[graygo]

Hi everyone my name is Graham and my wife is Allison we are into all kinds of pets and animals we are askin for your help with building  a chicken coop we would like to pick your brains about what makes a great coop , please give us your best tips .
 thanks graham

[ANHBUC]

Welcome to the site Graham. 

How many chickens were you thinking of having and what area do you have for them?  Do you know what breed you are going to keep, bantams or large fowl?  Your housing will depend on the answers.   

[joyfull]

In my opinion plastic makes the best coops as they are easy to remove redmites should you get them. They can be the omlet brand - the classic, the cube and the go, the solway in both arks and coops, the green frogs, etc.
If you want wooden then I suggest that you take a look at the Forsham arks they are really well made and if they are treated annually they should last at least 10 years.
However both the plastic coops and the Forshams are expensive but they are quality.
Most other wooden coops are too thin, have incorrect or no roosting bars, the attached runs do not have at least 2 square metres of clear run space per bird. Some also have roofing felt which is a redmite haven, the timbers should be pressure treated and of a decent thickness. The coops should have the minimum of hiding places for mites and the perches should be removable so you can clean them properly.

[grinling]

Would you like help with an outer run?

The housing area is best roofed and protecting sides from the weather makes it easier to keep dry. Most people use weld mesh, I use chicken wire for the sides. This needs to be dug a spade and a half down and out i.e a L shape. This is to stop fox/rat digging in.
Ihave solid corrugated metal roof which slopes with gutter attached. Sides are polytunnel sheet from garden centre.
Door is large enough for house to come in and out. House is raised on bricks. Food and water feeders hung from wires from roof rafter. Water feeder replaced with bowl on ground at mo as water can freeze and water feeder could break.
Attached outer run, not roof but pea/bean netting so very muddy at mo.
Chooks in garden at mo.
Hope this helps.

[Debbieta]

The biggest error of judgement (we live and learn!) we made was not to make the large run area with a sloped roof, and would definitely rectify this if we were to start from scratch again.  However, we hope to sort this as and when we have time and weather suitable.  We have sourced large roll of (4m x 25m) heavy duty polythene sheet from LARGE DIY store  which is much cheaper and easier to cover large areas. Hope this helps

[andy46]

Dont know if i can put this on but practical poultry magazine are doing an build your own coop over the next couple of issues hope this helps