottoms of the walls to keep rodents from chewing through and getting in. i use it currently in my windows that i open, to keep birds from coming in. my current coop has no run, but its large and tons of room for the 6 birds i have, and i have electrical in the coop for led lighting to keep them on a regular schedule due to the short daylight hours of winter. with the electrical, i also use an old crock pot and put it on keep warm during the coldest days to ensure no freezing, so they always have fresh water.
Great idea 💡. Thanks
I built a sandbox underneath their roost. Most of the pooping happens at night. Every morning I pick up their droppings with a kitty litter scoop (you can make a bigger wire mesh scoop for larger flocks) and put them into a covered compost bin. It keeps their coop clean and no smell builds up.
I do the same thing and it works great. It keeps the coop dry and only needs to be cleaned n the morning each day.
I do wish my run was Larger.
I also did this and use PDZ as "sand". It neutralizes ammonia
I do this as well. My nesting boxes have been getting fairly gross. I’m going to put sand in to see if that makes a difference.
I’m doing further research, but I have heard that nesting boxes should be just tall enough for the chicken to stand up and turn around. Not a full stand as that allows them to poop in the nesting box. Making it shorter means they will choose to go outside the nesting box to poop, therefore, cleaner eggs and cleaner nesting boxes.
That’s a great little bit of information. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks!
In 12 years no one has pooped in the amazon boxes my girls lay eggs in under the table on the back porch..... They sleep in the tree next to the porch. They do have a storm coop under the porch for bad weather. No one hatched and raised here have had health issues or been sick...
Also, if the nesting boxes are lower than they want to roost, they will not roost (and poop) in the nesting boxes. Ground level nesting boxes I have seen are "roost poop-free."
Great info
I have a friend who is planning to get chickens. I appreciate finding videos that can help her get started, with minimal expense, if possible.
Thanks for watching!
For your friend; reclaimed lumber and building materials help cut down the costs. Also, when construction companies bid a job, they allow for extra materials. Many of them don't "carry over" materials from one job to another, so your friend can talk with the general contractor on a jobsite and ask about unused lumber, siding, etc. A few companies throw this stuff in the dumpster as trash and will allow you to take it instead. But always, ALWAYS ask first, and if their policies don't allow people to scavenge their unused materials, don't sneak onto their construction site and steal stuff. Just look for other sources.
Love the stone basement and stove.
Thanks...me too!
So.... I just happened to stumble on your video. I don't know if you are a Christian or not, and it really doesn't matter, but it helps me explain this. 2 1/2 years ago, I had a dream with explicit instructions to enclose my animals just for this reason. Last year I completed a 15x 25 enclosed run with an attached coop much like your design. The floor to the coop was done in waterproof vinyl plank flooring. The interior of the run was coated in a 6 inch depth of sand. Every evening when they go to roost, I take a telescopic doggie scooper, scoop the droppings, put them in a bucket, and remove them to the compost pile. Every month I spray the interior walls and screen with my garden sprayer. I use a vinegar/water mix. I use apple cider vinegar in their water and diatomaceous earth is mixed into the sand for dusting. This winter, I enclosed the screening with greenhouse plastic as well. I have not had an ill bird at all. You are definitely doing people a service by warning others of this. You are the first person I have even seen address it. Be blessed!
Very interesting. I built my chicken "palace" two years ago and did exactly what you are advising. I researched a lot before building and it did sort of mushroom in size but I just didn't want to build something that still allowed predators, etc. to access my birds. I worked too hard to raise those babies. Many a person rolled their eyes, told me I was going overboard, there wasn't any danger, etc but now two years later all my original birds are still healthy and alive, no issues at all. I'm loving being a crazy chicken lady. I have a double sided henhouse, each side is 4x8, they are three feet off the ground and open into separate 8x20 runs. By being elevated there is also the area under the henhouse for extra space. On one side, I divided the 8x20 area into a corner 8x8 and an 8x12 for exactly what you mentioned, quarantine, broody hens, etc. I have a solid roof over the entire area, both hardware cloth on the outside and the interior is divided by kennels made for dogs. I put a predator apron around the entire bottom, have a contained gravity fed watering system, etc. You will love yours for sure. I know I do.
Crazy chicken lady here too!
I had my (doubting) husband put chicken wire from the roof and down the wall of the large covered (glass, perspective, plastic - for light) hen run (their house is all wood with a glass window) , under the earth and over to and up the other wall to the roof - no one gets to my ladies! The, hubby insisted they need to listen to classical music, so he installed that too! Our neighbors smile...
