Howdy all!
I'm brand new to BYC and so far I love what I have been reading and have learned so much in just a few days. My husband, 2 girls (4 & 1) and I moved onto his grandparents' farm place this last summer. We hoped to be able to start chickens this spring but adjusting to our new life (new house, new community, new job, longer commutes, etc) we just didn't get as much done last fall as we hoped. My FIL has maintained this as a rental property since his parents moved into town 10 years ago and his level of maintaining is a much lower standard than ours and all 7 outbuildings are in some state of disrepair (4 are pretty bad however not bad enough to just rip down and start over, seems to be the story of our life at this farm but I digress). After 8 months of thinking, discussing and planning our initial coop/chicken plans have changed. Previous renters had used a little shed as a coop and had added a poorly built run. We ripped the run down in the fall with the intent to rebuild and remodel the shed as a coop. But my FIL mentioned that when the renters put the run where they did, it became more difficult to maneuver the semis around the yard plus the facts that we have an old granary that we have no idea what to do with and that the little shed, if moved, would be an ideal garden shed... we decided to turn the granary into a coop. However upon closer inspection, the granary was added to the list of buildings that is in major disrepair. So scrapping the idea of chickens this spring and we are giving ourselves a year to work on properly fixing it up. That's the first big thing I have gleaned from this site: Have the coop completely ready before the chickens - not the chickens ready before the coop! We have learned that everything takes us longer now, so to help with stress and balancing the umpteen other projects a year seems doable.
So I thought I might put some pictures of what we have to work with out there for you much more experienced chickeners? (haha - What do you call yourselves?) to give input on. We think the inside will be relatively easy to convert, it's the outside that is the issue.
So here are the specs with pictures as-well-as our first draft of the coop design:
West Central Minnesota - Zone 4B - wide open spaces, few trees to block the winds - had 60+mph gusts right around Christmas where we lost a few shingles and a neighbor's hoop house was flattened. We have a grove to the north and west, but the southern winds can hit us pretty hard. We will start with around 6 layers and once we figure out what we are doing we will add more and broilers. I'd like to keep them separated, so a smaller run will be inside the main run. We are thinking this because we want them to all have decent access to the south side, but we can't extend too far because of semis needing the space for maneuvering in that area. Too many predators to allow free range.
small shed will be moved elsewhere, granary is on the right
Coop draft 1- not to scale
The granary is elevated about 3 feet off the ground and is split into 5 rooms, 4 are equal at about 10'x9'. The 5th is just the isle partitioned off, this wall will be coming down. We do know that there is an opossum living under the granary. We also have rats on the farm and had read that opossums can help with rat control, so he's fat and happily has a place to stay until he gives us reason otherwise.
The outside: the exposed ends of the rafters are rotting, the roof should be tinned, needs to be painted ideally tinned, add windows, replace broken barn windows, clean up all the scrap and junk around the building.
We will initially only convert 2 rooms for layers and broilers. The other two rooms will have other uses found for them in the future with the possibilities being an infirmary/quarantine and maybe someday turkeys.
We have electricity but may need to rewire to allow for a 220v. Closest water is about 175' away.
Methods we are thinking of:
-Roosts with poop boards
-gravity feeders, with isle access
-gravity pvc with chicken nipple waterers with the buckets located in the isle. We do not have water near the granary so we will be hauling buckets.
-probably will do DLM.
The back will is just the isle partitioned off, we will rip that wall down for access to the isle walls of the individual coops.
The doorways will be widened and doors added.
as
The height is approx. 10'-12' to the base of the roof. Those rafters are not structural but were for support when it was filled with grain and will either be removed or lifted as my 6' tall husband feels claustrophobic with the rafters at about 6.5'. This is one of our questions, put in a ceiling or leave it open?
The rooms are basically to the studs and are aprox 10'x9' to the studs, maybe add another 6" if you go to the exterior wall
The walls do not go to the peak, just to the roof base.
This is the west side where the majority of the run will be. it will be cleaned up and can't decide if the far small tree will be in the run or outside and how to protect from predators.
Do you see any potential that I don't? Something that screams "dear god don't do it!"?
I don't know what we will do about venting, I see there is the opening on the roof for the auger so I don't know if I could convert that somehow or if it is enough. Advice is welcome!
