Can I incorporate my large detached garage into coop?

[bren0990]

Hi,

I am new here and posting like crazy but I have a large (25 X 30) detached garage. Could put my coop in the garage? I am thinking there are reasons why I wouldn't do that but I am wondering what they would be? Seems like a great shelter during our rough Newfoundland winters. Right now the garage is not being used for much.

Thanks

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Will this be for chicks or for adult birds? I do raise chicks at times in our garage.

The dust will get all over the walls and ceiling. Poultry put off a HUGE amount of dust from dander. Your nice building will be totally coated in it eventually. I actually have to hose down the walls/ceiling of my coop every year to get all the dust off.

The best thing to do if they must live indoors is to put a shed up for them. They can live in there and poop on the walls etc. without you cringing.

I am assuming you have a fair number of chickens - if you have two chickens you may not notice much of a problem. But I would not ever consider putting my 22 chickens in our garage unless it was life or death for them, as a temporary measure.

Hopefully this helps. Of course some people aren't as picky as I am, but I don't like chicken dust inside our buildings for people.

 

[hennible]

Yep chicken dust sucks I can attest to that because I have quite a few inside my house right now... I'm a little nutty I think aside from the dust that it could be really great place to have your chickens... But you gonna probably have to cut a lot of holes in your garage to get enough ventilation for your birds... so do you want to permanently turn your garage into the chicken coop or not? Thats the question I would ask myself...
I assume that your garage is attached or very close to your house, there are definitely some pros to a very close by coop... you'll probably do more coop maintenance and cleaning, you'll collect your eggs more and you'll be with and observing your chickens often... Closer means it's easier to bring them water, it's a garage so it may already have power those are all great things in my opinion... Smell could be a con, but that just means you need to clean up more... if you can smell manure you're probably miss managing your manure ... You need a good square-foot of venting per bird ( ideally ) to keep down ammonia levels and humidity... Yep...do you want your garage to be a chicken coop forever?

 

[bren0990]

Ok, think I will scratch that idea..... thanks.