We love our hens and eggs, and it's fun too!
All the best to you and yours :)
I think you both are brilliant! From a hoping to be Crazy Chicken Lady ❤😂
I dropped a 5' length of 4" PVC into a hole (drilled w/ auger). It's capped at the bottom and holds water. I set the drinker over that and the ground heats the water in the pipe - which keeps the drinker thawed in the winter.
… OK, you got my attention on that one thanks!
That is an interesting idea. I saw else do this but without the water
Can you give us an approximate location? That doesn't seem deep enough for latitudes that get to -10 degrees or more during winter.
Where are you located??
I'm in the mountains, it's a bit hard to dig very deep here. Maybe I'll have to rent an auger.
@georgeingridirwin6180 @krevor4095
I'm in NE GA - zone 8A. We get into the single digits for 3-4 days in a row. Our frost line is 12 inches.
Good ideas, and the pro-active adjustments make a lot of sense! In our gamebird pens we actually re-plant small saplings and fir trees in the run - with the chickens only some survive because they are a little rougher on transplants!
I can add is that spring and fall are the times that the chickens are more at risk due to migratory bird spreading disease and Diatomaceous Earth is excellent as an additive to the dust bath.
I make dust baths from wood ash, diatomaceous earth & sand.
#me too@@vginnmusa3128
I have a lot of wood ash from my wood stove that isn’t being used for anything. I’ve not heard of people using it for dust baths though. Could you share more about why you use wood ash?
I found that using a deep bed of wood pine shavings in the coop (especially in winter) is much cleaner and dryer than straw for bedding. Just add a light new coat of shavings once every week or so and it's completely dry and no odor. It's been a game changer for me specially in winter where i want to avoid moisture in the coop. When cleaned out every 3 months or so it makes a great compost starter also.
A neighbor grew something like "Triticale" ? that I bought from him and use as bedding in the lean-to that my free-rangers are thriving in - very DRY and keeps the open-ended lean-to fairly warm. We get down in the teens & 20's so it's working well. Spring time it will go in the compost pile!
Yes, we are finding that doing this is really helpful.
This is what I settled on after trying other methods! 8 to 10 inch deep bedding, using white wood shavings. If you scatter down a handful of corn every day, the hens will spend hours foraging for it, which keeps the bedding mixed (so new poops are quickly coated and dry out fast) and keeps the hens entertained- double win!
I also set a poop-catching board under the roost, which improved the whole system. Then I could easily scrape off and remove the nighttime poop every couple days. This reduced the overall moisture in the coop, and reduced the “work” I was expecting the bedding to do, so the bedding stayed cleaner and dryer.
I did find it essential to prevent any bulk water contamination, though, like rain or snow blowing in. Or if they spilled their water somehow. If that happens, then the saturated portion of the bedding needs to be removed quick before the hens mix it in, because any bedding that stays wet will mold.
Changing the bedding just once a year in about August turns out to be the best for me, on the rainy side of Washington State. Then by the time the wet weather starts in about October, the bedding is nice and dry and working well.
Can’t wait to see the crazy combination of linoleum rements
Bingo!
Right??? ;-)
LOL 😂🤣
Seams between linoleum pieces would allow for moisture to get under neath? You should try to line an entire "room" in a single piece.
I'm a fan of it on the roof, it should be great on the floors. We had a sheet that lasted years on a coop at one house that I've done it twice. Tarps work well for me, but this summer I want to try soaking a wet cotton drop cloth in thinned titebond to mimic fiberglass. Really curious how water resistant it would be and how well it took repairs.
I put a linoleum remnant on the floor of my coop then a layer of sand on top. Keeps down any smells and easy to clean. Also a dropping board below the roosts. It also has linoleum and sand. It catches the majority of the mess and the floor stays fairly clean.
Good tips!
Also ideas for my run include an area where I can toss seeds for treats. Something that can be covered with wire for a few weeks while the seeds sprout and get some growth, then I can drag that cover to another spot and toss down a bunch of seed. Also a dwarf fruit tree that will put out some scaffold for roosting. Also beds on the south side of the exterior of the run for grapes to grow up and shade the south side.
Sounds like you’ve been looking at my notes!
