viewtopic.php?f=214&t=123665
I now realise I'll probably want to have about 12 and I have been reading about something called 'chicken maths' where actually your original number is never the number that you end up with / want so I'm trying to actually build a coop that can cope with up to 18 chickens! If I dont' want that many that is fine what I do end up with will have lots of room which is all good (particularly in our hot summers!) but at least I'm leaving myself a choice!
I have a 2 x 2.2 m concrete base to work with which is where I want to build my coop - however based on a 0.4 m / chicken as being a good amount of space this only leaves me with enough space for 11 chickens - hhhmmmmm scared this won't be enough in a years time
so I have been wraking my brains about how to make it bigger! I have been reading much about having a roosting board under your roosting perches that collects all the poo that they do overnight so you cna just clean that up every day or so and the rest of the coop stays quite clean. The concrete base I'm working with is actually quite high of the ground on one side so I have come up with the genius plan to build an extension to the floor area on this side but instead of putting solid flooring putting hardware cloth (the little square stuff that nasty things like rats 
can't get through) and placing the roosts directly over this. 2 fold genious - firstly it provides more ventilation (apparently chickens need masses of air to stay healthy) and secondly it further decreases my daily cleaning as instead of me having to clean the 'poop boards' the poop will just fall straight through and I cna have some boards around it so it will almost me like a conpost pit - I can just add clean leaves / grass etc to keep it smelling nice / clean out as needed and only having to go in and clean the actual roosts. I'm thinking this is going to save me sooooo much work and keep the coop much fresher 
My original coop was going to be one of those cute up in the air ones with space for them to go under etc but then the more research I've done everyone says 'get one you can walk into' so I guess that is one of the biggest changes that I can walk in easily to clean / catch a chicken / open windows etc. The other thing I have added is a small area that is separated off from the rest for use as a hospital / brooder / new chickens etc which I can do later when I need it but I would never have had space for in my earlier plans!
This is what Iv'e come up with - I'm so excited and dh didn't
when I showed him so feeling good 
@clothmama
as I just ended up with enertia with all the stuff to think about 
as they aren't that cheap really (trying to source best prices for wood) even building ourselves.
???
Go on you know you want to 
