Converting Stall to Coop - need feed back

[dmclalin]

East Wall and front of stall entry. Front of stall

South Wall West Wall

• I am planning on enclosing the ceiling by attaching corrugated light panels (26"X8') to the rafter bottoms from several old barn doors. That should be strong enough and yet allow a lot of light in. The panel will be finished with J molding on the ends.
• I am going to build in some side supports to attach 1/2" hardware cloth around three sides covering from the header up to the new ceiling. I am not sure if this will be too drafty even though it is in an enclosed barn.
• The other option is to enclose the gap between header and ceiling with OSB and leave screened cut outs with hinged doors to open and close for ventilation.
• The stall bars are on two sides and I will enclose them with more of the light panels that I have on hand.
• I am going to build an hinged door with screened window that is slightly inset in the opening. The door will have a pop door hinged at the base (with an eyelet hook at the top) that I can drop down and will double as a ramp. I was going to have 2, one inside and one outside because the pop door will be about 10" above floor level.
• The floor is packed (from years of horses packing it down) slag/pea gravel mix, and covered with a 3/4" stall mat. I am going to put 1/2" hardware cloth 12" up the wall and try to bury another 12" down. If I can't dig it up, I will fold the cloth so it extends under the mat the 12". I can stake the hardware cloth down under the mat.
• My intent is to totally critter proof the stall. Even though it is in a barn with doors at both ends, critters do get in occasionally, but mostly mice that I can see.
• Barn has electric and water.
• Oh, the stall is 10' X 12'. Walls are 9' high and 12" from header to rafters. Door entry is 4' by 82"

I would appreciate any advice and I haven't even figured out how to layout the inside of the coop except that I was going to suspend everything off the floors so plenty of room for chickens and easy clean-out.

 

[OkChickens]

Sounds like a good plan! If you are worried about drafts build your idea then when your finished see if there are any drafts where the roosts and the nest boxes are. You can never use to much hard ware cloth to keep predators out! How many chickens are you planning on keeping in there?

Nate

 

[dmclalin]

I was going to start with a dozen chickens. I want to be able to get to know them and spend time with them. I want eggs for myself foremost. If I have extra I can sell for a few bucks to buy feed. I have met another local farmer that says she can supply me with Black Javas which I am most interested in. And you know, I thought of the same thing as you. I was going to use hardware cloth at the top section and then sit in the stall (I mean coop) and see how drafty it is. I can always close off the screen as needed. Thanks for your insight/

 

[Guinea and Chicken raiser]

looks like a good plan... If you plan to have baby chicks like hatchlings grow up in their, you got to make sure they can't fly and escape the area, so you may have to put some cross bars, leave the other unless the result is that they can slip through, because you could be walking to the roost and step on a baby on the floor before you touch the door to open. If just adults, I don't see no need to do anything with the vertical bars. Put a rooster to make sure a snake don't go through there... lolz.

then the walls look alright. just a few patching of the few holes needs to be done to help control and regulate the temperature so your birds don't get too hot in summer or too cold in winter.

besides that looks like a very good plan. I helped one person on this site before, I believe it would be neat having shelves to fit a hen to lay on a nest off the ground. I want to try to do the same to my birds' coop in Oklahoma farm I have going on. I live in Louisiana for now. We used dog pens before, but I want to build a better coop since we'll have a bigger farm there in OK.

 

[dmclalin]

Well, my boss said I could have chickens, but not in the old horse barn. She doesn't want the chickens anywhere near the horses in the next barn or the paddocks. She also doesn't want them roaming around so I'll have to build a run as well. So now I have been relegated the old coop up by the house. Oh Boy! I have a lot of cleaning to do. It's 8' x 10'.
Well, the roof is new!

 

[claudicles]

You have a head start over most people - you have a shed! I'm sure you'll make it work brilliantly.

 

[jaj121159]

The old coop looks doable. I would suggest removing the sliding doors and replacing with a regular walk door. I would also add a lot of ventilation along the roof line. From the picture it looks like you have a lot of room for ventilation up under the overhang without letting weather in. I would cut the siding out there and replace with hardware cloth basically leaving it open under the overhang.

 

[dmclalin]

jaj,
Thanks for the feedback. There are only two windows so I was wondering about ventilation. Venting through the eaves sounds great. I was going to pick up a used storm door and frame it into the opening. I thought maybe leave the sliding door for security or really cold weather? I also have 2 used storm windows that I could put in the one side along with the one lone window.

 

[MrBillN]

At the horse track in tne barn across from a stall with 16 chickens with little ventillation is one of our race horses and the horse has been sick off/on. They are 20 feet apart. /Can the chickens affect a horses health?