Starting a coop and would like input if you see something wrong

[GodofPecking]

I have no idea where you live, but your use of 'chooks' suggest Australia, correct? If so I suspect your cold weather chicken keeping experience is about zero? You simply don't have seasonal weather that say dips to -20°F (-29°C) with high winds that can push the windchill to -60°F (-51°C)...

Wow, that's an awesome long string of guesses and assumptions about where I live, respectfully, would you be able to draw some pictures off what you think my chicken coop looks like, or what my house looks like, or what I look like. I'd love to see them. I love storytelling, the more imaginative, wild and outlandish the better. I would really genuinely love to see what you can come up with and won't criticize, just like I won't interrupt your string of guesses about what it is like where I live with any facts or real information. I so love your storytelling.

Thanks for all the tips. I live in Las Vegas and we get 115*F in the shade.

 

[MeepBeep]

I have no idea where you live, but your use of 'chooks' suggest Australia, correct? If so I suspect your cold weather chicken keeping experience is about zero? You simply don't have seasonal weather that say dips to -20°F (-29°C) with high winds that can push the windchill to -60°F (-51°C)...

Wow, that's an awesome long string of guesses and assumptions about where I live, respectfully, would you be able to draw some pictures off what you think my chicken coop looks like, or what my house looks like, or what I look like. I'd love to see them. I love storytelling, the more imaginative, wild and outlandish the better. I would really genuinely love to see what you can come up with and won't criticize, just like I won't interrupt your string of guesses about what it is like where I live with any facts or real information. I so love your storytelling.

Not really a total guess or assumption, it's based not only your use of 'chook' combined with other clues in your other postings, but on the fact in a previous post you have for all intents stated you lived in Australia, but of course you could have been lying in that thread? And thus based on your disclosed location one can easily research that the lowest recorded temp in all of Australia is only -23.0 C (-9.4 F) and that was over 20 years ago... In fact one can easily research that most of Australia rarely sees any extended periods of sustained freezing temps... From there one can logically conclude you likely have little to any extreme cold experience as its simply doesn't get that cold where you live...

As for what your coop looks like, I don't need to imagine or draw pictures, you have posted multiple pictures and talked about the refrigerator you laid on it's side...

Maybe you would like to share your location and cold weather experience in detail with us?

Beyond that I'll leave it up to the audience to decide why you chose to use a cliché Red Herring fallacy as your reply...

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The coop looks good so far. A few things you may want to tweak before putting in birds. Door and nest box heights. I use pine shavings or the liter. With that I provide 4-6 inches of wall height under the doors and nest box openings. That way you can have 3-4 inches of pine shavings that wont continuously be falling out on the ground. Plywood is plenty strong, the thing with small coop construction is you need nailers. I use 2x2 stick lumber as much as possible to keep the weight down. Keep this in mind as I think you need to cut a slant on sides for your roof. A slanted roof will greatly enhance passive air flow of ventilation. Use your skill saw and cut starting 9 inches down on sides angled up to current height other side, choose which way you want the slant and cut one long side short to match. The coop now is more than tall enough so don't worry about shortening one side. Use the 2x2 cheap stick lumber to as nailers along the new roof line. Not a lot of rework that way.

For ventilation you'll want a lot of the bottom and top eaves exposed. Air will be sucked in the bottom, mix with coop air as it's zipping up the roof line and exit the top eave. Venting made easy that doesn't rely on wind rather physics to pump air in and out the coop constantly exchanging coop air without drafts on the birds. In your hot climate this you may also want that door sheathed with hard ware cloth not plywood. A full open end to ensure the coop doesn't over heat. For the eave venting that can be a little tricky on how you cover openings with hardware cloth. I used curragated metal roof, the high hats of metal are the vent holes. Living in an area with weasels that could easily get in there I decided to cover the entire roof with hard wire screwed to the 2x2 nailers (put a few as nailers for tin roof too so could screw hardwire there also). Basically I didn't use rafters per say, as the tin is only spanning 4 ft, the 2x2 are merely keeping it held down with a little support. Sure I could walk on the roof but then why would I want to?

Food for thought. Here is a link to my last coop made that may give you ideas and visually shows various things stated above:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1036728/my-4x7-weasel-proof-moveable-coop-for-about-300

 

[FISTfullaFLOYD]

 

[FISTfullaFLOYD]

 

[FISTfullaFLOYD]

 

[FISTfullaFLOYD]

 

[FISTfullaFLOYD]

Three grape vines for the shade and leaves.

 

[Intheswamp]

115F in the shade....for the coop I would be thinking LARGE expanses of open sides and very extended roof overhangs.

How many chickens are you planning on keeping?

Looks like your run will be very secure!!!

Ed

 

[GodofPecking]

You may wish to consider domestic or FERAL CATS. They can kill chickens in this chicken coop without going inside. It has happened to me and it is heartbreaking, so don't let it happen to you.

The cats scare the chooks, and ESPECIALLY chicks up against the far wall from where they are, then they go around back and reach through the wire. Cats have skinny arms and sharp claws. Here is one reaching through a small hole in the wall, obviously, they can reach into your chicken coop.


Put an extra layer of wire inside the cage, or better still, a skirt of wire around the bottom with smaller holes in it. You'll only need it to be about twice the height of a chicken, and all the way around. You may also put some where their roosting perches meet the external walls.

I also agree with the comments about a roof that overhangs the sides at least a little. Also, I think you've used new softwood such as radiata, I might be sentimental, but I think old packing crates and pallets which are free for the asking from factories and hardware stores (ask for non-returnable pallets and bring a trailer) are the best for chicken coops, because I always think chicken coops look better when made from secondhand wood, and hardwood which is free and secondhand lasts longer than new radiata... but it's just my opinion on looks and feel, please yourself !!