Converting attached Shed to a coop for Alberta Winter

6 hens

Hatching
7 Years
Sep 14, 2012
2
0
7
Here is my situation. I have 6 fabulous hens that I got this May and live in a unit on wheels that I move daily to fresh grass and has a small enclosure/roost/nesting box/water/feed all in one. Love it and keeps them very happy indeed. Now it is coming to be fall and I know winter is not far, I have to get serious about building them winter comfort.

So we have a lean-to type additon to a horse barn that is enclosed that I want to have converted. It is 20x11 but would not want to use whole shed(maybe half) for my birds...so thinking 10x11 would be enough room for them. My one big question here is that the shed has roll up garage type doors on the east and west ends that we want to keep, but wonder about insulation around those? I was thinking of having walls built inside of big door on east, and the wall in the middle of the shed to divide so that might deal with that issue....but
then I was wondering about ventalation- I think that I need outside air acess to have proper ventalation, but am troubled as it will not be easy as 2 to 3 of the sides will not be next to the outdoors. Would air vents into the part of the shed take away enough moisture? and the one wall with out side acess..the north one...where all the wind and nasty weather comes from. eeekkk. what do I do???? I like to do things right the first time, and love my little red hens and want them happy.

Cheers
 
I was in a similar situation when I converted our old cattle stall lean-to on the east side of my barn into a coop (about 40x15ft). It also had a big sliding door on the north side that I built an insulated false wall into the space. I insulated the walls and have been very pleased with the results. Even on nights where it would dip below freezing, the coop would stay around 30F. It also keeps the coop cooler in the summer. You will want to have vents on each outside wall. The smaller the coop, the quicker moisture and ammonia fumes will build up and that dry winter air will wick away most of it. I even put vents in the interior wall connected to the barn. The entire structure was built in the early 1900s so it's no way near air-tight anyways. I hope this helps.
hc
 
Thank you for the great advice and I think I will do the false wall for sure to deal with the overhead door drafting issue.
I had never thought of venting int the barn...but why not....it will help remove the moist air as well.
Thanks again!
 

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