Third Coast Craftsman has a video on his coop. What I find inspiring is his droppings clean-out under his roosting area. (About 2/3 through the video) So simple and functional. Palm to forhead, why didn't I think of that? Best of luck. Title, "Ultimate Backyard Chicken Coop Build".
I built his coop this past summer and it's a dream in so many ways. The droppings board is very easy to clean and lets me keep a better handle on the ladies health by having better view of their droppings. And with the board being elevated, they still have the floor space underneath it. I put linoleum on the floor and that makes it easier to clean as well. The covered roof on the run has been a game changer for the ladies because it's extended their "coop" space during the cold winter days. I cover most of the exterior run area with green house plastic so that with the roof is amazing. The angel of the metal roofs allow the rain or melting snow to drain off easily. It was costly to build, but now I have a solid set up that will last a long while and certainly makes it easier to care for and enjoy my ladies.
Video Link: ruclips.net/video/uPgSpktlf4g/видео.html
Poop Catch board at ~14:00
Brother built his last coop, he did the linoleum roll thing. Years later the lino around the corners is cracking a little, but it still makes cleaning a LOT easier!
Nice!
I built a two story (in chicken stories) coop. The upper level is for roosting. It gives me the full floor space for roosting. Then the food, water and nesting boxes are on the first floor. It keeps the food and water buckets cleaner. It allows chickens more space when eating and drinking. And it reduced the "footprint" of the coop to half while maintaining space. And I still have a "walk out basement" where they have outside protection in the winter. Only change I would make is put some nesting boxes on the 2nd level. They seem to like to nest there better.
Paving stones in your runs will keep critters from burrowing up. Cover with topsoil, shavings, or whatever you like, and scoop out regularly to compost. You can scrub them down with disinfectant and not worry about mud puddles
Good tips!
Thank you for sharing this information! Helpful for someone who wants to start raising chickens.
You are welcome! Glad to help.
Thank you for the suggestions! I will keep watching for rolled linolium.
I have a large coop and a small one. The small one is covered with vinyl flooring on the side walls and floor. BEST IDEA EVER! It's so easy to clean up and like many have said just don't use a metal shovel on it, only use a hard plastic shovel so you don't tear up the vinyl flooring. I wish I would have known this with my large coop because it's super easy to clean. I LOVE the idea of you making different coop areas inside of your new coop plans. I'm going to do the same next time. One area where it's covered with greenhouse plastic just for the winter so that the chickens can still have as much light possible in the dead of winter yet have a cover over them for when the snow, sleet, rain and so on comes. I also LOVED the idea I saw of a man that has a small barn with perches WAY WAY up at the top of the ceiling and also lower ones for those that don't want to go that high up. He said it helps to give them MANY places to get away from each other as some of them don't always get along while others do.
I've had a small flock for about a year and I let my chickens free range. I have a small coop and I like the ideas you have for your larger coop and can't wait to see the progress.
Florida here. I have dirt floor bottom coop. And 12 inch raise bed sides. I throw hay grass clipping dead leaves etc. I also liquify my kitchen scraps in a blender with loads of water and pour this below the bedding on the ground before my start of hens. As I go adding I will lay a board over the bedding after pouring in the worm and creature loving micro nutrients so the hens don’t eat before it can break down a bit.
I have a cement skirt with fencing enforcement around the perimeter so no one‘s getting in there to eat any of my girls or my system. I have going a nice compost system.
The ground underneath the bedding is allowed 6 months to a years before raking and turning the top 3 inches.
I will be updating my coop this summer, and plan on making a large hardcover run, similar to what you have shown in your design. What I will be adding to my coop is two separate outdoor spaces that lead back to the coop and I can choose which space they can go into. My idea is having a grazing area with greens for them to graze on and rotate as they scratch it down. I do have a hawk issue, (lost to chickens to Hawks last summer) so I will be covering the grazing areas with mesh netting hanging from the trees. I purchased a 50 x 50 netting on Amazon so I suspect my grazing areas will be roughly 50 x 25 each.
Excellent!
Loved your ideas. I'm trying to talk my husband into just 4-5 chickens. Im hanging onto your site if I get them. Thanks for the vid. ❤❤❤ also just loved the stove & stone wall. Gorgeous
I like your ideas. I use many of them now. My run is covered, 30 x 40 , with hoop house plastic, open on one end and with roll up sides on two sides and one permanent side. Main is outside run, connected to the run and second smaller coop is within the main run with a divided run I’ve covered all plywood surface with washable surface floor and walls with a 3 1/2 “ airspace for insulation. Run us dirt, with dust bath areas snd some straw fir covering. It remains totally dry and wind or draft free, when I lower the two side walls. South side is always open
Entire hoop house run is coveted in 1/2” hdw cloth, completely so as to be predator proof! It works well and you are doing great with your new coop/run-I just need to add a small brooder/coop for baby chicks etc. Really glad someone is doing all of these things as they are most healthy for the chicks. I use hemp or wood shavings and straw in coop, depending on time of year.
