I built one that incorporates some of the features you want. It's not exactly what you're looking for, but maybe this thread will give you some ideas.

Good luck!

ETA: This coop is still going strong except now it houses our turkeys.

Interested in all of this.

I've had significant frozen comb issues here in my own coop.

Of course, I do nothing in the winter except deeper straw and plastic on the screen door and a higher-watt light bulb, but still..

I hate to see the frozen combs.

So...Is the floor divided in some way to hold in the DE/sand mixture?  Like....a chicken playpen?

Or what?
I went looking at the books, and want one, but I'm putting a husband through school so am not spending the money to get that book and will pick your brain instead, if that's okay.

How tall is the inside at the peak?

Also, you started to talk about that sweep thingy.  What is that and how does it work installed on the short end?


My suggestion (only from experience and former reading, as you've been reading recently too so you may know something I don't) is to offer different levels of perches if you can.  This allows for the lower hens in the pecking order to get away from the top hens and still roost instead of ending up sleeping on the floor.  I think having to sleep on the floor makes chickens unhappy, and of course, I think the well being of the whole chicken is important all the way around for health and production (and hey, good kharma) .  Three levels is ideal, even if one isn't up very high.  

I might be inclined to put my roosts/perches perpendicular to the way I think you're describing, and put some at each end of the coop.  (looks like you'll be using the back gate for cleanout?)  This would also help them be able to be smaller and still take the weight of the chickens without bowing as badly (and without a support in the middle, maybe.   A high and a low across each end, maybe.  This might interfere with your end doors, of course, so I don't know what you have in mind for that.

I do not suggest metal perches in a cold winter climate.

I like a shingle roof but that's mostly because I can build that myself.  Your skylights sound like a very good idea.  

Do you light your chickens at all in the winter to keep them laying? Or do you let them take the break?

2 X 4s with the flat side for the perch side is what I like, too.  Hard enough to hit a perch in the air in a dark coop without it being a tiny little thing or round.

But will you support them in the middle?  I took it as them spanning the 16' length of your coop.

I'm not saying I think the birds will bring them down.  Might slide toward the middle a bit....put a camera in there and post up some chicken comedy.

ETA:   I will leave my thoughts here, but now I see you've probably already made your purchases.  I'm very interested in what you do.  New methods are good education.

Anyway, here's what I said:


I like the deep litter system, and it never smells for me, the chickens keep it stirred by me just tossing in a handful of scratch, which they scramble to get, thus stirring the litter.

BUT....you're doing this open air thing and I'm not familiar with that.  In my experience poop does not fall through hardware cloth very easily and it is hard to clean, requiring scraping and a high-pressure hose a couple of times a year. It also builds up on the framing members under the hardware cloth.  It's why I went to the treated plywood with deep litter when we built our latest henhouse.  I can just rake all of it out the door easily. (It never gets packed as long as I remember to toss the scratch under the roosts.)

So I'm not much help with that.

Where are you planning to put the pit for the DE/sand?

Seems like a PARTIAL hardware cloth floor in the center, with solid under the perches (if they were run short ways though--wouldn't work if they're long ways) and a solid spot for the sandbox would work.  Airflow plus easier cleaning.

Now then.....your experience wtih the hardware cloth may not be same as mine.  Your system is different.

Will watch to see how it develops!

With no floor, how do you keep the predators from having a late chicken dinner every night?

So the ground is your floor, essentially?

I thought you meant that you had a raised coop with no bottom.