Converting my shed into a chicken house

[atomic]

Hello all, this will be a follow along in the conversion of my old shed into a chicken (possibly also duck) house. It’s dirty and covered in cobwebs, the fence line is in poor shape after back to back hurricanes, and I have some holes to patch for predator security. That being said, it is a great size and has zero leaks. I have purchased some lumber and wire for the run I’ll attach, today I am just going to focus on removing all the webs. Here are the befores!

Also, do I need actual boxes for the shelves or are they adequate by themselves? My chicks are almost four weeks old.

 

[SoggyForks]

If you want those shelves for them to nest, definitely put boxes and separate each nest.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Assuming you want the shelves to be nests at the absolute minimum you'd need a lip on the front, 3-4" high, to prevent eggs from rolling out and to make it harder to kick all the nest material out.

 

[atomic]

The top shelf has a lip, and the shelves on the other side of the house has lips too. The only one that doesn’t is that one bottom one, which I will add to the list of renovations. As far as the boxes, do I just need to put up dividers? Also the floor is concrete, should I layer that with something? I was originally just going to put hay or straw down, but I have an excess of dirt that I could also use IF that’s recommended. Thanks everyone for checking in and I appreciate that advice.

 

[rosemarythyme]

As far as the boxes, do I just need to put up dividers? Also the floor is concrete, should I layer that with something? I was originally just going to put hay or straw down, but I have an excess of dirt that I could also use IF that’s recommended. Thanks everyone for checking in and I appreciate that advice.

You can do dividers, or you can try a more communal style box where the entire thing is left open for multiple birds to use. Some flocks prefer separate boxes, others are fine with sharing... hard to predict what your birds will want!

Yes to bedding over the concrete, both to help catch and dry out poop and to provide padding as birds fly down from nests or roosts. I don't have experience with hay, straw or dirt as litter so I can't recommend one of those over the others.

 

[atomic]

I just thought I would update this thread with the coop completed. Sadly I lost one of the four so I now only have three, but I plan on adding more (of course). The run is 16 x 14.