I will be watching your videos 😊😊🎉
Great advise!
We have done almost exactly all of what you said and its worked out great for several years!
Have you thought about adding gutters and barrels for an automatic watering system.
Then he will be watering the chickens with wild bird poo that lands on the roof. I think he’s trying to get away from contamination. I was going to harvest rain water on my rebuild this summer but now I’m thinking otherwise.
Great info! I am currently working on plans for a coop, so this was perfect.
Once your ground thaws, laying some ground cloth just under the soil out about 18-24" around the perimeter will deter digging predators from trying to access at night. Cheap long-term insurance. I'm guessing that's already in your plan.
Also, Nature's Always Right has a video with many good ideas he's used now for years, providing low maintenance, and diy food production I've never seen. The whole 1/2 hour video is worth watching, IMHO. Title: How to Design a Chicken Coop: Automatic Food, Water. Great work, as always!Wish I was there to help.
I just found your channel. So thrilled to find this content. We're making some of the same changes. We are hoping for a much larger coop that the chickens could comfortably stay inside during harsh weather, predators or risky illness times. At this point ours is large but mostly perches with little floor running space.
I was excited about the linoleum flooring idea when I first heard about it a few years ago, I live in a cold climate and the linoleum only lasted one season and then the temperature changes caused it to rip which made shoveling and cleaning a real pain. I’m back to wood chips.
Good ideas here. I will say that I have considered getting into chickens again after many years. The Avian Flu is making me hesitate. I will watch avidly as you do the heavy lifting for me, idea-wise. Thanks!
As a somewhat beginner at raising chickens your new chicken 🐓 coop ideas are ones that I have thought of for my coop. At the moment we are using the previous owners coop where they have a very large open run with lots of trees, as nice as it looks I really don’t like it. I plan to build my new coop by the end of spring to welcome the new chicks . 🐥
My coop is 6ft x 9ft. Along one 9ft length, I have a 2ft wide x 2ft high cabinet with lift and front doors to keep feed, scratch, Oster shell, straw, wood chips, etc. I have the nesting boxes on the cabinet also. The run is under a 12ft x 32ft peaked steel roof. It also he's 2 doors into the run along with 1 door from the run to the coop and one door from the coop to outside. There is a 3 ft overhang over the door into the coop and 2 ft overhang over the end of the coop, where I will put access to the nesting boxes eventually. There are also access doors from outside that lead directly inside the cabinet. This is my first year having chickens and my first coop. I've been told that I overbuilt it. I could use ideas for a tractor that I can back up to the chicken run to roust my chickens into it so I can move them out into the yard.
Big kennel trays on the bottom can be pulled out and dumped from the house area and sanitized. Building house around the size of trays you can get makes it easy. I always kept them filled with wood bedding or whatever I could get. Then bury it away from chickens or hot compost and bury or spread in woods. They easily slide in over the linoleum and reduce the “raking out” of the waste. Some people put hardware mesh on the floor of the coop, but that didn’t seem beneficial to me.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
You are highly skilled and motivated! Thank-you! For all that you share!
I enjoyed watching your video. I have learned from trial and error. Been raising chickens for several years now. Currently my hens enjoy a 10x12 steel covered gazebo with bird netting thrown over the entire gazebo all the way down to the 3' metal fenced perimeter of the run. I have a metal double open garden gate that I use to enter the run. 3 small chicken coops inside of run. 1 of those coops is used for chicks. It has a first story run under the actual coop. I also use this coop for separating injured hens when the chicks have grown up. This eliminates the stress the hen would feel if removed away from their flock into a totally different element. The base of the run floor is construction sand about 8" deep. I also throw in some DE for dust bathing. Gutters are attached to the gazebo roof and direct rain into a rain barrel that fills their water font. I will try the linoleum inside their chicken coops.
Your set-up sounds like a fantastic chicken palace!
