Converting playset to coop?

[Kidwantschickens]

So long story short my 6 year old son was struggling with his sight words at school so as a carrot for motivation I promised him a day with me doing whatever he wanted. (I suggested a ski day at a resort we've never been to due to price and he's a ski junkie) while he was looking forward to that, he has been begging for chickens for about a year and he saw some at the local farm store and quickly threw a ski day out the window and now is all "CHICKENS!!!!". Takes after me because I LOVE chickens and used to have 30 or so at a time.

However, I've never owned chickens on small acreage and I live in a development I have to build a real coop. We have a playset that got blown over and damaged when we moved it to our new house.

Im wanting to cut the base area off and use the legs that were in between as "legs" (will be about 24" off the ground) and then add an addition on to the side that used to be open, and then nest boxes to the narrow side that had a platform area. I'm thinking id like the addition to be almost double what's there (it is 3'x5.5'.

I'm also planning to make the run go under the 6x5.5' (with addition) area with the 1/2" HC, and then extend a bit into open sun for a 3' tall by idk size outdoor run that they would be stuck in unless we are home to let them out into something bigger, which I'm debating what that should look like. I have a chain link fenced back yard but was planning to keep them outside of that fence and maybe doing some 4' tall chicken wire to keep them in a larger area when we're home or we could devise a way to put them into the back yard. Not sure there.

Any tips or concerns or ideas? Areas of concern to watch for? Our biggest concern for predators are fox, neighbor cats and our own bad dog who will get e collar trained on the chickens.

 

[Kidwantschickens]

To the left of the ramp is the nest box area. The open side that has the kiddo in the photo will be double doors so we can open it to clean. The whole thing will get painted as well.
More updates:

 

[Kidwantschickens]

And more progress!

 

[Kidwantschickens]

Did a bunch more today and got them in the coop. They are NOT happy birthday tonight. They're huddled by the coop door wanting to go back in garage. Praying they're ok and not too cold in there!!

I also have the hardware cloth wrapped around 3/4+ of the base. The front side will go into the run. I need to figure out if I'm willing to take tan donated paint or if I want to spend to have it blue/grey like my house.... Not decided.

 

[Kidwantschickens]

4sqft per bird is minimum, IMO.
Especially in nasty winters where they may stay coop bound for days.


That's a good idea.

In spite of us being "Montana" we only got snow that was more than a half inch 3 times this last winter. I only shoveled my driveway once and that's because I was worried about the thaw making a mess not because I couldn't get.my car or truck through it. So I don't think they'll be stuck inside. (but I also recall about 3 years ago it snowed horribly. And it also depends on what part of the valley you're in. Downtown got hot way worse than where I live, they.got snow, we got nothing at my house).

Point being winters get cold, but not usually a ton of snow so they can still go outside.

 

[Kidwantschickens]

Update: making a lot of progress. Exited.to get this thing finishes though! Way more work to be done. (Ramp isn't attached. Just leaning there to show my kids the plan)



You can see the planned nest box area. I was thinking 3 12" neat boxes because playset are is 3 foot wide and there was this built in platform.... Well it is narrower than the playset so only about 30" wide which would be too small for 3 boxes. I don't want to add one extra box somewhere so it looks like this either has to be moved or (I was just brain storming) I could take of the wood and use the deck but make it wider. The openings would be smallish but the box itself would be bigger... Thoughts?

 

[springvalley123]

Wonderful so far! Just a note I always tell myself, related to predators and the food chain. If you've seen antelope, there has to be something you're not seeing, to eat the antelope. Wild cat or bear, wolf??

 

[rosemarythyme]

This is a good point. I think I will put it on the 4' side then. I want to make it easy for my kids to collect eggs and I do have some bigger breeds. A brahma and 2 Bielefelders, but I will have 12 total chickens so I need at least 3 neat boxes.

Maybe stack the 3rd box on top of the other 2? That way it's available (and some chickens may prefer it) but not taking up additional space horizontally speaking.

 

[Kidwantschickens]

 

[Kidwantschickens]

More updates:

Getting to the home stretch. Have decided to put plexiglass on the windows to protect from wind and provide light/heat in winter but can be removed in summer. Recently we had a ton of snow and wind. The coop survived but I haven't put shingles on yet so it got rather wet. Everyone seems healthy and happy though.

Getting close to having the run done then we will paint and clean up!