Let’s. Talk about chicken coops! Why? Because they’re, the one of most popular topics with chickens but Jack besides chickens themselves. As soon as somebody wants chicken, they’re looking into coops, but listen coops are so much more than just their shelter.
For me, coops are at the heart of the working machine. That is the Fox potential. The first thing we’re going to talk about are the five different coops I use and how I put them to work for me, then I’m, going to share with you the four basic functions of what makes a great coop Five basic designs that ensure their health and your sanity, then we’re, going to look at the four must-have features of the coop.
So first let’s. Look at my the five different coops I use as working machines around this farm. First up is my chicken tractor. I use it for a small chicken coop for twelve birds or less. If it’s just there hotel, I use it as a coop.
Inside of a chicken garden, I’ve used it as a chicken tractor to till manure and even harvest produce. I’ve used it as a maternity ward. One of my readers used it for a broiler pen to move around meet birds to raise them from chicks until slaughter.
This thing will hold up to 12 Birds. If it’s just their hotel. I would say four: if they’re in it full-time it’s, going to cost you less than two hundred dollars the plans for it are down in the video description.
The beneficial features of this thing is that it has a door. So it can also serve as a coop and a chicken tractor. It has built-in perches it’s short, it’s, got a swivel landing bar it’s, got milk crates for nesting boxes that can be accessed from the outside it’s got plastic PVC on the bottom.
So it can easily slide over terrain. It’s, got high hooks on either in and a cable attachment, so you can pull it from either side. Next scoop is the pastured poultry pen, a classic from Joel Salatin.
I’ve, used it to pasture meet birds like Joel. I’ve, used it as a maternity ward for Mama hen and her baby chickens. I’ve, used it as permanent housing for a small flock. You could use it to prep a larger garden bed, it’ll hold up to 75 Birds, and I say you could probably build it for $ 300 or less easy plans below the beneficial feature.
Is that it’s? Sure square one-quarter open on top one-half of the sides are open. I’ve, built nesting boxes in mind to make it even more multi-purpose and it’s. Got PVC skids to make it movable you don’t need a special dolly to move it.
Next up is Harvey uh Suri’s. Small-Scale poultry flock a frame I’ve used this thing as a maternity ward. Right now. I’m growing little chicks in there transitioning them from the brooder to the big house.
I’ve used it as my main coop to move the main flock around the yard. As long as the you want to go too far with it and it’s relatively smooth and not too hilly, this works great for that the beneficial features include.
The perches are also the braces. The nesting boxes are accessible from the outside the wheels. Well, –, there’s, wheels on it all these. All these coops are mobile. That’s. All beneficial the wheels are removable, so you can collapse this thing down to the ground for extra protection.
It could be used as a chicken tractor, meaning you could confine them in it and have them be tilling and fertilizing the ground, and this coop will hold up to 36 adult birds. It’s, going to cost you around 500 bucks.
I’ll, leave the link to mr. Harvey o Suri’s plans below and now my favorite one person can easily move a lot of birds long distances over rough terrain, the chick sha. I use it for my main coop and moves my main flock around right.
Now they’re on a till job. They can go out into the pasture and fertilize the pasture maybe follow the cattle. I can move them to a compost, job or a job where they need to be spreading mulch. The beneficial features include large wills.
It’s high off the ground, so the chickens can also use it as a shade. During the day the door becomes the ramp, the pool bar becomes the prop pole. The roof is also an access point. There’s, room for supplement, feeders and a dust box.
Nesting boxes are in crates that are accessible from the outside. The roof. Flip allows for ventilation, the white roof reflects the Sun, and if you want, you could switch it out with a clear roof to collect the Sun there in the winter.
The perches are also the floor and this thing is going to cost about $ 500. Depending I mean I have had people just really scrap it together for about 150, but if you go to the store it’s going to be about 500 and it’ll hold about 36 birds, and if you want to build this, One I’ll, leave the plans in the description.
Next, let’s. Talk about the coop! Most people. Have it’s, the static coop I don’t, use it much because I don’t, get as much work done out of it, as I do the other ones, but there’s still a place, and Most of you might have that, so I’ll talk about it.
I’ve, used it as a housing for my guineas, I’ve, used it as a static run when my health wasn’t so good. You could certainly use it to build compost if you’ll just put deep bedding and fishel features include a bucket nest, a ladder perch and deep bedding.
This is a bucket nest box shelf. All you got to do is build this shelf, but place five buckets along through there and you ‘ Ll have to build any nest boxes. The way that deep netting works. Is you get enough organic material onto the floor? Hopefully your chicken coop doesn’t have a floor if it does take it out, put at least eight inches of granite or of a Granik material leaves straw, wood chips.
Anything like that. Let it sit there. The chickens will have access to it. They’ll scratch it. They’ll manure, it they’ll mix it together and eventually, on the bottom of that, you’re, going to start to develop, compost and to harvest.
