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Coop remodel 2.0

 
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Location: N. California
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This will be the second total coop remodel. The coop was made mostly by my father-in-law. I built the nesting boxes totally out of scraps, and it was my first build. It stayed the same for about 15 years. It was still totally functional, but I wanted to be able to clean it easier, and do a better job. I rebuilt the nesting boxes and built a two bar roosting bars mostly used to get onto the high roosting bars that ran along the back of the coop.
The coop is 4' 5" wide and 21' long . Several years ago my son and I built a chick wing 7'X7' attached to the side making the coop L shaped. There's an opening between the coop and chick wing that can be open or closed.

The reason for the remodel is a combination of need because racoons kept breaking into the coop and eating my chickens, and hating my nesting box design not to mention it was already falling apart. (which is frustrating and strange because I bought new wood and painted it and added linoleum to the bottom to make it easy to clean.)
phase one is done. I removed everything from the coop, tried to remove the soil that had built up over the years, and level it as good as I could. We attached hardware cloth to the bottom of the coop. We also added a couple of corrugated steel panels behind the nesting bars because the raccoons were still harassing the hens by sticking their old hands through the chicken wire.
Phase two new roosting bars. The old ones were 2x4s wired to the top frame with the two tier bars to make it easier to get on the high bars.  The major problem with this setup is with the coop only 4'5" wide it took up lots space and it left no room for the chickens to fly down. They weren't getting injured, but I always worried about it.
I built  ladder type roosting bars That went into the end of the coop. Giving them a lot more room, and room to fly down. I made it out of the two 2x4s that was the old roosting bars, and some pallet 2x4s. I painted it with some exterior paint I had bought on clearance. I was pretty happy with it. The chickens on the other hand are very unhappy with me. I don't know if it's because it's in a different place, or maybe the color blends in to much and it's hard to see. I should have realized it would be hard for them, but wow they were not happy. They kept looking for the old bar, keep trying to fly up to what wasn't there. We ended up turning the light on and also removed the tin behind the bars. To let more light in. I hope the racoons can't harass them. I tried putting a few that will let me handle them on the bars, putting mealworms on the bars. They did finally get on the bars. They weren't happy about it. Some of them kept trying to rooste on the slanted sides.
I hope they will adjust in time. I do plan to paint the bars red like the old bars.
The next two changes will be to make new nesting boxes. I plan to make roll away nesting boxes with a collection drawer in the back. The front rollaway was a huge mistake.  I want to fix my chicken door. I have to remove wood chips out of the way to close the door every night. I have a solar automatic chicken door. I don't know if I will install it. I want to, but I don't know if it's racoon proof, so we will see.
PXL_20260608_025706187.jpg
New roosting bars
New roosting bars
PXL_20260608_025822272.jpg
[Thumbnail for PXL_20260608_025822272.jpg]
PXL_20260525_014641867.jpg
old roosting bars
old roosting bars
PXL_20260525_014630423.jpg
Wired floor
Wired floor
 
You guys wanna see my fabulous new place? Or do you wanna look at this tiny ad?
Contemplate spending the next 20 years puttering in permaculture projects
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