THE MULLIGAN

I hit the BYC Coop Articles pages and perused through lots and lots of coop designs. We have some seriously creative and talented folks here at BYC. I read some very cool stuff and saw absolutely jaw dropping designs. But I'm stuck with what I've got and money IS an object and so I must make the best use of it.

I must give a huge "thank you" to @aart for much of my inspiration. Her coop article was oft visited when making my sketches and decisions.

This is the best I've got for my blueprint. Please don't laugh so hard that you spit your coffee on your computer screen when you look at it.



The total coop size is 8'x16' but the chickens have access to only 8'x12'. The other 8'x4' is where I have the maternity ward (formerly known as the brooder) and storage for highly used tools:

• my egg basket
• a bag of Sweet PDZ with a scoop
• a bag of oyster shell with a scoop
• an old kitty litter bucket with a metal litter scoop and another plastic scoop with a kitchen strainer wired to it for finer cleaning of the boards once a month
• a toilet brush and a set of flexible brushes that are used to keep the waterers clean
• an old 8 in 1 paint scrapper and crappy hammer used to chisel the poop off the boards in winter
• my electric scale that I use to weigh birds
• a bag of mixed wild bird seed with some cracked corn in it that I use for scratch
• a jar of raisins to tame the wild beast... Fabio. I've learned that he turns into a marshmallow for raisins.
• assorted maintenance items like heavy duty nail files and dog clippers, an LED head lamp, a jar of coconut oil, etc

The final size of the run is 12' x 28' with a 4'x8' jog around the back of the coop where the dust bathing area is.
They still use the dust bath area but have also created many craters in the run and dust bath in the now broken down dry wood chips.

A few notes about why I made the choices I did for various aspects of the coop:

Roosts: all at the same height. Chickens can be brutal at roost time. If all the roosts are the same height, there will be no preference there. However, I'm certain roost positions in front of windows year round will be prime spots.

Poop boards: made with 2" high lips to retain sand/PDZ mixture. Flat boards without a lip for retention will surely end up the contents strewn far and wide as the chickens are jockeying for roost positions in the evening.

Nest box: I went with a community style very deep nest box. I will ultimately have 24 layers. My largest girl is Draco, my Delaware. My old nest boxes were 12x12x12. Draco's tail was always a little tatty from rubbing against the back of the box. The smaller depth left little room for a deep cushy nest which the chickens enjoy. Why community instead of divided? I think more chickens will fit in the community box. We'll have to see how this all works out when the pullets coming down the pike start laying...
* 10/27/19 update: I ended up putting in 4 divider panels to make 5 individual nest boxes as the girls were doing an awful lot of growling when a new girl was attempting to enter the box. These 5 boxes seem to be plenty for my 24 25 (he he!) layers.

Clean out doors: These doors lock from the inside on the top and bottom. I ultimately ended up barrel bolting them tight to the frame so nothing can squeeze in. They cannot be opened from the outside unless unlocked on the inside. This serves for security as well as an emergency escape hatch if one accidentally gets locked in the coop. I will not mention the manner in which I may someday find myself in such a situation. It is a real possibility.

Cost estimate: I put about $2500 total into this project. I saved some money be recycling my old run but I didn't skimp on materials. I bought three 4'x50' rolls of galvanized 1/2" hardware cloth from Amazon. I could not find it cheaper anywhere else. I also recycled some of the HC and hardware from the old run.

The Coop Cams: I will mention them here. I purchased 6 Wyze coop cameras based on a thread posted by @Sue Gremlin. The cameras cost less than $100 total. You will see many stills I took from these cameras. They are awesome. Thanks Sue!