Consideration for a coop?

[Donamal]

Good afternoon! Wanting to ask a coop choice question. I have considered an affordable pre-fab coop, one that gets the best reviews possible. Have also seen people make coops from existing metal sheds. I saw someone post that a metal shed is basically an oven/freezer waiting to happen and that in order to be usable, I would need to insulate well. With that, wanted to see if anyone knows or has experience with using a resin shed? Would this be the same idea as the metal or a better choice as far as temperature control? I can't imagine that it would be much different than buying one of the little prefab coops, even though they are wood, its thinner wood. Would just have to add some ventilation towards the top? Has anyone here attempted this and had success or failure? Also thinking that with a shed I would add a little hight in the doorway on the floor to keep in a deeper litter for cooler temps Thanks ya'll

 

[nuthatched]

You can convert a shed very easily, whether it be metal, wood or resin. Wood is much more stable of the three. Metal doesn't need insulation, if there's proper ventilation, insulation won't accomplish anything .

 

[Ridgerunner]

I saw someone post that a metal shed is basically an oven/freezer waiting to happen and that in order to be usable, I would need to insulate well.

No matter what you propose someone can find a reason that it will not work, yet there are plenty of people successfully doing that. It's just the nature of the internet and people.

My coop is a combination of wooden and metal sides with a metal roof. I've used metal and resin sheds for storage. If you are in an extreme climate, whether extreme cold or extreme heat, you may need to do something a bit special. But for the vast majority of us you do not need insulation to manage temperature. Ventilation is usually the key. I use a threshold on my doors, not to keep it cooler but to keep the bedding in the coop. For many doors that might also help with predator protection.

 

[NatJ]

I have considered an affordable pre-fab coop, one that gets the best reviews possible.

If you look up advice about keeping backyard chickens, you can find suggestions for how much space each chicken should have in the coop and run. (Example of a common suggestion: 4 or more square feet per chicken in the coop, 10 or more square feet per chicken in the run.)

If you look at the listing for a pre-fab coop, it will probably tell how many chickens can live in that coop. If you do the arithmetic for the actual dimensions of the coop, you will find that they are recommending more chickens than what the common guidelines would suggest.

Which guidelines you want to follow is ultimately up to you.

In general, the more space you allow, the less problems you have. The chickens do less bullying and feather-picking because they have more space to do other things and to get away from each other. The coop does not get as smelly and does not need cleaning as often because the poop is spread over a larger area. The chickens can more comfortably spend time inside the coop in bad weather.

Of course some individual chickens will be exceptions either way: they may tolerate crowding, or they may be awful bullies and demand enormous amounts of space that you can't realistically provide them. But in general, more space does reduce the number and severity of problems.

Have also seen people make coops from existing metal sheds.

One nice thing about a shed: you can walk inside it to tend the chickens or hang out with them, without yourself being out in the wind or rain or snow or whatever other weather may be happening at the time.

 

[Donamal]

Hi and thank you so much for replies so far! I'm in the zone 7 area, so can still have really cold snaps or really hot snaps but on average, pretty moderate. I don't know where I read it, but someone had said metal was bad, but if its not going to be an oven, that may be an option for us? And "Threshold" was the term I was looking for with the door and keeping in the litter and also keeping deeper in the cold to help. Thanks so much!