Convert a nice shed or build a coop?

Sooo after years of asking, my husband has given me the green light to get chickens! So excited! I have been researching different coops out there for sale. The really good ones are quite a bit of money. The cheaper ones are too small or too cheaply made. I keep looking out my window at this nice shed we have in our backyard that is almost empty. It has electricity, windows, roof vents, cement floor, and even a motion sensor light on the outside. And get this, it has a doggy door that comes into the shed already cut out. That little door leads to a 10 by 10 outside cement pad that is also just sitting there with nothing to do.

So I could convert half the shed to a coop and it would be a very nice coop. I also could build a run half on that outside cement pad and half on the dirt next to it so the chickens can do the scratch compost thing. Or I could build a coop on the cement slab and not ruin the shed. I keep going back and forth. Any thoughts would be soooo great!!

Also,if anyone has any thoughts on how to clean a chicken pooped cement floor inside a shed that would be helpful too.

If there really is no planned use for that shed, I'd use all of what you describe, outside concrete pad and all. You could make the run larger and include some dirt-surface run. Keep in mind, though, that any grass surface will be bare dirt/mud within a few weeks. That's just the way it is with chickens.

The concrete pad can be made more "chicken friendly" by adding material such as hay, leaves, pine shavings, whatever. The concrete base makes it easy to clean and replace.

As for cleaning the inside floor of the coop, it's just a matter of a broom, scoop shovel, and scraper. I'm not one who believes that the coop needs to be sanitized when it's cleaned periodically.

Have fun!

Sounds like a heck of a plan to me !

Converted horse stall with rubber matts . It was a very cheap coop for me. I added a little framing and some hardware wire to keep hungry critters out and two doors,one to there run area.
I like it because everything is easy to get to.
The wire and all the wood I bought for this 10 x 18 coop was about 200 dollars.

I clean daily.
when the poop is fresh in the morning I just scrape it all up and throw it in a large rolling trash can.
I have timed it ,and it takes 3 minutes

no dust ,no sand, no wood chips no stinky coop.

I have 29 chickens right now.
Next month I will have 7 Copper Moran chicks 15 broilers and 4 bronze heritage turkeys to add to my collection.
I do have a second coop for my young chickens and a huge run 30 by 60 with wire over it to keep chickens in and critters out.

put cheap linoleum on top of concrete. Poop will scrape right off.

We repurposed a dog shed for our coop and it has worked out great. We also had a "doggy door" already in place that exits out the back where we built a run.

What is the shed size? Ours is 8' X 18', we use half for chickens, half for storage. We have 6 chickens.

As for cleaning the concrete floor, a poopboard under the roost will help to catch the majority of the poo. We fill our poopboard with PDZ (Stal-Dry) and sift out everyday or so. Our chickens are usually out in the run or roosting so they don't spend a lot of time on the floor.

Place a thick (4") layer of pine flakes on the floor to absorb any extra poo. Keep the water out in the run so the floor stays dry and the floor will stay amazingly clean. We clean our coop out twice a year, it sweeps right up. The floor of our coop is OSB rather than concrete, but I'm sure it would be similar to clean.

I think you should repurpose your shed - then next year build a new coop and use the shed as a brooder/teenager coop! Chicken math, you know!

How many chickens are you planning on having?

I personally find sheds really useful especially if it has electricity and windows. So if you have the time and space, I would build a separate coop. That way it also gives you the chance to build it to your liking.

chickenneighbor said:

I think you should repurpose your shed - then next year build a new coop and use the shed as a brooder/teenager coop! Chicken math, you know!

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Chonke said:

How many chickens are you planning on having?

I personally find sheds really useful especially if it has electricity and windows. So if you have the time and space, I would build a separate coop. That way it also gives you the chance to build it to your liking. 

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I am having 8 so I would just use half of the shed. The other half has shelves so I could store all my gardening and chicken supplies there.

ChickenMammX4 said:

We repurposed a dog shed for our coop and it has worked out great. We also had a "doggy door" already in place that exits out the back where we built a run.

What is the shed size? Ours is 8' X 18', we use half for chickens, half for storage. We have 6 chickens.

As for cleaning the concrete floor, a poopboard under the roost will help to catch the majority of the poo. We fill our poopboard with PDZ (Stal-Dry) and sift out everyday or so. Our chickens are usually out in the run or roosting so they don't spend a lot of time on the floor.

Place a thick (4") layer of pine flakes on the floor to absorb any extra poo. Keep the water out in the run so the floor stays dry and the floor will stay amazingly clean. We clean our coop out twice a year, it sweeps right up. The floor of our coop is OSB rather than concrete, but I'm sure it would be similar to clean.

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Nice! Our shed is probably 12 by 8 or around there. What is stal-dry?