# Coop Design



## perchiegirl (Aug 22, 2015)

Hi am new here joined in the past day or two... been flapping my jaw LOL.

But wanted to share my Coop Design for my Future flock... Had to redesign for many reason first and foremost because I am heading to a wheel chair eventually... So I need easier access and a comfortable place to work.



the guinea area is Ell shaped since I hope to have around sixty of them...

Here is a hand sketch of what one partition should look like... Yep All dog kennel panels Here in the desert they need shade and a windbreak and predator protection. so It will be mostly open air with tarps to drop down when it gets windy.



The external wire on the structure will be 12.5 gauge Aviary panel wire with .5 x 3 inch spacing.... anything that can get through that will be edible.... after loosing four flocks to predation this poultry house will be the last....

The only thing I cant build myself will be the roof. I have the materials I just need someone who can climb a ladder and knows sheet metal.

persptective



The fence that meets the poultry house in the middle is my back yard fence.... So the poultry Run will be the width of the house and effectively dividing my yard by a third. So it will start out 24 foot wide by about fifty feet long. appropriate wire on the sides and aviary netting over top.

deb


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Good idea about the panels. That's what my remaining flock is in with a metal roof. I've kept preds out of the pen by using a couple of strand of hot wire close to the ground. Same here, have tarps to drop down when the weather gets dicey.

Although, I have found that shade cloth works very well for allowing air movement even when it's raining.


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## perchiegirl (Aug 22, 2015)

robin416 said:


> Good idea about the panels. That's what my remaining flock is in with a metal roof. I've kept preds out of the pen by using a couple of strand of hot wire close to the ground. Same here, have tarps to drop down when the weather gets dicey.
> 
> Although, I have found that shade cloth works very well for allowing air movement even when it's raining.


Regular Hot wire doesnt work well here No moisture close enough to the surface in the ground to provide a ground for that animal you want to deterr....

they make something called Bi Polar tape... positive on one edge and negative on the other edge.... It works for horses... and cattle... But I am not certain about goats and dogs... who have thicker coats of hair.

The plan is doing physical barriers... Good stout wire and either wood or concrete pavers to deter diggers....

the soil here is Decomposed granite... you can pour three hundred gallons of water down a gopher hole and it WILL disappear.... Lost three thousand gallons out of my water tank from a small leak in a garden hose... it took a while but there was no evidence of the water.

mountain lions and bob cat handle the six foot tall dog kennel panels in one jump... and the bob cats will go right up a tree after roosting hens.

So the plan is to contain the poultry in a yard.... The Cats wont walk on the fabric netting so all I ahve to do is provide canine deterrent.

It rains so little here... nine inches of precipitation is norm... that includes snow. But these past couple of years that has been reduced to three inches... per year. The water table has dropped a hundred feet already. So getting the inside of the coop wet is a non issue.

deb


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## Alaskan (Aug 22, 2015)

That reminds me of one of my favorite jokes about West Texas...

"We got our 6 inches of annual rainfall last year, I remember the night it came"

Also, deb I love your sketches and drawings, awesome work and well thought out.

As always Kaytee sure is cute!


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## pinkmartin (Aug 11, 2015)

My yard has been deep water more than grass this year. Next good rain I'll send ya a few buckets full. This pic was our last big storm. We've lost a couple huge trees this year. You can see the latest one in this pic.


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## perchiegirl (Aug 22, 2015)

pinkmartin said:


> My yard has been deep water more than grass this year. Next good rain I'll send ya a few buckets full. This pic was our last big storm. We've lost a couple huge trees this year. You can see the latest one in this pic.


I am soooo envious... The drought here is so bad I have a contingency plan for rehoming my horse.... to Montana.

deb


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## perchiegirl (Aug 22, 2015)

Desert is defined by precipitation.... They can be cold and dry or hot and dry or inbetween and dry.

Mine is in-between and dry. Most of the time summer temps are 80s-90s with maybe a week or two of tripple digits.... during that time the night will drop down to comfortable sleeping temperature... Meaning a fan will do.

In the winter temps range 50s-70s with Night time temps dropping into the 30s... Just enough to freeze a half inch thick film over the water tubs... By the time the sun comes out that goes away.










deb


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## perchiegirl (Aug 22, 2015)

Alaskan said:


> That reminds me of one of my favorite jokes about West Texas...
> 
> "We got our 6 inches of annual rainfall last year, I remember the night it came"
> 
> ...


LOL I forgot to thank you for the complement.... I love drawing Katee in cartoon fashion.

deb


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## pinkmartin (Aug 11, 2015)

I have to wade to the coop in calf high water when it rains. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just split the rainfall? Last couple winter's we've had more snow days for temps in the negative than for snow. Of course snow is a problem too. Salt doesn't melt ice off the roads when wind chills are -40. Weather here has just been extreme for a few years.


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## perchiegirl (Aug 22, 2015)

pinkmartin said:


> I have to wade to the coop in calf high water when it rains. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just split the rainfall? Last couple winter's we've had more snow days for temps in the negative than for snow. Of course snow is a problem too. Salt doesn't melt ice off the roads when wind chills are -40. Weather here has just been extreme for a few years.


It would take more than a years worth of normal rainfall to bring the water back here.... Trees are dying... Lake Mead Where most of Southern California gets its water is threatening to go below the level where it can be used for generating electricity Every day the water level drops another two inches or so...

So its not just California its ALL the water shed along the Colorado river... Alaska has a fire going right now that has burmed more than 3 million acres...

deb


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I was thinking as I read your description of your weather that it fit very well with my friend in Nevada. I would kill to have those cool night time temps. She gets all wound up about the couple of days of 90's and just can't deal with the fact with no humidity is more comfortable than here at 70 with 70% humidity. 

She has seen more rain than normal on her side of the mountains, doesn't help you worth a flip and you're liable to dealing with an El Nino that's going to make things more miserable.


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## perchiegirl (Aug 22, 2015)

robin416 said:


> I was thinking as I read your description of your weather that it fit very well with my friend in Nevada. I would kill to have those cool night time temps. She gets all wound up about the couple of days of 90's and just can't deal with the fact with no humidity is more comfortable than here at 70 with 70% humidity.
> 
> She has seen more rain than normal on her side of the mountains, doesn't help you worth a flip and you're liable to dealing with an El Nino that's going to make things more miserable.


If we get El Nino back the rain fall here can be as much as 22-24 inches per year.... unfortunately we get it all at once... The ground is so dry that it will not absorb the water.... So the first year we will have floods, flash floods sink holes and mudslides.... Because the water will just wash away.

If we could get it spread out over several months that would be ideal. The water that replenishes the reserviors needs to come from snow.

sigh. I would live with 95 percent humidity if it brought our water back.

deb


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Having gone through the drought in TN I get that whole doesn't sink in thing. Hurricane Katrina hit us, filled the big pond to well over it's banks. That lasted about six months and then the water was down so low you could walk across the floor of the pond to get to what used to be an island. 

The deluge from Katrina did nothing for soil moisture content. It was more like the conditions in Las Vegas where their dirt is more like concrete than dirt and has no chance of absorbing any water.

Even with the humidity, the heat still kills off a lot of things here if they're not watered regularly. A good steady rain is the only fix.

Right now I'm keeping an eye on what that storm named Erica is going to do. If it goes in the gulf it get stronger and prove to be a problem for here or where the hubs is south of Houston.


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