That I mean I’ll, come back here in diamondhead, chicks in here full-time for years, but I’ll. Still I’ll, come back. I’ll, move the mulch off the top and harvest the compost from underneath with a shovel and take it put it where I need it to go.
It’s, pretty neat system. You can do that not only in the coop but out in the run. Now hang on a second, I’m going to go over what makes these such great coops. I’m, going to talk about the features so on now to the four basic functions of a chicken coop.
Let’s. Take my chick Shaw as an example. The first thing the first function is shelter. You want enough shelter from the Sun wind rain, the basic elements, no duh right at least one square foot of covered area per bird.
It should be closed off to the cold and windy side should provide shade from this. Oh, I’m talking air. It should provide shade from the Sun with that roof, but also in this one shade from the Sun down below, underneath as for winter zones, three and above you, don’t, have to worry about any special insulation or anything like that.
If you’re in those colder areas, I would suggest maybe a greenhouse during the winter, but all the rest of you. You probably just need to open up even more. I mean I know that sounds backwards, but open up the front of it to the sunny side.
This side is pointing to the sunny side. The chickens are resilient. They they’re up to 109 degrees in temperature. They’ve got these big feathers. They took their heads and underneath they’re going to be just fine, they actually need that ventilation that fresh air it’s, not the cold.
That’s, going to kill them. It’s, the combo of cold and moisture. So you want that free-flowing ventilation to keep them warm. The second aspect of a great coop is adequate access to sunlight notice. How half my front is open up towards the front towards the Sun? A third of the side is open up not only for the Sun, but for fresh air and 25 % of your roof can be open if there’s enough shelter for the birds and the covered parts.
The third aspect is plenty of ventilation. You see here, the third of my side is open. All my front is open. There’s; ventilation through my nest box, built-in ventilation to my roof notice. They do have some protection here.
You don’t want them to be all hundred percent out in the open notice how they can get behind these panels. But you stop ventilation over here and you still have ventilation on the top. A good rule of thumb is put as much ventilation as possible above where they perch.
The fourth part of making a good design for the birds is making it predator proof real easy to things for the coop one shut them up at night. That’s, going to be most of your predator problem to make no more than one inch opening anywhere in the coop.
Now let’s. Talk about basic design! You need one square foot per chicken if it’s their hotel, you want to be able to access the eggs from the outside, so you’re, not crawling up into a coop. Make it easy to harvest deep bedding.
Also make it easy to clean people want to know. Well, how do you clean your coop? How often you clean your coop that’s? Actually the most popular question? Well, I’ve, never thought about it, because I never have to clean a coop.
These are self cleaning, mainly because they’re floralis. We leave the manure and feather debris and anything else behind it’s falling down to the ground and we move on one square foot per chicken access to the eggs from the outside self cleaning.
Finally, let’s. Talk about the four must-have features which include perches is nest. Boxing dust boxes and food supplement. Containers perches are places for the chickens to sleep at night out in nature, birds jump up onto a limb and sleep there throughout the evening.
So we’re going to recreate. I recreate that with two by twos. You need to give them at least nine inches or a good rule of thumb is like the surfs up like from my pinky to thumb. They don’t need much room.
Actually, if you give them a lot of room people ask me why you break the real way you don’t give the chickens enough. I give them plenty. I’m, recommend 36 birds in this. I think I could do 50 here’s.
Why? Because, when they go in their perch, I don’t care. If they’ve got all the room in the world. They end up all up near each other. Now for nest box a place for your chickens to lay eggs roughly 1 cubic foot.
They naturally want to seclude a place, so we put it up and away and to the side. You want to make sure your nest box have roofs or up near your coup proof so that birds, don’t get on top of it perch and manure into the nest box.
I’ve used this milk crate. I just cut out an opening. You want a blip in the front so that the bedding doesn’t come out for this bedding. I love using hay. You could use wood chips, shredded paper, pine shavings, anything like that make sure you provide a landing bar, so the birds can jump up on that and then crawl into the nest you want to get saucy make it swivel, so it can also be a nest blocker In case you got some wanting to perching there at night.
You can come out here in the afternoon and swivel that up and block them from getting in there and then let it out in the morning, so they can lay their eggs notice. How my nest boxes are above eye level, that’s, important, because if you leave your nest boxes at eye level, the chickens get bored, see the eggs and start pecking them.
Another self-cleaning feature here, because I use these milk crates. They actually have a mesh bottom, and so a little fine debris and dirt actually falls through and the meting for the most part cannot another cool thing about these nesting boxes.
I can pull them out and actually use them to carry eggs or to carry a broody hen that’s, it. Those are my five different chicken coop systems. I’m currently using hope you enjoyed it. I got an article linked below if you want more information plus i’m on a live webinar with my wife June 12th, 3:00 p.
m. Eastern Standard Time will be on their answer. Any questions you have, we’ll, go into this into more detail. What’s hot for an hour and we’ll help you figure out, which one is exactly right for you sign up below.
