Converting an Ice shanty into a coop

[Chicken Rick1]

Need a little help. We picked up an ice shanty at a good price and are converting it into a chicken coop. The measurements on the inside are 5'9'' wide by 10'3" long and 7' high. It has two windows that open but I know I need year round ventilation and am wondering how many more vents I should put in and what size? I was thinking 3 to 4 would be good and going with 6x6 or 8x8 square?

I am also wondering how high off the floor I should place the nesting box?

What are your thoughts about the built in storage? I think they should be removed so we have more floor space and more options for putting up a roost.

The run will be 20ft by 35ft and with the coop measurements what would be the max number of chickens that we could support? we will be starting out with 4 but will surely want to get a few more in time.

Also the fence will be 6ft high, are we going to have to worry about the chickens getting over the fence? We have a not so nice neighbor and would be a bit concerned about them getting into his yard and ending up shot.

Thanks for the help, hope to get this done soon if it ever stops raining.

 

[Pork Pie]

I'll leave the ventilation issues to the experts. It would help to include your general location under your avatar, not only for your questions here, but it helps for future questions that you may have.

I'd say you could probably house around 15 standard sized chickens in your coop, but see how things evolve.

You can leave your nest boxes as they are IMO. You'll find that they will only lay in certain ones anyway, so I would not worry too much. If you want to free up coop space, then a couple of feet high would be fine. Whatever you decide, ensure that the roosts are higher than the top of the nest boxes, otherwise, the chickens will preferentially use the top of the boxes (unless you fit an angled top, so prevent them from perching).

Some storage for feed is good, but I'd try to remove the majority of the rest of the storage to free up space.

The height of your wire in the run may be ok if you get heavy breeds, but chickens such as leghorns are likely to make a bid for freedom. Adding another couple of feet would be good, considering the disposition of your neighbour. I'm not sure how predator proof the run is (depends on your local critters) but I'd do some further reading on predator proofing your run.

Hopefully, others will be along to add more thoughts.

 

[Chicken Rick1]

Thank for the reply, I did add my location after updated my profile a bit.

I am hoping that our dogs and cats take to the chickens and we can open the gate to the rest of the yard giving them a heck of a lot more space to roam. If not we can easily add to the run area.

 

[Pork Pie]

Thank for the reply, I did add my location after updated my profile a bit.

I am hoping that our dogs and cats take to the chickens and we can open the gate to the rest of the yard giving them a heck of a lot more space to roam. If not we can easily add to the run area.

There are threads on dogs as poultry guardians. It's likely to take some serious training before your dogs will be fine with chickens (and even then, they can lose the plot and attack them). Personally, I'd go for enlarging the run but of course, it depends on your dogs.