6x8 shed conversion guidance, please

[Tracyree]

Do you have the roost in the corner so it's not over the chicken door? If you run it the width of the coop and use a poop board under it, the chicken door under it will be fine and you'll have more roosting space.

 

[gicts]

The windows are vinyl inside & out, so no problems with holding up in weather. We left the screens and attached the hardware cloth to the 2/4 wood frame inside using screws and fender washers. We bought the hardware cloth at Lowes for the vent & windows but ordered the hardware cloth for the run from Amazon. A 48" x 100' roll of 1/2" hardware cloth was around $160.

Thanks, I'm linking that idea, I may as well reinforce the vents with the hardware cloth while I'm at it as well!

This is what I did to cover the run. It keeps BofP out but not egg stealing magpies.

The top is covered with 4x4 field fence. The glass keeps the snow from blowing in.
There's no problem putting the roost above the door but they need enough room to fly down. The higher it is the more room they need. It need to be 18" away from the wall and even at 6', that will only give them 4' down. If you give them a ramp, they should walk part way down before they fly the rest of the way. Chickens LOVE insulation board. We don't know why but if you put it up, you need to back it or they will spend hours pecking at it until it is gone. Probably not the best thing out there for them to eat. Depending upon your carpentry skills it wouldn't be much to extend the roof line down to the ground on the Lside (making more of an A frame). Put your nesting boxes there plus storage.

The word on the street is Amazon is the place to buy hardware cloth. Includes free shipping.

What beautiful scenery! Thanks for the Amazon tip, we even have Prime. The insulation board makes sense, but I would have never thought of it. Thanks for saving me a headache!

That run is what I'm envisioning as an option for ours! A higher middle utilizing the current fence, then wrapped in hardware cloth.

I'm understanding the A frame concept but read that chickens like the nest to be about 2' off the ground, although it seems everytime I read something I see something that contradicts it as well.

 

[gicts]

Do you have the roost in the corner so it's not over the chicken door? If you run it the width of the coop and use a poop board under it, the chicken door under it will be fine and you'll have more roosting space.

Another good point! After getting some great feedback in this thread, I think we're going to push back the storage to allow the roost to extend farther and not over the door. Poop boards may be a great idea s well!

 

[gicts]

This week has been slow going. I primed the inside with 2 coats of Kilz and am halfway though building the tiered nesting box.

I still need to create the roosts, food and watering, door, install the window, add ventilation and the insulation, plus the run!!

Here is the improved layout design. Thoughts? I'm also liking the idea of a poop deck. The main updates are

I decreased the storage area to only extend 20", giving the chickens just over a 6' x 6' area (6 sq ft per bird, plus the run of ideally 20 sq ft when not free ranging)
The door is now in the middle, giving more room for the roosts to run length-wise and be farther from the wall
No longer 2 circular watering and food containers, hopefully being space saving (and a larger reservoir)

 

[gicts]

We have a layer! I forgot to keep you all updated, so here is an overview from the past few months:

Everything has gone very smoothly and all the chicks are doing well. No roosters or losses yet. The run is 8' fencing we buried - no critter is getting under that! We do need to bury something for the back side though as it is 4' fencing that only touches the ground.


Food and water went in, though we redid the food as the holes were too small and someone's head got stuck (no damage )

 

[gicts]

You can see the solar panel fans on the door, I still feel like I should add some more ventilation and have been contemplating what to do come winter and heating.

 

[gicts]

Final series of pics

We can't figure out what breed this is, we're going back and forth between an Egyptian Fayoumi and a Silver Campine. She was sold to us from Rural King as an Americana. The other 2 seem to be Americanas. I believe I've seen the Fayoumi on the Rural King breed list, but not the Silver Campine. Either way, looks like we'll have a nice assortment of brown, blue, and white eggs!

 

[trailrider330]

Coop looks great but you are right about the ventilation. I like your layout and feeder and waterer. One thing I might suggest would be to move your poop board up to allow your chickens room to walk underneath, thereby increasing your square footage per chicken. That way if "chicken math" strikes you have a little more extra room to play with.

I also would not worry about keeping the coop warm enough in the winter. The chickens will do a god job with that as long as you have things vented well.

Wondering if the pullet in your photo could be an Easter Egger.

 

[gicts]

Coop looks great but you are right about the ventilation. I like your layout and feeder and waterer. One thing I might suggest would be to move your poop board up to allow your chickens room to walk underneath, thereby increasing your square footage per chicken. That way if "chicken math" strikes you have a little more extra room to play with.

I also would not worry about keeping the coop warm enough in the winter. The chickens will do a god job with that as long as you have things vented well.

Wondering if the pullet in your photo could be an Easter Egger.

Thanks! I like the idea of raising the poop board, right now the only thing that could fit under there are small critters. Do you have any suggestions to help with the ventilation given the slanted roof? Perhaps a cupola?

 

[trailrider330]

Not sure. What about a larger window with hardware cloth in the door? Or perhaps a couple roof vents. The only issue with those is making sure they are predator proof and can't be torn out by something like a crafty raccoon. There are numerous styles on the market. Here are just a couple options:

I think I also read somewhere that you should have approximately 1 square foot of vent space for each bird. Does anyone else know if that is correct?