Help me with interior design! Garden shed turned into coop

[Penny]

So....its finally coming this weekend....the cutest little 8'X10' board and batten shed with a raised door and a couple little windows out front. Its going to be the cutest little coop ever! lol Will eventually house about 20 birds (currently 7 full sized but have 5 ameraucana chicks as well)

How would you design the inside? 10' wide and 8' deep and roof is 8' in the center. Door is centered in the 10' side. Will eventually have a covered run attached at the side. Unfortunately door will face west, and the small door to run will face north.

Im thinking 3 tiered roosting bars on the left with board underneath (and small door to outside at bottom), and nesting boxes (maybe 8?) on the right with standing ledges in front. Planning on building one of the PVC pipe feeders but will have water in the attached run.

What do you wish you had added to your coop when building? Or anything I should consider when designing? Please help! lol

[TomK]

Hi Penny...it sounds like a really nice coop building and nice to have the height to get in for cleaning...decent roosting bars is mandatory...chickens don't grab well to smaller round rails, I use 1x4 on the flat....any configuration that works for you and the birds is what works..lol...I try not to get too elaborate with details...the birds will use what you give...the biggest thing PERIOD is that the coop building be absolutely shut down when you lock up at night..no chance at all for a critter to get in other than maybe a wee mouse..those little guys get into places you wouldnt believe possible so no point in trying too hard..but the killer types?, well they must have no opportunity, EVER...I don't use a tarp or anything like that..too many birds to bother with it..I just clean when required...which can be often enough...lol....good luck with it...

[Happy]

My coop is 8x10 with an attached roofed run and a separate open run behind. When we built the coop we had some sort of fantasy that we would store garden tools on one side (about 8x4) and house chickens in the 8x6 portion. Ya right lol. That didn’t last long for 2 reasons. #1 I wanted more space for the chickens and #2 the poultry dust all over everything disgusts me so only poultry related stuff in there now. My man door faces south west. The covered pen is on the north east side of the coop and the open top pen is on the north west. There’s 4 windows total that all open out for amazing cross breezes.
I built two stacked pens into the small half of the coop last year. They house chicks or Broodies or someone in time out and I highly recommend that. I’ve threatened 200 times to remove the wall and door that splits the coop in 2 but then I find a reason why it works so well for me and I keep it. I do like the smaller sleeping quarters in the winter. I find it stays warmer for them. And I will soon give my 6 older chicks the run of the small side of the coop until they’re closer to the adults size. At times when I haven’t needed the separation I have just removed the door so I guess it’s easy enough. I will attach pics but please don’t judge. The term clean has changed for me recently as I’ve been dealing with a herniated disc and I just can’t do what I’d like to right now. I pick and choose lol.
Things I love about my coop: boards (easy clean up and less bending for me) water and electric, all the windows for light and cross breeze, attached pen with roof, all perches and boards are removable so easier cleaning.
Things I would change: I wish I’d gone with 1/2” x 1” wire on the pen and the pen floor (buried) I have a non stop battle with chipmunks. I still want to put plywood on interior walls and paint them to brighten coop and make wAlls wipeable. I wish I hadn’t built the coop underneath two large ash trees that look to be on their way out with ash borer ugggh. I wish I’d built the attached covered pen larger. Wish my coop was bigger to hold food, shavings, supplies easier.
I hope something there can be of help.

[windwalkingwolf]

Windows: You can NEVER have too many.
Hardware cloth on any and every interior surface unless you don't mind mice (or something worse) getting in. Mice will chew holes in the wood, and eat/pee in/poop in the feed. If they do, and the birds don't eat them, chipmunks and/or rats will follow, and then weasels are sometimes not far behind. Vinyl flooring makes coop cleanouts easier than pretty much any other flooring surface: Just sweep dirty shavings onto a tarp outside the door, and drag tarp to wherever it's going. Non porous and no seams means fewer places for bugs to hide and breed, and it can be mopped if you wish. Definitely make roosts removable, or a one-piece ladder type that can be moved out as a whole: if not, no matter where you put them, they will manage to get in your way at some point.
No matter where you put your nesting boxes, how you design them, how many you put in or what they look like, everybody will likely just use one (or two, if they can't cross their legs any longer) so don't waste a bunch of time putting a lot of thought into them LOL! Upside down plastic storage tub with a door cut in the end is the current hen favourite (of the cooped birds) at my place, and bonus points for being scrubbable.
If you can put a small roof over hatch openings, do so...snow and ice can get in there in winter and stick them, and for some strange reason, birds get upset when you beat on the doors and frames to unstick them
Don't: use spray foam insulation anywhere, for any reason, unless you sheathe it in with something bulletproof. The chickens will just eat it.

[Happy]

I just thought of something else. I bought tarps to fit all 3 wired walls of my attached pen. I use screws and washers to attach to the top board directly under roof line of my pen and 2x6 boards with bricks on top to secure the tarp on the ground. You can see one still up in the picture. My chickens are wimps and don’t go out in snow or wind. So having that pen tarped gives them additional living space in winter. I tarp the front in white or clear poly as it gets sun all afternoon. I recommend building your pen in a common tarp size if possible! I had to add grommets into mine which is doable but if you can avoid it then even better!

[TomK]

See?... Those two gals know more than me...I am just a knuckle dragging goof with a chicken obsession but I love things simple...there are a lot of cool ideas and I could spend a lot of time modifying the coop but I think I just said ( read admitted ) that I was not all that concerned with the niceties...just what works without spending ALL day in the coop....MJ might like it if i did but I have to do so simple it is..although I do like the vinyl one sheet flooring cover idea...lol...

[Happy]

Lol @TomK I also agree with you that whatever you do...the chickens will use it. All that other stuff about removable perches, vinyl flooring, pens, tarps, built in cages...the majority is to make the humans life easier!