If you’re new to raising chickens, shortly after you get your coop you’ll start wondering how to set up house for your new feathered friends. Here are some ideas. There are rarely “one size fits all” solutions, so review the info, research more options, and choose what you think is best for you and your birds.
If you purchased a pre-made commercial coop, you may not have much choice about how to organize the accommodations. But if you are building your own coop, or using a shed or part of a barn, keep in mind two things:
1. The coop should be convenient for YOU! If it’s difficult to collect eggs or clean out, you won’t enjoy it, and you won’t do it as often as you should.
2. The coop should have three distance areas, or zones. Those are Nesting, Eating, and Sleeping. It’s important to keep the areas separated in the coop, similar to the way your house keeps the bedroom separate from the kitchen.
Let’s look at each one of those areas.
– Nesting. Nesting is where your hens lay eggs. Think of a nest box like a toilet: you want it to be private, quiet, and peaceful. Hens don’t usually poop in the nest box, but they still want some private time to get that giant orb out of their back end. The typical nest box is 12″x12″x12″, although 10″x10″x10″ works well also. Some people even put curtains over the opening, split down the middle, for added privacy. Each box should be separated from the others by wood or metal. You’ll only need one nest box for every 6-8 hens, and even then, they may only use a few since they’ll all have their favorite box, and complain when another hen is sitting, even though the box nest door is open! The boxes can be painted or left bare wood, and should be off the ground. The hens will appreciate the elevated boxes, and gathering eggs will be easier on your back. Line the box with nesting material, such as pine shavings, straw, or even dried grass. The hens will arrange it like they want. Parasites like to occupy nest boxes, so if you notice mites or lice, treat with a commercial insecticide such as permethrin, or prevent an infestation by adding Diatomaceous Earth (DE) powder to the nesting material and even on the hens. Giving your birds a dust bathing area will also prevent parasites from making their way into the nest boxes.
– Eating. Your chickens’ eating and drinking area should be separate from where they nest and sleep. There are a wide range of feeders and waterers. Chickens are messy, and will spread their food around. Their natural instinct is to scratch the ground, looking for bugs to eat. So commercial feeders will have small holes to access feed, or rotating bars to prevent feet from scratching and roosting. We’ve made feeders out of storage tubs and PVC elbows (https://youtu.be/yaRm1W2Eb84). The tubs can hold 100 lbs of feed, and the elbows prevent the chickens from flicking feed with their beaks. It will also store several days of feed! There are many ways to get feed to your birds, so research them to make sure it will work for the chickens and you.
Waterers also come in a variety of sizes and styles. Make sure your waterers will supply clean water for at least a day and a half. A hen that goes a day without water will stop laying for a week or two. Waterers come in common sizes up to 5 gallons, which weighs over 40 lbs. Can you lift and carry 40 lbs? If not, opt for a smaller 3-gallon size. Some people install self-watering water cups or nipple drinkers. These can be very convenient, although there are two things to be aware of. First, chickens are messy drinkers, so water tends to accumulate under the drinker. Self-watering drinkers are fixed, so if you have a lot of birds, you may have a continuous mud puddle where they drink. By the way, it’s not mud! Second, the self-watering drinkers are often supplied by a hose connected to a bucket placed up high. If you can’t easily see the water level in the bucket, or easily refill the bucket, it may run dry without you noticing. Design your coop to work for you without causing extra work for you (or endangering your flock).
– Sleeping. Chickens naturally want to sleep, or roost, off the ground. Their night vision is worse than humans, so they want to be up high, away from predators. We use chicken ladders, which are 4 ft wide structures made of 2″x4″ and 2″x2″ pine that leans against the wall, but any sturdy structure will do.
Some people use branches from trees. Just make sure that the roost is strong enough to support the weight of all the chickens that roost there, and that it doesn’t roll or fall apart. Chicks are rough on their accommodations, so make it sturdy!
Bedding. Chickens poop about every 30 minutes and make one half pound per day. It adds up. They poop whenever and wherever they want, so you’ll want bedding, also called litter, to absorb the moisture and smells. Bedding can also make for easier cleanup. What you choose will be dependent on the size of your coop, whether or not your coop is mobile, your access to certain types of bedding, and your budget. Here are some of the most common bedding materials.
– Wood Shavings. Medium Pine Flake is the most common. It is available at your local farm store. Wood shavings are very absorbent and they control odors. Avoid cedar or walnut shavings due to sensitive lungs in chickens.
– Sand. Sand distributes moisture, and the poop can be rakes out similar to a cat litter box. However, consider the weight and how much you’ll have to buy.
– Sawdust. If you have access to a sawmill, sawdust can be a great solution. But it does create a lot of dust, so beware.
– Straw. Straw isn’t the best for absorbing moisture, but it can be used to cover damp areas in the coop. And it’s fairly inexpensive. But straw mixed with poop can create heavy thatch, making future cleanup a back breaker.
– Natural Materials. You can use grass and leaves from the yard. After mowing, let the grass dry. Chickens like to eat fresh grass, which can cause blockage in their crop. Also, avoid grass that’s been recently treated with pesticides and herbicides. It might not kill your birds, but it’s not healthy for them. Chopped (mowed) leaves are better than whole leaves. Use in moderation so the leaves don’t create a slippery and moldy mess.
Avoid these materials for bedding:
– Kitty Litter. Chickens may eat clay litter, causing crop blockage. Also, added chemicals and scents may be harmful to them.
– Pine Needles. They aren’t absorbent, but they are slippery!
– Treated Mulch. Natural mulch works OK, but avoid commercial mulch treated with dyes and pesticides.
If you have a mobile coop, you may not need any bedding at all. But move the coop often to let the ground recover. Otherwise, the chickens will turn your lush green grass into a dirt lot!
Cleaning. Cleaning your coop can be a controversial subject. Never cleaning the coop isn’t healthy for your flock, and cleaning every day will wear you out, so find your happy medium. Your coop will never be as clean as the day the chickens moved in, so don’t stress about making is squeaky clean again. Chickens will never be potty trained, nor will they clean up after themselves. So focus on the major cleanup jobs. For instance, we use a deep litter method, where we start with a thick layer of litter, and add if necessary. The chickens scratch the litter, mixing their poop which composts and keeps the smell down. Then 2 or 3 times per year, we clean it all out with a small tractor and start over. Your approach will be different, so find what works for you. When cleaning, at a minimum you’ll want to scrape roosts, clean out nest boxes, remove dirty litter, and knock down cobwebs and dusty areas. Dirty litter can be composted further for use in the garden later, spread about the yard, buried, or thrown out. As a general rule, if the coop smells, it’s time to clean.
Feed and Supplies. Finally, remember to have a convenient way to store your feed, treats, supplies, and tools. Keep feed and treats in metal bins to prevent feeding the mice. Keep supplies and tools near the coop to they’re easy to get. You may find you need a separate storage shed just as much as you need the coop.
These are simply helpful suggestions that we hope will save you time, money, and aggravation. Do what works for you, not because you read it somewhere else. Farming IS experimentation. Don’t be upset if your first solutions don’t work. Modify and adjust until it does work. You’ll appreciate it, and so will your flock!