The Chicken Coop Mistakes You DON'T Want to Make! 

Chicken coop door Amazon affiliate Link: amzn.to/3E233Sh (this is one I have previously used and we liked it because it comes with an app. The exact one in vid on coop #2 is no longer avail, but this one is!)

Usually nesting boxes are outside the coop but still contained within the coop. This is a great video to make you think! Thank you.

You need to raise your roosting bars to be higher than your nesting boxes. The bottom roosting bar is too low chickens like to roost as high as they can get. So the bottom roosting bar looks like it is lower or even with the nesting box so that is probably why they perch there at night. Build them a ladder if you think they can't reach the top.

I am planning my chicken coop right now. The suggestion to clear the automatic door from the drop zone was very helpful.

I would switch your 2x4 perches to the 4inch side up. They'll like it better and it keeps their feet warmer in the winter. I wouldn't place nesting boxes on the floor to help keep eggs cleaner. You should have kept the floor in the shed and just installed linoleum or Vinyl flooring. They like the top of the nesting box you have there bc their roost is uncomfortable. I also wouldn't keep that hay in there regardless if they don't poop on it or not. There is a lot of humidity and poop particles in there and it won't keep as well if it weren't surrounded by all that humidity, ammonia and poo. It can also attract rats to nest in there bc they eat the chicken feed.. and the hay makes great nesting.

I delayed my coop build one year just for research, I'm building right now, im calling it the chicken bunker, it will be a hurricane proof coop with a ton of features including, being able to stand up, having it elevated for predators and easy cleanup and a 100% sustainable solar water feeder, its actually a above ground bunker build lol

My chickens hate the 2x4 roosting bars, every time. You need to find a small straight tree, and cut it for them. They will find the position of the tree, that fits their feet best. take a small 2x4, and secure the ends of the roost.

Best to have wire over the top of the courtyard as well. We have hawks and buzzards. Big trouble.

When my wife and I bought our house we live in the city and it had an old shed and I said what can we do with it, and instead of getting rid of it I decided to turn it into a chicken coop

Im about to take the plunge but going slow motion! Just ordered my shed 👀 and went to 🚜 supply and got fencing for their run 🙈 your video was so real’atable 🥰🤗🥰 thank you! 💜🦋🐓

The cladding is a type of MESH

Thank you. My latest book involves a chicken, paramedic Chris and the runaway chicken

Thank you for the tips much appreciated 👍🏻👍🏻

Absolutely loved this video.

This is so helpful! I want to get into owning chickens but had no idea what to do!

Great advice. Thank you

YOUR HAIR IS SOOOO PRETTY!❤️

Very informative thanks 😊

really secure..... great...!

Wow.. nice info Nice sharing, I like it.... 👍👍

If I may offer a suggestion on poop management ;-). I wanted to do it but the configuration of my hen house doesn't allow it, yours, however is perfect. Instead of removing the floor of the shed, install a poop tray underneath the roosting bars. Put sand and sweet pdz on the tray. Since chickens poop only in one spot when they sleep on the roost, you can easily clean their poop with one sweep, or use cat poop scoop. You can still use the space under the tray as storage without fear of it being drenched with chicken excretes. And if you measure properly, you can install the automated slide-up chicken door also under the tray, *inside* the coop so it's protected from the weather. Put it next to the human door so it's easy for you to reach the control panel. If the metal that slides up extends above the plane of the tray, make a slot on the tray so the metal can easily pass through, and install a piece of plywood or left over roofing panel (not the asphalt kind but the metal or undulating one) on an angle to protect the chicken door from the poop rain. As for the nesting box, your initial idea was great. I would do that if I had a shed coop but I would install a door with wire mesh for brooder or quarantining injured chickens (not contagious-sick ones though). When there's none, the space is still good for storage and the meshed door would keep chickens from roosting. On my current hen house, which I built on the style of Carolina Coop, my nesting boxes are inside the house, not overhang outside like Carolina Coops'. Because I want to use deep litter method, I built the nesting boxes 12 inches above the floor of the coop. That space is enough for hens to slide under and chickens roost at the highest point possible but lay egg at the lowest and deepest recesses possible. So, I blocked that space under the next and since the wall outside the nest is basically a drop down door to access the eggs, I built a door also for the space under the nesting boxes as a storage. That storage was a handy place to put my egg basket in safely when I am still working around the coop so the chickens wouldn't knock the eggs or if it's raining the eggs are safely protected and dry in the cupboard.

Is there a reason that the chicken coop door into the playpen area is higher above the ground?

What is the covering you used on the first coop? The stuff you buried into the ground?

Don't think a fox can't dig under the coop walls if there's nothing to prevent it. I had a fox dig under my run fence and then under the coop wall. He ended up taking over half my chickens before I managed to stop it. I had to go into the coop and dig a trench then I placed bricks I had stacked up all the way around and covered them over. NOW the critter can't get into the coop. It can still dig under the run fence though. Also, you could just put an awning over the automatic door even putting side shields on it to protect from blowing rain.

that's how the door is in our coop. it was made by previous owners

Looks like stucco wire sheets

lathe

lol Chickens are a lot like feathered pigs. Chicigs. 😂

Biggest mistake is allowing some people to do this at all