8 more tips to a good coop
Invest
in a good quality coop, one that can cope with someone falling against it or bumping it with a wheelbarrow or ride-on mower. Look for thick plastic or treated plywood (or similar), and good quality framing and roofing.
Choose
the location carefully. The first thing that disappears around a coop is grass, and in its place will be mud (winter) or dust (summer). Choose a spot with good drainage, not too far from your house (preferably alongside your vegetable garden and/or orchard). However, you want it to be far enough away that dust isn’t a problem, and poultry won’t try to invade the house. Have
good fences around your poultry run/free range area, or good fences around your vegetable garden and house. Poultry are curious and have quite destructive beaks and feet for scratching up and eating gardens plants. They also produce a lot of manure which they will prefer to deposit on pathways, decks, and in the house.
Wide
doorways so you can easily roll a wheelbarrow in and out.
A coop
needs a good ventilation system. Poultry release a lot of moisture as they breathe out, so you need air movement (not a draft) to help keep your coop dry and mould/bacteria-free. Vents at the top and bottom of the walls (usually flaps on hinges with props to hold them open) are the best option.
Have
a contingency area for when a bird gets sick or injured like a large wire dog crate so you can keep it away (or at least protected) from the flock. You may also want to have a second, smaller, mobile ‘ tractor’ if you are going to have a hen hatch eggs.
Insulation
is another good option if you live somewhere with temperature extremes. Consider something that can be easily removed and treated for mites, eg polystyrene panels.
Get
one with a door (to prevent predators entering during the night) – you can buy or make automatic-opening doors which will let your hens out later in the morning if you have to leave early for work, and then close it up again after dark.
A large
wire dog crate (minus the tray) can also double as a good ‘broody’ cage. When a hen wants to sit on eggs to hatch them, she stops laying and goes ‘broody’, a hormonal change which raises her temperature (to help her hatch the eggs). Placing her in a wire cage, raised off the ground on bricks, helps to lower her temperature, even if she sits and snuggles. It should have food and water and be in a dry, sheltered but airy place.