Converting horse stalls to chicken coop?

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

Quote:
Nice Job. Love your black chickens.

What kind are they.

 

[steinway]

Thanks again for the responses. I have been reading what seems like a thousand forum posts in various subjects to try to avoid asking questions answered elsewhere but I do have a related question that one of you might be able to answer. It involves square foot per bird and my horse stall. I am planning on just getting a few laying hens (3 or 4), is it possible to have an inside coop only with NO run? I have a 10' x 12' space with lots of headroom (again it is a horse stall) so that is 120 square feet for only 4 birds, way more than the 10 square feet I see mentioned for both the coop and the run per bird.

Any thoughts?

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

When I first started I had 8 BOs in a stall that was 12x12 with no run. They did just fine. I'm sure your 3 or 4 will too. Welcome to the wonderful world of chickens but, let me warn you they are very addicting.

 

[Ramblin Rooster]

Awesome! We did the same thing. So what we did was, wince there are large gaps inside the barn for raccoons to get in we put up chicken wire over all the gaps into the stall and then put an automatic chicken door in the wall going into the horse corral where we put chicken wire to keep them safe! Hope it helps! Good Luck!

 

[Time-Out]

I am halfway through converting stables into a coop. The inside is all done and the chickens have been living there since December. We're just trying to find affordable fencing for the runs. Having kept the chickens inside for so long, I know how they REALLY appreciate being able to get out. At the moment, we can only take a couple out at a time in a small portable run. They love being able to scratch in the dirt, find bugs, sunbathe... I would really try to put a run in if you can. It'd make them so much happier.
Without a run, they're no more than glorified caged birds.

 

[Stoneridge Farm]

We are hoping to convert a stall in a new metal barn into a chicken coop. I am concerned about ventilation. There is a Dutch door to the outside run and a sliding door on the inside, but no windows. We do have ventilation in the cupola. Is this enough ventilation?

 

[deniserago]

We did it! I looked at every photo I could find on the net and converted a stall to out guineas home. They are still in the coop next to me because they are still eighty weeks old. But now they have a stall to come out in , varmit proof with wire, perches and a poop deck. I am new to this and I only have five keets but I am so excited! We covered to poop deck with horse granules for freshener. I will update with photos when they come out. Thanks to this site I read and looked at photos! Thank you
(Henry, Roberto, Johnny and Mom *me)

 

[Sevanson Woods]

Hello,

I'm a newbie here & wanting to do the same thing. I have a 100×100 horse barn, I want to convert the back-end stall (10×15) into a coop, with a door on the outer wall for a run. Wondering how it worked out? Do you have pictures & advice you can share? Anything you would do differently there? I fi realize i will need to hardware cloth all the gaps & too of stall to ceiling....as were on the edge of a forest & inundated with hawks, raptors, raccoons, opossums, wild dogs, etc.....

 

[deniserago]

It has been since last summer and I have no complaints. The photo I have is the one in this thread. I went online and googled "convert a stall to a chicken coop..." (images) I got a lot of ideas. I have the coop inside but they never use it; they love the "poop deck." I keep it covered with PDZ horse granulated deodorizer. I have wood shavings on the floor, a hanging feeder and a waterer. The guineas are trained to come back in every night/ No predator problems in the stall except for perky rats. I got two open sided rubber maid bins for nests and currently there are 33 eggs in one! No nests in the woods to date. The people on this site have been a huge help with advice! Good luck! Denise

 

[deniserago]

Oh yes, don't forget the perches! You can see them in the photo. They hang out on them all night.