Still Building

Baby chicks are supposed to live in their brooder for 5 weeks until they are fully feathered.  While they are in the brooder, you are supplying a heat source since they can't regulate their own temperatures without all of their feathers. The temperature needs to start at 100 degrees right out of incubation.  You decrease the temperature by 5 degrees each week. After about 5 weeks it should be between 70-75 in your brooder as well as outside so your chickens are ready to move to the coop!

I know I worried about them being too cold or too hot.  You can tell if your chicks are too cold because they will huddle together right under the lamp.  If they are too hot, they are spread out away from each other and the lamp.One night, I read that chickens can't sweat but they can pant, like a dog.  I actually saw Coco panting, her breath fogging up the farthest corner of the brooder! I quickly turned down the heat.  While I was doing this I did a quick calculation of my chicks' age and realized they were six weeks  old! It was time for the coop!  My guest room was full of dust and dander and they were getting huge, I was out of ideas for the next level of larger brooder.  Any longer and we were going to have a hen fight on our hands. We needed this coop finished ASAP!

The weather had cleared and we were recruiting helpers left and right. Everyone seemed to like the idea of a backyard chicken coop so they were more than willing to contribute a few hours of their time.  We supplied cold beer and promised fresh eggs as soon as the ladies started laying.

This project supervisor is quite a stickler!

In terms of finding a design for your coop, you can really just go with what works for you. A little sleuthing on the Web and you will find all sorts of ideas.  Converted out buildings, movable chicken tractors and shanty towns.  All of these coops have a few things in common:
Nesting boxes - you need one box for 2-3 hens.  They just need a little space to sneak off and lay their eggs in private.  The boxes should have some sort of bedding in them - straw or pine shavings work well. We decided to have our boxes accessible from the outside for easier egg gathering.   Our coop actually has 5 nesting boxes which means we could potentially have 15 chickens - YIKES! The boxes we used were already pre-made in Jenn and Lance's garage so rather than making more work, we just used them all.  Our coop does not have enough square footage for 15 chickens so we will just stick to 5 or 7 for a modest flock.

Space - each chicken needs at least 2 square feet of indoor space and 3-6 square feet in an outdoor run.  If your chickens will be free ranging around in the yard like ours, the outdoor space will not be a problem  Just make sure they have a safe place to go if they need to escape predators.
Roosting Bars -  chickens need to roost at night. They just need a bar, off the ground but not too high, for them to wrap their toes around and sleep.  We have 2, well 3 if you count the highest rafter in the roof which wasn't intended for a  roosting bar but works just fine for a certain suspect rooster. the roosting bars should be different heights.  When you go to tuck your chickens in at night, peek in to see who is where on your roosting bars.  This gives you an excellent glimpse into flock hierarchy   The hen who is at the bottom of the pecking order is usually on the lowest bar. The head of the flock gets the highest roost.
Ventilation-  A chicken coop needs to be well ventilated but not drafty.  Ventilation is necessary to keep the stink factor at a minimum and to decrease respiratory illnesses from wet and/or composting poops. We have 2 windows that can close to give the coop cross ventilation and lots of fresh.  Be sure to put in a screen (we stapled chicken wire) of some sort to keep the predators out.
Shelter -  chickens need to stay warm and dry and be protected from too much sun, wind and weather.  Our chickens can go in and out as they please and they can go under the coop for shade and dust baths.
Cleaning -  It is up to you to decide the best way to clean your coop.  Some people install a tray as the floor that can be pulled out, hosed off and slid back in.  We decided to install a door big enough for us to reach in with a long broom and sweep everything out into the compost bin.  Again, the design is up to you.

The roof !