What makes a chicken house easy to maintain?

[Elowen]

Hi everyone,
I’m comparing a few chicken house designs and was wondering what features people find most useful day to day.
Is walk-in access worth having? How important are ventilation, easy cleaning, dry bedding and secure fencing?
For anyone who has had chickens for a while, is there anything you wish you had included from the start?

 

[chrismahon]

You have picked up on a very complicated subject @Elowen. The perfect coop doesn't exist as all the features become compromises to satisfy other features. To be avoided is a coop designed for ease of manufacture, because invariably you end up with something quite unsuitable and a good example is Omlet who have designed theirs around a manufacturing process with perhaps no experience of keeping chickens, ending up with something quite unsuitable.

I've made 10 coops. The first was terrible and was left in England. The second needed a few modifications but was generally OK. The advantage of wood is the ability to repair and modify, but unfortunately the quality of wood sold today is disgraceful. Two have been made using old sheds. The floor and roof is therefore stable and the framework can be disassembled and because it is seasoned will be stable. There is a mobile one built in 2012 on this forum.

Ventilation equates to 10% of the coop floor area minimum and needs to allow cross-flow overhead. Chicken hate draughts as it disturbs their feathers and removes their natural insulation. Ideally the vents should be adjustable, so in a strong wind one side can be closed down. In Summer they need a large airy coop and in Winter a small one so they can squeeze together for warmth. Filling a coop in Winter becomes overcrowding in Summer.

The most important factor from a keeper's point of view is the coop floor height. Ours are set at 18" with large doors for our access. This means the coop will need a 30 degree ramp or 45 degree steps for the chickens to enter. We poo pick daily (or I do). Essential bedding is kept dry as mould spores will develop in damp bedding quickly leading to respiratory infections, particularly if ventilation is poor if only due to a lack of breeze.

A walk-in run is a real benefit for daily water changes, feed topping-up and poo picking. Ours are not because they needed to be light enough to move about, and then disassembled to move to France.

Foxes are everywhere, although you may not see one. We had one patrol our coops every night looking for a way in (careless door left open) as the footprints were visible in the snow.

Coffee time!

 

[CherishedFowlGuardian]

@CherishedFowlGuardian gave really good advice.

 

[Elowen]

You have picked up on a very complicated subject @Elowen. The perfect coop doesn't exist as all the features become compromises to satisfy other features. To be avoided is a coop designed for ease of manufacture, because invariably you end up with something quite unsuitable and a good example is Omlet who have designed theirs around a manufacturing process with perhaps no experience of keeping chickens, ending up with something quite unsuitable.

I've made 10 coops. The first was terrible and was left in England. The second needed a few modifications but was generally OK. The advantage of wood is the ability to repair and modify, but unfortunately the quality of wood sold today is disgraceful. Two have been made using old sheds. The floor and roof is therefore stable and the framework can be disassembled and because it is seasoned will be stable. There is a mobile one built in 2012 on this forum.

Ventilation equates to 10% of the coop floor area minimum and needs to allow cross-flow overhead. Chicken hate draughts as it disturbs their feathers and removes their natural insulation. Ideally the vents should be adjustable, so in a strong wind one side can be closed down. In Summer they need a large airy coop and in Winter a small one so they can squeeze together for warmth. Filling a coop in Winter becomes overcrowding in Summer.

The most important factor from a keeper's point of view is the coop floor height. Ours are set at 18" with large doors for our access. This means the coop will need a 30 degree ramp or 45 degree steps for the chickens to enter. We poo pick daily (or I do). Essential bedding is kept dry as mould spores will develop in damp bedding quickly leading to respiratory infections, particularly if ventilation is poor if only due to a lack of breeze.

A walk-in run is a real benefit for daily water changes, feed topping-up and poo picking. Ours are not because they needed to be light enough to move about, and then disassembled to move to France.

Foxes are everywhere, although you may not see one. We had one patrol our coops every night looking for a way in (careless door left open) as the footprints were visible in the snow.

Coffee time!

Thanks, Chris. This is exactly the kind of practical experience I was hoping to hear.
I hadn’t really thought about how many compromises are involved in coop design, especially the way ventilation, floor height, access and mobility can affect each other. The point about adjustable vents and keeping the airflow above the chickens is really useful too.
I also like the idea of having the coop raised enough to make cleaning easier, although I can see how the ramp angle could become a problem. The walk-in run sounds very convenient for changing water, topping up feed and cleaning.
And yes, keeping the bedding dry seems absolutely essential. I’ll definitely keep that in mind, along with making the fencing and doors secure even if there are no obvious foxes around.
When you built your later coops, did you keep the same 18-inch floor height, or did you change it depending on whether the coop was fixed or movable?

 

[chrismahon]

Thanks, Chris. This is exactly the kind of practical experience I was hoping to hear.
I hadn’t really thought about how many compromises are involved in coop design, especially the way ventilation, floor height, access and mobility can affect each other. The point about adjustable vents and keeping the airflow above the chickens is really useful too.
I also like the idea of having the coop raised enough to make cleaning easier, although I can see how the ramp angle could become a problem. The walk-in run sounds very convenient for changing water, topping up feed and cleaning.
And yes, keeping the bedding dry seems absolutely essential. I’ll definitely keep that in mind, along with making the fencing and doors secure even if there are no obvious foxes around.
When you built your later coops, did you keep the same 18-inch floor height, or did you change it depending on whether the coop was fixed or movable?

I kept with the 18" floor height @Elowen, so smaller fixed coops are on legs, as opposed to mobile coops being on a chassis with wheels. To move the fixed coops I made a frame that fits underneath so two people can lift them. But as they are all at the same height and all share the same run configuration, all the steps are the same. However we found that as some birds aged they lost mobility, so we have one set of steps set at 30 degrees (not 45) which makes it much easier as each step is deeper.

You may hear reference to red mite, usually imported with new birds. A nasty and tiny creature that lives in the coop and drinks chicken blood at night. They multiply rapidly and in large numbers (1000's) they can drink so much blood the chicken will die. In a wooden coop they hide between the tongue and groove joints of the cladding, as well as in all the joints. Difficult to see, but ants eat them and they can indicate their presence. Essential for treatment is that the perches can be lifted out as the ends will be the first place they appear. Treatment is complicated because chemicals rapidly become ineffective as the mites evolve immunity and they won't reach everywhere. The only treatment we found effective is heat in the form of a steam gun, but not on the chickens of course!