Questions about building our first coop in the NE

TSC carries aspen chips, they don't bother my sinuses like pine bedding does.

Regarding ventilation, you need as much as you can possibly put in, as high up as you can get it. A few windows will provide some ventilation, but usually, windows and doors are too low to be really effective and need to be shut during bad weather. The coop needs lots of ventilation no matter what the weather is like, so relying on windows for the majority of the ventilation is problematic.
Do not try to close everything up to try to trap heat inside. You will not only trap heat, but moisture (causing frostbite) and ammonia (respiratory illness) inside as well.
As for the deep litter method, it can work just as well on concrete as it can on bare dirt, as long as you have enough bedding and enough ventilation. If you can smell the poo or ammonia, you need more bedding and more ventilation.

Allergic reactions for me are usually watery eyes, stuffy or runny nose, and I can get itchy. It's been a long time since I've been around pine shavings though, so I'll give it a try. Good to know about Aspen!

So I took some pictures of the inside of the side barn. They are horribly embarrassing as we are trying to clean out the mess the old owner left behind. Let's just say 40 years worth of stuff was in/around the property that we've been cleaning up. This is one of the last main areas to be done.

The rest of that ceiling is already torn out and we hauled out the garbage from it. The front left of the photo is where we are thinking of putting the coop, on that concrete slab. Yes, that is a working toilet in there right next to the chicken area. lol The final photo was when I moved a piece of wood, it shows all of the lady bugs/beetles that were hiding there. We get TONS of them as the weather cools, they hide and then leave in the spring. Will these hurt the chickens? Will they eat them? They are annoying and they smell if you scare them. Ick!


So where the roof meets the side you can see the daylight coming up in. We'll be adding soffets on the outside to keep critters out, but still let air in. We were thinking of putting up walls on the 2 open sides (far end and right side) and putting windows in them both. Since they are just into the rest of the side barn they could be open as much as needed for ventilation. We are planning to run a hard wire cloth tunnel from the coop straight across and cutting them access to an outside pen. Thoughts? suggestions?



The nesting boxes will hang out into the main part of the barn for easy access.We'll put linoleum down on their floor and deep litter on it.




Any input is appreciate!

Just cover those eaves with 1/2" hardware cloth on the outside...that's what I did, pics on my coop page.
You could just use 2x2 or 3 or 4 framing and HC for interior coop walls.
Beetles won't hurt chooks, don't think they'll eat them tho.

aart said:

Just cover those eaves with 1/2" hardware cloth on the outside...that's what I did, pics on my coop page.
You could just use 2x2 or 3 or 4 framing and HC for interior coop walls.
Beetles won't hurt chooks, don't think they'll eat them tho.

Click to expand...

Thanks aart - just found that coop page link! Great pictures of your coop, very helpful.
Darn it, I really hoped the chickens would eat those beetles. At least they won't be hurt by them.

So I see you are in MI, I'm in NY so similar weather. You think just using HC as our other 2 walls is enough? I know ventilation is key, but it just feels so open.