Using rain water off of a roof (where wild birds poop) as drinking water seems like it could be a route for disease transmission, though. Maybe there’s a way to have a disinfection holding tank, where you add bleach and let it sit a few days before using? If you had two tanks, you’d be able to be disinfecting one as you used the other.
@@Alluvial. Wow. Good point. My yard is pretty small, and I don't have anything to attract other birds in this time of year. Knock on wood. I do give my hens ACV and a vitamin B in their water year-round. None of them have ever been sick. Thank you for pointing this out. Perhaps I will hold off on giving them water from the rain catchment this time of year. Our area only has bird flu problems in the spring. God has been keeping them healthy so far. I am blessed and just a steward tending to and enjoying these hens.
@DebraGorsline Nice!
@Alluvial. Yeah unfortunately, rain water is not an option.
Thanks for sharing this! I have been thinking a lot about this as I contemplate getting chickens. 💯
Thanks for watching!
A pollarded mulberry tree inside the run provides very nutrient dense greens and abundant fruit
Yup, great idea. I have a sugar maple tree about 10' from the run that I will be pollarding for the rabbits...maybe the chickens too.
Thanks for the idea about lining the coop with linoleum. I have some pond liner I was going to put on the floor, but I have more than enough to line the walls.
Nice! Thanks for watching!
Great tips. I had already incorporated most. The roll of linoleum was genius. 🙌
Thanks for watching!
Very interesting concepts! Just gathering information for when I make mine, but there are very good points I hadn't considered yet. Thank you!
Thanks for watching!
I used linoleum for the floor and 6" up the wall in my chicken coup.
Linoleum Thoughts:
1) Mice chew through the linoleum and make runways. They did this where I didn't think I needed to put in some 45 degree corner molding. EVERYWHERE that you are going to have the linoleum change direction, you should make sure that there is a transition piece with no gaps for mice runways. I used 2x2" boards that I cut at a 45 degree. I would recommend a larger transition piece if you can get away with it. The 2x2's work though.
2) Pay attention to hot cold expansion. The cold expansion made it so that my door caught the linoleum..... Once the tear started, it got bigger and bigger.
3) Where I stopped the linoleum on the wall, I should have put a piece of that floor transition metal (like where wood floor would meet a carpet in the house). I should have also done a better job on the seam on the floor where the linoleum meets. It is starting to pull up after 1.5 years use.
I put in Electricity and Insulation. I went a little overboard on putting in outlets and two separate ceiling light setups. BOY AM I GLAD I DID!
Electricity and Insulation thoughts:
1) I put in more outlets than I thought I would need as once the inside was finished, I was not going to modify the electrical later. I ended up moving my food and water barrels around as I didn't think about the water freezing more by the chicken exit (Duh). The oil barrel heater that I use on my water barrel (plastic 55 gallon drum) is AMAZING!!! It did cost me some money and the mice want to chew the barrel heater plastic to get to the warmth but even if I have to replace that heater every 3 years, I would still go that route!!! In the future, I hope to build a mouse-proof enclosure just for the water barrel and heater.
2) The two separate light connections allow me to hang heat lamps and put them on a timer while still allowing me to have a light in there when I add more food or clean etc.
With the insulation, I haven't really needed/used the heat lamps unless it got below -20 F or when I had chicks in there.
3) If you are looking at this as a long time build, good insulation saves a LOT of money instead of heating. Buy once, cry once, but have warm happy chickens, would be my thoughts here.
Windows/ventilation. I put in windows for light. But....
Window, Ventilation, and Clean-out thoughts:
1) I should have put in windows focused on ventilation as compared to light. If I could do it all over again, this would be my biggest change. The coup is warm and dry. Thus, it gets pretty dusty. When I clean, I HAVE to use water to clean as compared to "turning an exhaust fan on" and shoveling or sweeping out the light and fluffy stuff. While this works great with the trap door I have (in the summer), winter cleaning is not really an option.
2) I have a trap door that I put in as an alternate exit for the chickens if I want to use it but more importantly: with the slanted floor (1/8" every 12" like a sewer line) I have a really wide, short door that I can let the water and poop wash out. I should have put some concrete or cinder blocks on the outside where the poop lands. That would have made shoveling the poop much easier. The nesting boxes are on the opposite side from the trap door. Thus, I can open the nesting boxes and trap door and start pressure washing.
I have other lessons learned but don't want to overwhelm anyone. A picture is worth a thousand words but I can't put pictures here. Good Luck!!!
