Boat shed to chicken coop - seeking advice!

[pibb]

Hardware cloth is pretty expensive. Osb is cheap. I don't think hardware cloth will stop a mole.

Put up a night vision camera if you really want to know. Most of them you never see but they are there. Don't forget about skunks and bigfoot.

 

[briarandwillow]

Would something like landscaping fabric stop a mole? I don't know if moles will even mess with the chickens, but my worry is their burrowing will show the way, as it were.

I did totally forget about skunks, and not gonna lie I'm not sure if Bigfoot is a joke or a metaphor for something else lol.

That's a good point about the price of HC, I do have some old sheets of plywood and such that could be used to block access from above, but would that impact ventilation?

 

[pibb]

I wouldn't worry about keeping about containing moles or mice if it were me. They can get through a tiny hole.

I was kidding about bigfoot. He likes to eat at Hardees.

You can buy vents to cut in the ceiling if ventilation is bad.

 

[briarandwillow]

Rofl , fair enough.

I'll let them be, then, and focus on a good apron for the digging predators, and something economical for the ceiling.

 

[pibb]

Haha.

 

[paintedChix]

How many chickens were you planning for?

I'm thinking you can keep your cinder block building and the cement floored portion completely separate from the chickens. I know our cinder block buildings got extremely hot in CO and the horse barns that I visited in Florida were often so hot it was almost instant "pass out" for me (the ones in Florida had a lot of ventilation (usually completely open from 6' or 8' to rafters/roof) and also very large barn fans, but)... That's hot for chickens. I'm not sure you'd have enough ventilation in the enclosed cinder block portion - w/ no windows on either side. I would have to look at your pictures again.

I would read this article in chicken coops - Hot weather coops
Here is another one - but it started from scratch - New Chicken Coop - a work in progress
Carport to chicken coop/run - in Florida

I was looking for a couple of other carport type builds, know we have them on BYC, just not finding them...

I'd frame it out in hardware cloth, just like you are already discussing. HC to keep your birds out of the rafters and in the area you are setting up the coop. Not really sure you'd even need to put a solid wall on the outside - when there are 2 sides fully enclosed.

Lots of different styles of nest boxes that can be set up in the partially enclosed area, along with your roost. Many different ways to do the nest boxes - could be free standing in the open area; built into a "wall" (other then the nest boxes, wall could all be HC) along the cement floor side so that you don't have to go into the coop area, etc. Storing feed in the cement block storage building, plus any other supplies would be ideal.

I'd love to have that as a set up to begin with!! What a score and so many different ways it can be set up.

 

[briarandwillow]

Hi there! Thanks so much for the links, I'll go take a look at them in the morning!

I'm planning for about 15 chickens. I would be using the little cinder block room there for storage and framing out the "dirt" area in HC mounted to boards mounted on the cinder block pillar. I want to keep it as open as possible to allow for air flow as it gets quite hot here in the summers and doesn't get that cold in winter. Should be around 245 square feet of floor space in that portion, plus an adjoining run off to the left. I hadn't thought of putting in external nest boxes, but now I'm thinking of it, I really like the idea lol. How many nesting boxes would you recommend for 15 birds?

The side at the back there that's covered in plywood is north facing, so I'd like to leave that as it is to help with any cold winds we get.

 

[aart]

I was going to block off access to the rafters with HC in order to make sure nothing can get through from above. Thoughts?

Good move!

I don't think hardware cloth will stop a mole.

Yeah, it would.

I was going to dig down 1ft to lay HC underneath and do a 2ft apron. I have moles and wild rabbits in my yard and I wanted to prohibit access to them as they tunnel through my yard pretty extensively.

Good examples of anti-dig apron installation.
If rodents are prolific, burying the apron ~12" would be good.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/wire-around-coop.1110498/#post-17093528
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/new-coop-project.1169916/page-2#post-18481208

 

[briarandwillow]

Thanks for weighing in, aart!