Coop remodel 2.0

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.

I gave the roosting bars a coat of red paint.  I don't know if this was necessary, but I was hoping if the new roosting bars looked like the old ones it would ease the anxiety over something new.
I didn't watch this evening, so I don't know if the chickens adjusted, or resisted like yesterday. When I went out to close the door they were all on the top two bars. Maybe I didn't need to repaint, but it's done now, I hope the ladies like it.

I see chicken wire at the bottom and a bore coon can break that. A 2' 1x1" wire mesh can fix that. I had them reaching through my 2x4 wire and killed my best rooster. Other holes I can't tell you without seeing them.

Also, dukes traps and sardines as bait and a 22 mag in the morning will fix a lot of coon problems.

I made  new rollaway nesting boxes. It's a better design, the eggs roll to the back instead of to the front like my last one. Also the only part of the boxes in the coop is the front of the boxes and the ledge to get inside. This doesn't take up much coop space, and is nice for the family who don't want to go into the coop. Maybe now I won't be the only one to gather the eggs. I wanted to keep expense down, so repurposed a lot. I used up 4 different paints I had. It's a little funky, but now I have 4 less quarts of paint in my work space (most of the cans were about 1/4 to a 1/3 full).
Now let's hope they use it. The first day 0, day two 1 egg(I put one in the box hoping to give them the idea) Day three 2 eggs. Not fast learners, but at least we are going in the right direction.

I will toss this in as part of the redo. The trash can I keep in the chicken yard is old, and the lid pops off easy. I constantly have to pick up the same trash over and over again. I drilled a few holes on side. I put wire through the can and lid, and secured it loosely like a kind of hinge. On the other side There's a handle on the can and a hole that runs through the lid. I attached a piece of wire through both.  I will just remove the wire on the handle when I need to use the can. Now if the chickens, or the wind knock it down the chickens won't be able to remove everything from the can. Plus this is their new hiding spot to lay eggs, so many it will encourage them to use the new nesting boxes.

Door redo.  My coop was built when my daughter was in Kindergarten, and she is 28. The coop has either settled, or the many years of wood chips have raised the soil level, probably both. Every night in order to close the door I have to dig out the space in front of the door. It's not hard, but a pain in the rear. The door is old, one we found in our barn left by the previous owner. The frame is solid, but the wood in the center of the bottom is very questionable.
When racoons were killing my chickens my son bought and cut a piece of wood to go over the bottom. To close the door we ran a piece of wire around the frame, and through a hole in the door and twisted it. Again it worked, but not ideal.
I wanted to continue to use the same door, but make it functional. With help from my son we wired a piece of wood to the bottom frame. We wired and screwed a 2x4 to the vertical frame pipe, so the door and frame will line up. Then we removed the board, and cut the bottom of the door to match the wood. We put the wood back on the bottom. We removed the tin,  and piece of wood from above the door, and replaced it with wood. I painted the door, and it was so much easier to use. It looked like crap, but so much better. I decided to paint flowers on the door. I built a fake garden gate, and added that, finished it by making it look like some of the flowers came through the gate. I also added a new latch to lock the hens up for the night.
Does it look like a new door? Absolutely not. But I used wood I had, it's very functional, and I'm happy with it.

I wanted to add The chickens use the roosting bars, and I love them in the back so much more, it makes the coop seem so much bigger, and way more functional. Also the ton of poop under the bars will be very useful when I make compost.
They are finally using the nesting boxes. They have pulled out all the nesting pads, and continue to use the boxes. I still get a pecked egg now and then, I think the rubber meant to protect the eggs isn't long enough. It doesn't happen often, and the barn cat loves getting the pecked egg, so am not going to fix it.
The door is my favorite fix because it makes it so much easier to let the hens in and out of the coop. The reason for wiring the wood on the bottom is so I can remove it easily if I need to. It's very tight and can't be moved without cutting the wire. The picture doesn't show it, but the board is lined up with the bottom wood so there's on gap mice or rats can get through. There's probably places critters may be able to get through, but I have tried to eliminate all I can find. I will say the chicken feed in the gravity feeder is lasting a lot longer.
What's next? I'm not sure if I'm being honest. Pretty soon I will attach the corrugated steel. on the South side by the roosting bars, so when it rains the chickens have a dry place to be, but that's just something I do each winter. I need to do something with all the chunks of brick and cement that was shoved in the rodent holes. I want to add living things to the chicken yard. No easy task, but it's definitely a future project. My son asked me if I was going to paint the corrugated steel panels that are always on the coop. I have thought about it, but I'm haven't decided. My to-do list never gets shorter.

Jen Fulkerson wrote:Door redo. ... but so much better. I decided to paint flowers on the door. I built a fake garden gate, and added that, finished it by making it look like some of the flowers came through the gate.  

LOVE this, Jen - love your creativity, practicality and artistry. If chickens could bend their little beaks into smiles, I bet they would be smiling!

Yes! Super cute door!! I'm impressed! I always have creative ideas - but, don't follow through nearly as often as I should. You're inspiring me!

The door is absolutely the best improvement I have done. It's so nice not to have to dig out all the wood chips and soil every night so I can close the door. It's so easy to open and close the door. It also makes me happy to hear the bottom of the door rub against the bottom wood, I know it's somewhat sealed, to keep the critters out. Why oh why did I wait so long?

The chickens are using the new nesting boxes. The eggs are nice and clean. The best part is I'm not the only one gathering eggs now. Before no one else wanted to go into the coop, and gather dirty eggs.
Every now and then I get a pecked egg. At this time it's not enough of a problem to try to fix. The Barn cat gets all eggs I don't want, so it doesn't go to waist, and he loves it.
Once in a while I still have a couple of hens who get stubborn and lay on the ground, but not on a regular basis. This happens with all of the nesting boxes now and then.