Please Help Modify Shed Into Coop!

We purchased our hobby farm last November. This shed was existing on the property and since we have no real use for it we would like to convert it to a coop for the new chicks. Please pardon the mess the prior owner's left laying around.

The interior space is 7'4" x 13'6". The height is somewhere around 7' (forgot to measure). How many birds will this comfortably house? We are planning on adding nesting boxes attached to the exterior wall outside the footprint so as not to use up square footage. How many feet of roosts should we add to maximize the amount of birds we can comfortably house (you know, taking into account chicken math)? One pop hole or two?

We will also be building an attached exterior run that they will probably always have access to. How large should it be? We plan on using 1/4" hardware cloth around the entire run (buried, too). We have a very large (1-2 acre?) fenced pasture for them to free range during the daytime (someone is pretty much always here and not too many daytime predators).

My husband is planning on building a small cupola on the roof to address ventilation.

We can't decide if we should leave the shed where it is (moved back to take advantage of the concrete pad it sits on) or if we should move it closer to the house and electricity). Thoughts?

We live in a very cold climate, but it can also get very hot in the summer). What would be your suggestions? How would you set it up? Or what do you wish you had done differently in your own coop? Any tips for designing a coop/run to deal with cold and snow? I just want the best, most comfortable space for them. TY so much for your help!

That will make a great coop! With that interior size, you could comfortably house around 25 birds. If you did that many, you would want your run to be at least 250 square feet, as the rule of thumb is 10 square feet of run space per bird. For roosting, you want to allow about 8" of roost space per bird, although they all usually cram together anyway so that's a bit flexible. You only really need one pop hole, unless you want to do something like one into the run and one out for free ranging, but otherwise one is sufficient. As for moving it, that would be up to you. Generally you don't need to run much electricity out, except for heated water buckets in the winter and maybe a light for you or to get them to lay in the winter, but otherwise there wouldn't be much electric needs. The concrete slab is really nice because it would keep anything from being able to dig under and in, and it would be easy to clean - just remove the bedding and hose it off.

that will make an awesome coop! do the math and think four square feet per bird inside, ten square feet outside. This is pretty much an accepted 'general rule' of course not rock solid for every situation. Also about the roost space......they don't take up much space once they're up there and roosting, however they want room to spread their wings and fly up and down, and room for moving around because Lucy prefers roosting next to Nellie and not Sissy.........LOL made up names but I'm for real they will have their order and if one of them gets OUT of order they want enough room to move around.....

My favorite thread on BYC, many great Ideas that would work in your new coop.