Emily
I'm brand new to BYC and so far I love what I have been reading and have learned so much in just a few days. My husband, 2 girls (4 & 1) and I moved onto his grandparents' farm place this last summer. We hoped to be able to start chickens this spring but adjusting to our new life (new house, new community, new job, longer commutes, etc) we just didn't get as much done last fall as we hoped. My FIL has maintained this as a rental property since his parents moved into town 10 years ago and his level of maintaining is a much lower standard than ours and all 7 outbuildings are in some state of disrepair (4 are pretty bad however not bad enough to just rip down and start over, seems to be the story of our life at this farm but I digress). After 8 months of thinking, discussing and planning our initial coop/chicken plans have changed. Previous renters had used a little shed as a coop and had added a poorly built run. We ripped the run down in the fall with the intent to rebuild and remodel the shed as a coop. But my FIL mentioned that when the renters put the run where they did, it became more difficult to maneuver the semis around the yard plus the facts that we have an old granary that we have no idea what to do with and that the little shed, if moved, would be an ideal garden shed... we decided to turn the granary into a coop. However upon closer inspection, the granary was added to the list of buildings that is in major disrepair. So scrapping the idea of chickens this spring and we are giving ourselves a year to work on properly fixing it up. That's the first big thing I have gleaned from this site: Have the coop completely ready before the chickens - not the chickens ready before the coop! We have learned that everything takes us longer now, so to help with stress and balancing the umpteen other projects a year seems doable.
So I thought I might put some pictures of what we have to work with out there for you much more experienced chickeners? (haha - What do you call yourselves?) to give input on. We think the inside will be relatively easy to convert, it's the outside that is the issue.
So here are the specs with pictures as-well-as our first draft of the coop design:
West Central Minnesota - Zone 4B - wide open spaces, few trees to block the winds - had 60+mph gusts right around Christmas where we lost a few shingles and a neighbor's hoop house was flattened. We have a grove to the north and west, but the southern winds can hit us pretty hard. We will start with around 6 layers and once we figure out what we are doing we will add more and broilers. I'd like to keep them separated, so a smaller run will be inside the main run. We are thinking this because we want them to all have decent access to the south side, but we can't extend too far because of semis needing the space for maneuvering in that area. Too many predators to allow free range.
small shed will be moved elsewhere, granary is on the right
Coop draft 1- not to scale
The granary is elevated about 3 feet off the ground and is split into 5 rooms, 4 are equal at about 10'x9'. The 5th is just the isle partitioned off, this wall will be coming down. We do know that there is an opossum living under the granary. We also have rats on the farm and had read that opossums can help with rat control, so he's fat and happily has a place to stay until he gives us reason otherwise.
The outside: the exposed ends of the rafters are rotting, the roof should be tinned, needs to be painted ideally tinned, add windows, replace broken barn windows, clean up all the scrap and junk around the building.
We will initially only convert 2 rooms for layers and broilers. The other two rooms will have other uses found for them in the future with the possibilities being an infirmary/quarantine and maybe someday turkeys.
We have electricity but may need to rewire to allow for a 220v. Closest water is about 175' away.
Methods we are thinking of:
-Roosts with poop boards
-gravity feeders, with isle access
-gravity pvc with chicken nipple waterers with the buckets located in the isle. We do not have water near the granary so we will be hauling buckets.
-probably will do DLM.
The back will is just the isle partitioned off, we will rip that wall down for access to the isle walls of the individual coops.
The doorways will be widened and doors added.
The height is approx. 10'-12' to the base of the roof. Those rafters are not structural but were for support when it was filled with grain and will either be removed or lifted as my 6' tall husband feels claustrophobic with the rafters at about 6.5'. This is one of our questions, put in a ceiling or leave it open?
The rooms are basically to the studs and are aprox 10'x9' to the studs, maybe add another 6" if you go to the exterior wall
The walls do not go to the peak, just to the roof base.
This is the west side where the majority of the run will be. it will be cleaned up and can't decide if the far small tree will be in the run or outside and how to protect from predators.
Do you see any potential that I don't? Something that screams "dear god don't do it!"?
I don't know what we will do about venting, I see there is the opening on the roof for the auger so I don't know if I could convert that somehow or if it is enough. Advice is welcome!
Emily
