Getting a real chicken building!!

[John]

I used 2x4 roosts over the 8\' spans.  They should be a chicken\'s length apart, so they could be closer together for bantams.  Mine are about 14 to 16 inches apart, but probably should be about 18\" for large fowl  The first one, near the wall could be half that amount, but not too close to the wall or the chickens might sit there picking at the OSB.  You\'ll see a small piece of OSB at the end of my roosts to prevent the birds from fighting between coops.
The nest pails (\"boxes\") are screwed to the wall.  Keep an inch or so clearance between them and between them and the support boards, on the sides, to allow dropping to drop thru.  Some birds will go on top of these pails and this will avoid a pileup of droppings.  There is a photo from the bottom of the nest pails to show there isn\'t a bottom board or support that they rest on.  The side support boards are there to support the perch and board in front of the pails that holds the shavings and eggs in.
The last photo shows some small breeding coops that don\'t have birds in them yet.  They work great for trios of bantams or single LF hens with a cock left in for a couple days each week.

[redfox]

Jean,
We have droppings boards under our roosts, they need to be high enough for your tallest chicken to walk under plus an inch or 2 and large enough for all the droppings from the roost to land on them. I made a frame to cover the board from 2 by 4\'s which has wire on it for the droppings to fall through. I hinged it to the back wall and just lift  and prop it up with a 8\" piece of scrap wood to clean under it.  To clean the board I just take a hoe and scrape everything into a big bucket sitting under the edge. Our roosts are attached to the frame but when I do it again they will be above the frame or at least have more space between the wire and the roost.  So the roost should be high enough to lift the wire.  Our chickens jump onto the frame of the wire and then onto the roost. We did have to put a 2 by 3 under the center of the droppings board for support, it started to warp. The coops stays soooooo much cleaner.

We just built pine nest boxes too, but John\'s look so much simpler if you have the 5 gallon pails and less expensive even if you have to buy them.

John, how big are your small breeding coops?

Have fun,
Cindy D.

[Jean]

My husband made roosts tonight like the ones in  John\'s pictures.  It is 8 foot long and I ended up putting in about half my birds tonight.  (about 35) He will make another tomorrow night on the other wall.

The section we are finishing is for the layers, so alot of room up off the floor will make for more room to put more chickens in. As we finish the other sections I will sort them out for breeding.

I brought in my \"show hopefuls\" and my birds that are what I consider on my \"endangered species\" list.  It is supposed to be around 14 degrees tonight and in the single digits next week.

Thanks everyone for your ideas.  I appreciate it.  Still have to build nest boxes.

Jean

PS John, where did you get the cage fronts for your small breeding pens?  They look very nice.

[John]

how big are your small breeding coops?

The overall unit is about 6\' high, 8\' long and 2\' deep.  Each coop is then about 1/3 of the 8\' in length and has 2\' of head room.

cage fronts for your small breeding pens?

I used 2x4 welded wire on them, but have used 1x2 wire on others.  I use the cage \"J\" clips to hinge the doors and latches that are used to make wire cages.  I also use the plastic edging around the door openings to protect me from the wire.
I use rope lights on a timer for extra light and rabbit feeders for the breeder pellets.  You can see the water cups are on the outside of the coops.