[Laine21]

Hi Diggit,

I have very particular ideas about housing so my comments might well be quite different from many others but I will say it comes with many years of experience and I never come across easier to maintain houses than those I use.

You don't mention material and this is very important just as important as the layout and general design.  I think it's a good idea to use sheet material rather than board such as plywood and as good a quality as possible 15mm thick is good.  
HF

Can I ask what you mean by 'sheet material' please?
Laraine

[Diggit]

Basically wood that come in "sheets" like plywood for example

rather than planks that are put together like tongue and groove for example, these would be pieced together to make a wall, leaving lots of room in joins for things like red mite to hide and breed.

Sheet material walls -   


Tongue and groove walls - 

Hope this helps

[8doubles]

You`d never get the mites out of those urls. 

[Laine21]

Got it,   our local woodyard sells shuttering ply and OSB sheeting, which is reasonably cheap.
Thank you for the quick reply
Laine

[bluemaran]

I like to clean my coops most days,it stops the build up of amonia and you get to get in with the birds.Also i have seen pictures of roosting bars piled with crusted faeces unless they are scraped daily.This to me is the same as walking in the stuff on the floor.If you only have a few hens its no hardship to poo pick,2 minutes and your done

[hillfooter]

For the roof I was planning on using feather edge board but I will have a look for corrugated material as you suggest.

I doubt that feather edge board will be water tight for a pent roof.  Feather board is for horizontal vertical surfaces where water can't run up through the edges.  Your pent roof will be quite shallow and featherboard won't shed driving rain.  Pent roofs are almost always sheet material or felt covered.  A double pitched roof could use shiplap or t&g and maybe feather board if it was well overlapped.

Make sure you use treated wood and then give it a coat of preservative, the best you can afford, on the outside surfaces only as you want the inside to breathe.  The top grade Cuprinol lasts well.

HF

[Diggit]

Lots to think about. Thanks again.

I had a go at HF's idea with the grid system perches. I could easily make it so they are all individually moveable yet stable when in place. This picture was more for drawing practice than anything else as I liked the thought of it. I also moved the pop hole to one side and the nest box outside. This would make egg collecting easier and also make it so I can close off at night if any hens get too comfy in there 



I'll stop thinking so much for now until I have the wood to start but I've got lots of ideas to go on so thanks everybody for the input. It's much appreciated by someone just starting out to have input from those with more experience. 

[hillfooter]

I like to clean my coops most days,it stops the build up of amonia and you get to get in with the birds.Also i have seen pictures of roosting bars piled with crusted faeces unless they are scraped daily.This to me is the same as walking in the stuff on the floor.If you only have a few hens its no hardship to poo pick,2 minutes and your done

If you "paint" the perches with a slurry made from a dilute disinfectant and Diatom.  Add powder to the liquid and mix to a batter like consistancy.  Use disinfectant like Vanodine V18 which is iodine based and stays active even on dirty surfaces.  It dies to a caked powdery surface which is very drying and to which droppings don't stick, so is easy to scrape clean.  Paint into corners too so that it deters Red Mite which can't colonise in such dry conditions.  If you are careful and scrape you only need to apply it every 3 months or so depending on wear.

It's quite effective and helps solve the RM problem.  Also washing perches in winter it's difficult to get them dry before you re admit the chx.  If you use the paint idea and scrape in winter there's no problem.

It's the scratting in and picking through dirty litter you want to try and avoid.  Poo picking is just cosmetic to some extent.  Though it does help, the litter still becomes contaminated and they do pick in it and eat it.

As a litter material softwood shavings are absorbant and have a well established natural antiseptic quality so help to reduce bacteria.  I don't think Hemcore which I sometimes use has this benefit as it's mostly fibrous celulite and pretty sterile and inert.  People none the less like the citrus aroma it's impregnated with and ease of use.
HF

[hillfooter]

Hi diggit,
The design is certainly looking much better now.  The external nestbox is a good idea and will help with the internal design as well as being less work for egg collection.

Why not have the pophole lower lip align with the top of the floor bars so they can be regularly arranged without the gap?
HF

[ManicMum]

Brilliantly detailled reply from HF, with reasons for all the recommendations.  Have you onsidered a sideline of coops for sale which meet all your criteria?  They'd be worth a bob or two (that gives away my age!).

[Diggit]

Simples! 



That's better! 

[orchardlady]

Just a thought from a non carpentry person but my experience taught me never ever have a house that is made of any kind of chip board. Years ago I was given an old hen house that had a floor made of the course chip board like in the above 'shed' picture. Awful stuff. You cannot wash or scrub at all and soon becomes a red mite paradise.

OL

[8doubles]

Just a thought from a non carpentry person but my experience taught me never ever have a house that is made of any kind of chip board. Years ago I was given an old hen house that had a floor made of the course chip board like in the above 'shed' picture. Awful stuff. You cannot wash or scrub at all and soon becomes a red mite paradise.

OL

I am a carpentry person and i agree. WBP plywood is better.

[hillfooter]

Brilliantly detailled reply from HF, with reasons for all the recommendations.  Have you onsidered a sideline of coops for sale which meet all your criteria?  They'd be worth a bob or two (that gives away my age!).

Funny you should mention that but in fact I'm a retired Engineer who worked in product design in the computer industry for several major international companies for 40 years and I've also done a lot of consulting.  I've been keeping chickens for over 10 years, as well as being around them as a boy since my grandparents were farmers and I have several uncles who were farmers and kept chickens.

It has occured to me to start a business as a sort of hobby but really there's not a lot of money in it as I'd be competing against the cheap flat pack Indonesian/ Chinese imports ebay boys.  Although I could easily design a much superior product I doubt I could compete on price without compromising a lot on quality.  If I had a low cost manufacturer who could machine tool a design I might be in business!

However there are some good UK producers who make excellent product today that are well designed for chicken keeping.  For example Forsham's but their prices are 3 to 4 times the flat pack boys who sell imports on ebay.  The market is first time backyard hobbyists who haven't the experience to know what's required and will buy on price and what looks good to their eyes.  The marketeers have figured out that it's not chickens but people who buy chicken houses

HF

[spud]

HF I think your housing is great, I've been looking for ideas to build a new house and this is the first that has given me renewed hope of building the perfect henhouse, thank you.

Any more pics would be a great help.

Cheers