I spread a thin layer of sweet lime on my plywood floor before the saw shawings after cleaning out. It keeps bugs and wet spots down.
Smart!
Thanks for taking the threat of bird flu seriously. I am concerned about its spread, due to the devasting effect it can have on our domestic cats. I never see anything in the news about that aspect of the virus. I think people would care more if they realized it will kill, paralyze, or blind cats who come into contact with infected birds.
...Yup, it's serious.
Just found this channel. I'm thinking of doing the same with my chicken run. Because chickens get sick all on their own. No since in helping the flu along.
Yup...Thanks for watching!
I also use vinyl flooring in our coop but I also use rubber mats or boot rubber mats under perches so I could pull them out easily and clean them thoroughly and also clean out the rest of coop with little effort.
Smart! Thanks for watching!
its funny as these are all things I had built into my design. Glad I am on the right track. :) Some great ideas here.
Nice...Thanks for watching!
A man in the Italian Alps used diatomaceous earth spread where his chickens nested, around the floor and up the walls where mites, ants any insects could go. It saved his flock.
His chicken coop is gorgeous.
My coop now has a droppings board under the roost. I use a pizza oven rake to scrape the poop into a bucket and into the compost pile. To maximize space, nesting boxes are under the board. I rarely have to clean the pine shavings on the floor.
I wish I had bought a coop that had a human size door opposite from the chicken door allow to go in without crawling 😂
Also linoleum up the interior walls. We just painted the raw wood (Amish made coop).
Attached a greenhouse for a covered run ❤️ especially this Winter. Convenient to keep feed in.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to being able to stand up inside the coop.
That's pretty icky alright ! Yes you need a human sized door.
Caulking cracks helps, as does good trim paint with a little gloss.
I forget who on IG does this, but her run is sand and you can clean it with a rake easily. I'm converting my chicken run to that this spring.
I saw that too, I also forgot her @ lol
Yeah, I've seen that.
That might be Featherbrain? She really likes sand
can't disinfect sand though...hpai can survive months in ocean, 7 months in feathers on the beach. They can get from rodents and flies and it's airborne besides highly effective fomite transmission. Transmissible to dogs, cats, goats, humans etc without proper PPE and biosecurity... Which even with that ...not always possible. APHIS website has info on biosecurity if it's still there or check Canadian and UK websites. I think risks outweigh benefits depending on location but I really appreciate open discussion and improvements to your biosecurity.
Thanks; I did not think of putting linoleum on the wall.
You are very welcome! Thanks for watching!
We r planning on adding on to the south side of our coop for next winter. In MN it can b bitterly cold and snowy.
We plan to use mostly clear hard plastic sheets for the south side of the roof and side walls .
I built one that worked well. It was off the ground about 2 feet , it had a 1/2 wire mesh floor so droppings fell through. Ig had 1x12 walk ways for people cleaning was easy , just rake out under it and spead some lime .
There was one door for people and 2 dors for chickens opening to 2 different runs. So as one got dirty they could go in the other to rest the first
Nice! Thanks for watching!
I live in the tropics, so my coop is hurricane proof, I call it the chicken bunker, most of my designs came from Carolina coops, I believe they have the best coop designs out here in the chicken world, but i also used designs from other children keepers and incorporated my own technical designs for watering my chickens automatically with little to no maintenance, my only problem is, i dont want to add a hard roof because of hurricanes, I'm growing passion fruit on top as roof, but mud is a problem, im already planning a cement floor in run area to stop the mud problem, my chickens free range, and i could always throw straw on top of concrete. My coop is very different, it has a lot of features based on a year of reaserch, build video on RUclips if you want to see a real hurricane proof coop with a ton of modern features.
I like the "designs from other CHILDREN keepers😂
My next coop:
- Cement floor and cement sides going up atleast 2 feet up the wall.
- a larger "feed room" area.
- more privacy for the nest boxes.
Note: our girls free range a fenced in 1/2 acre of pasture that is only their "space" I've had hens for 40+ years. And maybe only a dozen sick hens over the years. Clean food and water is a key.
Would adding ashes to the dust bath help kill pathogens?
Yep. Thanks for watching!
I put in a poop board/tray under the roosts. I then put Sweet PDZ in that tray. Every couple of days, I scoop the poop out with a scoop made for kitty litter. The PDZ absorbs moisture and reduces smell. It is dusty so I am thinking of changing that up in some way. I love the idea of linoleum on the walls! Mine are painted but linoleum would make really cleaning so much easier! I am also expanding the runs because the girls will spend more time in the runs.
