Converting milk house to chicken coop

[sarajean02]

We just bought a property with a large barn and are being gifted 17 laying hens. We decided to convert the old milk house in the barn to the chicken coop, but I'm a total newbie to raising chickens and I need some help. I'm concerned about ventilation right now, we're located in eastern Wisconsin and it gets cold here, so I was going to put in walls instead of leaving the wells open. The upper part of the barn has a new roof, but some boards missing from the wall (quite breezy up there at the moment). We will need to put up some kind of ceiling in the old milk house to keep things off the chickens as the floor has rotten spots.
My question is, do I need to put some kind of ventilation in?

 

[pennyJo1960]

Welcome to Backyard Chickens it is wonderful how it looks sounds perfect, draft and ventilation are very different so like where the roof meets the building soffits could be placed just be certain any opening has hardware cloth over it

 

[aart]

Pics of the inside and outside of building and roof please?

We will need to put up some kind of ceiling in the old milk house to keep things off the chickens as the floor has rotten spots.

What floor...is there a second floor to the milk house that is rotten?
Roof leaking?

 

[sarajean02]

Pics of the inside and outside of building and roof please?

What floor...is there a second floor to the milk house that is rotten?
Roof leaking?

The milk house is in the lower part of the barn, there is an upper part of the barn with a solid roof. The walls are missing some boards and the floor of the upper barn are rotten. I think what we're going to do is put a few feet of hardware cloth across the ceiling of the new coop but enclose the remainder of it.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Really great old Barn there the hardware cloth will be fine

 

[aart]

The milk house is in the lower part of the barn, there is an upper part of the barn with a solid roof. The walls are missing some boards and the floor of the upper barn are rotten. I think what we're going to do is put a few feet of hardware cloth across the ceiling of the new coop but enclose the remainder of it.

Ah, I see....thanks for the pics.
Very Cool Barn!
If there is water coming into barn above coop area, ought to fix that.
Removing rotten floor boards above coop and covering coop 'ceiling' with HC would provide predator protection and ventilation.

My coop is built into a larger shed, nothing like that barn tho(jeally),
but might give you some ideas:
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/aarts-coop-page

Oh, and...Welcome to BYC! @sarajean02
Where in this world are you located?
Climate, and time of year, is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, (laptop version shown), then it's always there!

 

[DoeAndGander]

How’s this coming along?! I adore that barn

 

[aart]

How’s this coming along?! I adore that barn

Am wondering too.....but....
@sarajean02 hasn't been back since shortly after this thread was started.
Maybe a tag will bring her back?

 

[DoeAndGander]

Hopefully!!

 

[Chicklady707]

We just bought a property with a large barn and are being gifted 17 laying hens. We decided to convert the old milk house in the barn to the chicken coop, but I'm a total newbie to raising chickens and I need some help. I'm concerned about ventilation right now, we're located in eastern Wisconsin and it gets cold here, so I was going to put in walls instead of leaving the wells open. The upper part of the barn has a new roof, but some boards missing from the wall (quite breezy up there at the moment). We will need to put up some kind of ceiling in the old milk house to keep things off the chickens as the floor has rotten spots.
My question is, do I need to put some kind of ventilation in?

How did it turn out? I am currently working on converting our milk house to a chicken coop. Did the open hardware cloth vents work on the ceiling? My milk house does not have a second level above but it is connected to the barn and has finished walls inside. I was thinking of cutting out strips of the cement board type material above roosts and adding hardware cloth for ventilation.