20x12 shed conversion?

[eeverhart]

Hello! My husband and I recently bought a property with a few sheds included and we want to convert one of them to a chicken coop. The shed we want to use is 20 x 12, but the access doors are in the middle of the 20' side. I've seen plenty of pictures of shed conversions but only with the doors on the short side. Does anyone have interior pictures of their coop with this type of layout? I'd like to have most of it as the area for chickens and a separate area for storage.
We need to relocate the shed and do some renovation so I wanted to start getting my ideas together now!

 

[DobieLover]

Leave them where they are and install a human door where you want it after you've moved it to its final location.

This is how I laid out my 16x8 shed with the front doors offset:

I can open either of these doors but only need to open the right one during the annual coop clean out.

I installed my entry door on the west side as that is the side closest to my house.

This was the draft plan:

I changed it to remove all food and water from the coop and place it in the run and added another poop board/roost as shown below.

Please note the copious amounts of ventilation coming in through the soffit and gable areas as well as the not so easy to see ridge. The pop doors (1 visible in the image) are always open along with the two windows in the entry room that are left cracked open during winter.

You are working with a gambrel style roof which offers ventilation challenges. The easiest way to deal with that is to sister the rafters on the lower part of the roof to extend the roof line and offer overhang to the upper part of the load bearing walls. You can then cut open the top 6"+ of siding and secured with 1/2" hardware cloth for fresh air intake. I would install a ridge vent to complement the 'soffit' vents.

Having lots of windows that can be opened wide during the summer and offer lots of natural light year round is always recommended.

 

[eeverhart]

Leave them where they are and install a human door where you want it after you've moved it to its final location.

This is how I laid out my 16x8 shed with the front doors offset:
View attachment 4275936

I can open either of these doors but only need to open the right one during the annual coop clean out.
View attachment 4275937

I installed my entry door on the west side as that is the side closest to my house.
View attachment 4275938

This was the draft plan:
View attachment 4275935

I changed it to remove all food and water from the coop and place it in the run and added another poop board/roost as shown below.
View attachment 4275940

Please note the copious amounts of ventilation coming in through the soffit and gable areas as well as the not so easy to see ridge. The pop doors (1 visible in the image) are always open along with the two windows in the entry room that are left cracked open during winter.

You are working with a gambrel style roof which offers ventilation challenges. The easiest way to deal with that is to sister the rafters on the lower part of the roof to extend the roof line and offer overhang to the upper part of the load bearing walls. You can then cut open the top 6"+ of siding and secured with 1/2" hardware cloth for fresh air intake. I would install a ridge vent to complement the 'soffit' vents.

Having lots of windows that can be opened wide during the summer and offer lots of natural light year round is always recommended.

Thank you for sharing!! Approximately 50 seconds after I posted this, I came across your entire article and I've been studying!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Excellent suggestions by Dobie. I especially like the idea of putting your own access door in where you want it.

Where are you located? I'm interested in your climate, how hot or cold will it get wherever you are.

To me, your convenience is extremely important. The chickens can adapt much easier than you can. If it is a pain to do something out there you probably will not do as good a job as you would otherwise.

Looks like yours has a cupola. Check it out to see how much ventilation that gives you while still keeping rain out. I love ridge vents but if that cupola is ventilated well I don't think you need one. I'd probably install a couple of decent sized gable vents in each end up high. If your summers are pretty hot I'd install a louvered predator proof vent down low on the shady side to let cooler air in and that I could close off in winter if your winters are pretty cold.

How much of that do you want as storage and how much as coop? Don't neglect a decent amount of storage room.

I'd consider putting the run on the side where those doors are. Use at least one of them to give you human access from the coop to the run. Still install a pop door for the chickens to use so you can keep that human door closed and keep weather out but direct access to the run can be important. My layout for human access was to the storage area from outside, from storage to coop. and from coop to the run.

Since you are using feet I'll assume you are in the USA. I'd put the nests on the north or east side to keep them from cooking in the heat of the afternoon sun. The roosts should be OK anywhere as far as heat goes since the sun will be going down when they go to the roosts but I'd put them as far in the back of the coop section as I could so they do not block your access.

 

[eeverhart]

Excellent suggestions by Dobie. I especially like the idea of putting your own access door in where you want it.

Where are you located? I'm interested in your climate, how hot or cold will it get wherever you are.

To me, your convenience is extremely important. The chickens can adapt much easier than you can. If it is a pain to do something out there you probably will not do as good a job as you would otherwise.

Looks like yours has a cupola. Check it out to see how much ventilation that gives you while still keeping rain out. I love ridge vents but if that cupola is ventilated well I don't think you need one. I'd probably install a couple of decent sized gable vents in each end up high. If your summers are pretty hot I'd install a louvered predator proof vent down low on the shady side to let cooler air in and that I could close off in winter if your winters are pretty cold.

How much of that do you want as storage and how much as coop? Don't neglect a decent amount of storage room.

I'd consider putting the run on the side where those doors are. Use at least one of them to give you human access from the coop to the run. Still install a pop door for the chickens to use so you can keep that human door closed and keep weather out but direct access to the run can be important. My layout for human access was to the storage area from outside, from storage to coop. and from coop to the run.

Since you are using feet I'll assume you are in the USA. I'd put the nests on the north or east side to keep them from cooking in the heat of the afternoon sun. The roosts should be OK anywhere as far as heat goes since the sun will be going down when they go to the roosts but I'd put them as far in the back of the coop section as I could so they do not block your access.

Lots of great thoughts, thank you!
I'm in southeast Pennsylvania. Winters can get down to the teens and single digits during cold spells but we are typically in the 20s to low 30s. Summers are humid and usually in the 80s to low 90s, with heat waves near 100.
We have had some torrential downpours and the inside remains dry, so it seems the cupola does a good job of keeping it out.
It hadn't occurred to me to use those doors as access to the run from the coop (there is actually a doggie door on the other side of the shed from the previous owners, so I planned to use that as the access to the run), but I like the idea of flipping it and closing up the existing doggie door!
Good thinking on putting the nesting boxes on the north or east side, I hadn't been thinking of taking that into account when planning where everything would go. Thank you!!