Love the stone wall behind you. Did you make it? Make a video of how you done it please.
Friend of mine did it many years ago.
My coop is a converted dog run. I have hardware cloth covering most of the chain link on the south side. The top is a quonset-like set of rebar archesset into the fence post or chain link. Over the rebar is a wire roof topped with tarps. The only wood is the nest area and perches. When it is winter, I have a window leaning cold frame-style on one half of the south and have used both old blankets and thick shower curtains on the other.
The two best features are wire caging under the roost to let the waste dry where they can't track through it, helping keep some of it out of the bedding. I have been using orchard grass bales and sometimes timothy hay over the concrete run floor. If you notice the deep litter looks dirty, either add more or put part or all in your bedding compost and start fresh.
Have raised chickens since 2009. This setup is about a decade old, but gets tweaked every season.
We are in 6b and only 3 hours from Canada, but I only worry about them when it hits the low teens.
Only a couple things to add, that is NO rainwater run off. Give the birds clean water from the get-go. Just like you might expose the birds to pathogens from wild animal feces on the ground, same is true from run off from the roof across bird feces. Also, use hardware cloth at about 1/2 inch squares no lighter gauge than 19 gauge to prevent small critters from getting inside the run.
I like the idea of a poop platform under the roosting bars to reduce the amount of manure in the coop. It’s easy to scrap out into a bucket and lessens the amount of time to clean out the coop
Great tip! Thanks for watching!
I used vinyl flooring on all floor with straw on top of that. I added fresh straw as needed. When I decided it neded to be removed it was much easier to really clean it out. My covered run got straw a well but no vinyl. Everything got composted and annually into the garden. Worked for me no sick birds.
Good ideas for protecting the birds. I'll checkbiut your other videos. Nice rock wall!
Thanks for watching!
I would keep the compost pile a ways off from the chickens. Birds get in mine all the time so I have to keep the chickens away.
By accident I learned that if you're cleaning/washing off coop area, where the runoff goes becomes a place black soldier flies lay eggs and they grow into chicken feed. If I were planning this area, which is thrilling and filling to chickens, I would also section it off and cover it. And I would avoid bleach for cleaning or anything else harmful to chickens or bsfl. Take that shelf elsewhere to disinfect.
The linoleum is great and will help protect their feet in cold weather.
I also disinfect the 2x4 roosting bars in bleach water in a 25 gal pot, flipping ends around & scrubbing it all from time to time.
Automatic water features seem to be very helpful. Those little trays that fill up stay pretty clean.
Wife really keeps the coop and run clean. So far no issues.
I’m looking at different ways to construct a coop also. Thanks
Thanks for watching!
I have a nursery under my coop. If a momma has chicks it works wonderfully. I also let her out and the babies end up with plenty of space and a safe area to continue growing.
Great video. Some good ideas to consider
Thanks for watching!
When I was living in Costa Rica on the southern Pacific side I had friends who lived in a shack out in the middle of a cow and horse pasture. They have a fence making an area with no cows around the house and there's a mango tree right next to the house. The trunk might be 10" from the house and it makes some shade. But it's also the chicken roosting tree. They have a flock of maybe 30 or so birds. When young roosters get old enough to make noise or fight they get eaten. The hens get eaten occasionally too. Best chicken meat EVER. They eat seeds and fruits and nuts and bugs and even little snakes and lizards. They chase my buddy across the pasture if he carries a machete that way, he chops open coconuts that fall out of the tree 100 yards from the house. Those birds will eat every speck of coconut meat out of the shells if they get access.
I don't remember any of his birds looking sick, maybe they get sick but I imagine the sick ones get eaten by the local critters. They have plenty of animals that eat chickens. But out in the pasture they do okay, enough new ones are born to replace the ones people or pests eat. I really hope they don't have the bird flu down in Latin America. There are chickens like my friends have all over down there and people depend on them. They also have quite a lot of cattle that they don't need getting sick.
There are recommendations regarding how many birds can live in a given space. I have 30 percent less. It hurts the economy of having birds but i have happy birds.
Smart!
Very educational!
Thanks for watching!
