Our Coop and Run - Now 6 months old

We used the ideas from this forum to put together our coop and run. We used the back corner of of our barn for the coop, it was about 8'x9' area. We used the old rough sawn cedar boards for sheeting into the barn, added a drain in the floor for cleanup, ran electrical outlets, and an antenna on timer for automatic door. The run is constructed from some 4x10 panels I got from a guy that purchased a house that had some chuker pins.


This was just a storage corner in the back corner




We really liked the cedar panels for he horse stall, so we kept them to do the front



Added a drainage in the center (later cut flush with concrete)






Framed everything in and added electrical for lights/fans and automatic door



Insulated all walls






Finally coming together





Power antenna with a timer, this has been amazing! We got all the inside painted and trimmed all windows




Started on the poop board




Inside getting close to being done






Run to be 10x20 off the end of the barn




Added 20" hardware cloth going out and covered for predators, you can also see the door opening going into the coop.



Added sloped roof and finished with tin



View from far away.





We originally had pine shavings inside, this was kind of a pain, we since added sand inside the coop and in the run, this has been a HUGE improvement.

We are really happy with our setup, only thing we are going to add is a man door going from the barn to inside of the run. Right now we have to go through the horses stall to get into the run, and he can be grouchy in the morning (hes 35yrs old).

Let me know if you have any questions, thanks.

I'm not seeing a whole lot of ventilation.

junebuggena said:

I'm not seeing a whole lot of ventilation.

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There is the window that goes from barn -> coop, and then coop has a cracked window that goes out. Also we put in a vent at the very top going into the stall area.

You'll probably need more venting to the outside. You sealed the coop area up pretty good with all the walls, insulation, and drywall. You built it into a room like you would have in a house. Chickens need a lot more ventilation than houses provide. Chickens produce a lot of moisture and a lot of ammonia overnight. All that moisture and ammonia needs to be able to escape, and windows tend to be too low to be an effective means of ventilation. Without good ventilation, respiratory illness and frostbite may be problems.

junebuggena said:

You'll probably need more venting to the outside. You sealed the coop area up pretty good with all the walls, insulation, and drywall. You built it into a room like you would have in a house. Chickens need a lot more ventilation than houses provide. Chickens produce a lot of moisture and a lot of ammonia overnight. All that moisture and ammonia needs to be able to escape, and windows tend to be too low to be an effective means of ventilation. Without good ventilation, respiratory illness and frostbite may be problems.

Click to expand...

Okay, we will look at re-evaluating our ventalation. We never have any moisure on our window(s) but that may not be a good indication. Thank you for the info.