When I was looking for potential ideas on how to build our chicken coop a number of things always seemed to pop into my head as I perused different options. (Fun Fact #1: the word peruse actually means to study carefully, which is the opposite of what most folks think it means)
There were a lot of creative architectural ideas on YouTube but I could never quite find one geared towards making my chicken husbandry life easier. My list included: I did not want to have to remember to close the coop door every night, I wanted to be able to gather eggs easier and not have to hunt for them, I wanted to make sure I never forgot to water them, and most importantly, I wanted to be able to clean the coop fast and easy.
I found a nifty product from England that opens the coop door at first light and closes either at a set time or at dusk (I have it set at 8:45 PM each night). The chickens all file into the coop around 1 or 2 minutes before the door shuts. My cousin, Cliff, after losing a number of chickens because he forgot to close the door to his coop, bought a very stout American version. Either his chickens were poor time keepers or too slow because the next morning when he visited the coop...well, you can imagine what a heavy door does to a scrawny hen.
For the gathering of eggs I made a slight angle (7 degrees, after a lot of trial and
error with real eggs) on the bottom of each nesting box. After the hen lays and goes back to her routine the egg gently rolls to the back of the nesting box where I installed a hinged lid to access and retrieve the eggs each day. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!
Making sure the hens had plenty of water was a challenge. I bought two feeding tubes and one watering tube from Royal Rooster. You have to hand fill the food and water. Food for 8 chickens usually will last about 5 days or so. However, I modified the water container. I bought a little shut-off float online, drilled a hole in the top of the lid, used some dripline supplies and made a continuous water feed directly from our well water. For the chicks it's like "free refills" at a fast food place.
Finally, CLEANING THE COOP my most major concern. Many coops I saw were so small you would have to climb into it to clean. I decided to make 3 access points to clean the coop. The nesting boxes are built on a drawer that can be pulled out and also removed (which we had to do the other day due to user error which I'll explain shortly).
I made an access door from inside the coop and on the outside of the coop. I lined the coop floor with linoleum and hinged the roosting bar so that it will swing up and hook to the top of coop so the whole coop floor can be swept into my little dump wagon and taken over to the compost pile. Last cleaning I forgot to unhook the roosting bar so when the chickens came home to roost, alas, there was no roosting bar.
I can imagine their frustration (Fun Fact #2: Do you know chickens swear at you? Really, Google it) so, a few @!#$%#@$ were probably hurled my way by the Crazy 8. I couldn't figure out why there was so much poop in the nesting boxes (hence the reason for its removal and cleaning) until I noticed my error.
There is a lot of satisfaction in a clean coop that is free of the smell and muck of chicken poop. Then we start afresh and the chickens are very happy.
Sometimes our lives get burdened with a lot of muck from the mistakes and the choices we make. My personal faith tradition allows me a way to unburden myself of the mess in my "spiritual coop". I can repent. I can take advantage of the Savior's Atonement and have those burdens removed. I can do it again and again, He has provided many ways to for me to clean my coop.
Even if you do not believe in a God you can still clean your coop. Let go of the things in your life that have accumulated on the floor of your soul. Those who have wronged you, offended you, or if there is anger or hate, let it go. Clean your soul's coop.
Right now we are living in such a divisive society. Each sideclaims the moral high ground and that the other is ignorant or deceived. Both think the stench is coming from the others coop when it is their own that they smell. The world would be so much more pleasant if we all cleaned our coop. For me, I find peace in a clean coop.
Now if I could teach the chickens to flush, that'd be really cool.
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