You have such interesting build projects, I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with. We have a flock of about 50 birds, one dozen American Bresse cross in the barn coop, and the balance fully free-ranging with shelter in a lean-to next to the barn (which they seem to be thriving in, both physically & mentally) We only raise meat birds in the spring & early summer to reduce the heat stress, and they go straight from the brooder to a tractor set up. Best of luck. (BTW Our creditor level is LOW. Dogs keep them all at bay thankfully)
As soon as my chicken coop had all the wood in I use DE slurry to paint all the cracks and crevices then I painted overhead as I figure that would be the most annoying place to paint in case I got tired I could quit and paint the bottom then, but I had grandsons that came in and they were small enough, they got in there and painted it for me this protect your chickens from having mites. Also, I always put in a DE dust bath a.k.a. dish pan in with any broody chicken
We made a new coop just at the end of October. So our spring project is a covered run. They have a fenced in run under some trees. Lots of bugs. 😊
But we want something more secure. I really like many of the ideas in this video & in the comments.
It's been a while since I've had time to watch so i probably have a lot of catching up to do.
Thanks for the great video.
Thanks for watching!
Great video thanks for the suggestions
Thanks for watching!
Greetings and respect from Greece 🇬🇷 mister.
Hi...Thanks for watching!
My baby/hospital/ isolation coop is 25' from the area the rest of the flock sleeps in.
Nice!
Wow you have done a lot of research and planning sounds like it is really coming together.
Getting there...
I keep no more than 8 chickens in a mobile coop with an attached run. (Coop is 4' x 8', run 8' x 8') Since I don't have predators that would tunnel under, there is no floor. I move the coop to a fresh spot in my orchard every few days. My chickens are happy and healthy. More importantly, I haven't cleaned the coop in 2 years.
That works great if you are not in the northern climate where there is snow. We have moved chicken tractors around in the summer months but they don’t work for people who have chickens that live in winter conditions.
Cool!
@ Agreed. A month ago, I got enough snow to pull out the snow blower for the first time in 4 years and it persisted for 3 weeks. While I had the blower out to clear paths, I cleared a path for the chicken tractor.
What about coup ventilation?
Cover ventilation holes with hardware cloth (metal mesh) to keep out wild birds and mice.
My design has ventilation in places rain cannot get in and that doesn't allow a draft to blow on the roosting chickens, but with hinged covers so I can close down during ultra cold weather.
Yep...critical.
Good tips!
Are you going to release drawings of the coop?
Likely…
@ please send me a note if you do.
Living north Florida, I have ducks, chicks, cats, and a dog. I ran a large open run and they free roam, normally wildfire eats a bird here and there and every year I get new birds, it weeds out the dumb ones... the chickens with a lot of water present... tend to get injured and I've yet to have sick birds... I let them struggle more in life one could say. They life along with minimal effort, now I take good care of them and we have them forging a lot and they have a lot of feed... and multiple different bird houses, depending on weather... they tend to favor this open floor that poop drops to dirt and the bird can get in the house either under and in or thru the middle window flap thing. The ducks for some reason occasionally sleep being pooped on... they have thier own place but some nights... either way. The open air and open to the ground poop design... keeps things natural. I prefer finding ways around daily cleaning when I can... time for more games in my book.😂
Well done. Thx for sharing. Chks need sunshine so when/ where do yours get it?
Another thing I've heard people talking about is making sure to get heritage chickens from smaller farms it aren't sourcing from the same limited line of chickens that the mega operations use.
we had free-range chickens for many years, at night time some stayed in the very primitive :) coop behind the boxes of our horses, some on top of a tree even in snowy weather... we give MgCl (20gms in 1 Lt water solution) added to the water of all of our animals (cats, dogs, horses and chickens) regularly. it is protecting them from whatever illnesses there are around.
I coat the coop with greenhouse plastic. It last 5 years and I feel it's easier to clean.
Smart!
I love your wood stove and rock wall.
Thanks for watching!
@ you are welcome, thanks for the video.
I have been raising back yard hens (6-10) for the past twenty years. The most important design of a coop and run is protecting the ladies from predators and wild bird disease. I use 2inch by 4 inch 14 gauge welded wire and connect the wire with J clamps which are cinched together using a special pliers. People who raise rabbits build their rabbit cages using this method. The pliers costs a couple of bucks and a sack of a thousand J clamps is maybe 4 bucks (Little Giant AGRI & Pet Products, Miller MFG Co So St. Paul Minnesota 55075) available in most farm stores. I over lay the 2X4 welded wire with chicken wire and then wire: sides, top and bottom. The bottom will rust out after 5 years and will need to be replaced. A good mousing cat is also a good thing.