Coop and feed room storage question

[sustainusfarm]

Looking for ideas and advise on dividing my coop into 2 separate areas. One for the hen house the other for feed and tool storage. What are your ideas about having a solid wall to keep out all the chicken dust versus a wired wall….I know how dusty things get so I’m leaning towards a solid wall of some kind to keep the dust out of the feed/ tool storage area where I will also collect and store eggs, egg cartons and other miscellaneous chicken stuff. I will have a door from the storage side to the coop side and 6’ doors that open the entire coop up for cleaning out. Thought maybe a plywood wall with a window so I can glance inside to see what’s going on…I’m adding a “ people” door to be able to get into the storage room without opening up the big clean out door

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Egg cartons tend to be styrofoam. Styrofoam easily generates static charge. Static graps boultry dust, dander, etc out of the air very easily, rapidly covering your cartons in fine dust. Similarly, nurous common gardening chemicals - even just a bag of 10-10-10 fertilizer - give off harsh odors which are hard on chickens surprisingly delicate respiratory systems (nature did not intend that they be cooped up).

Recommend a solid wall, to the ceiling, independent ventilation under the eaves, etc. Some air flow is of course fine, but you don't want the shed side exchanging a lot of air with the chicken side, and vice versa. Making the nesting boxes acceible from the side is good, but that design (due to location of the nesting boxes, openings of the doors makes the shed side mostly useless. You've lost almost all effective wall space. Are those doors already in place???

 

[sustainusfarm]

Everything in the shed side will be chicken related…no gas, mowers, fertilizer will be stored there…the large doors are already in place as seen in the pics. Good to know about the styrofoam, I never even thought of that! Thx

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Assuming the height is there, I'd move the side door to the back, rather than the front corner where its currently located. Open Out, not in - you can always place an overhang to offer weather protection. Reduce the number of nesting boxes, you need 1 per four or five hens - the remaining space in your shed doesn't have the square footage to comfortably support more than (guessing at the overal dimensions here) 10 birds, possibly fewer. Three boxes is enough.

Place the boxes on the wall at a height where you can access them from the side, not the top, while you have good visibility - that's probably between 46 and 50" to the middle of the nesting box. Now you don't need space above them for a hinge, so you get that wall spacve back above the boxes. Food can be stored underneath. A couple 40# or 50# bags will stand upright under the nest boxes, and not intrude into the walking area, making it feel more roomy.

BRB - going to measure to the middle of mine - my wife can see in them easily too, she's short (ish), while I'm 5'10" on a good posture day (rarely), so it should give you a strarting point to find what works best for you. /edit - middle of my nesting boxes are 55" in elevation. The boxes themselves are 12" deep, 16" tall, and either 14" or 16" wide (some of each)

If you do put a window in the wall, just mount a piece of plexiglass (wider, rather than taller). Doesn't need to be thick, or framed pretty, just needs to let you see in. Of course, you again give up wall space doing that.

and looks like you are running electric? I'll assume you are competent to do - its not difficult, after all. I'd mount your disconnect on the inside, likely bringing service up the wall you are builing, and place it next to the nesting boxes, in the space where one of the boxes you are removing is currently located. Remove the outside light fixture, and relocate it as a shallow LED under the eaves, where its weather protected and less visible. Unless you plan to pull permits and get an inspection, likely better you don't flaunt your work to any who might care.

Have you given thought to adding a back gutter, rain catch, and gravity fed watering system???

 

[Alaskan]

I really like poop shelves, and as much chicken space as possible....

So personally, I would use it all for chickens, keep a trashcan in the coop with a flat plywood lid to easily scrape poo. The trashcan would hold oyster shell or other what not.

The feeder would be huge so could hold 2 bags of feed at once... so hopefully no other feed storage needed.

And the coop poop shelf scraper would hang on a nail on the wall, shovel would hang on a nail on the outside wall of the coop.

A small tote hung somehow from the ceiling could hold chick supplies. Or, put a cabinet on one wall of the coop to hold chick supplies.

But that is me....

Ok..... so in regards to your set-up. Nothing wrong with setting it up the way you have it drawn out.

How many chickens?

If more than a few, I would be tempted to have the perch along one wall, with a poop shelf underneath. The angled roosts will not hold many birds.

I think everything will get dusty, solid wall or not... because there is a door connecting the 2 rooms.

But eh, nothing wrong with the room getting dusty.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

agree with @Alaskan - I got ahead of myself. HOW MANY Chickens??? and How big is that shed?? 6x10? Smaller?

 

[sustainusfarm]

The shed is 8x12 the actual coop space will be 8x8 …they free range so plenty of room for 20 chickens to roost at night.
@Alaskan I’ve had the the all in one coop design already…I’m done scraping poop off garbage cans…lol…

 

[sustainusfarm]

I really like poop shelves, and as much chicken space as possible....

So personally, I would use it all for chickens, keep a trashcan in the coop with a flat plywood lid to easily scrape poo. The trashcan would hold oyster shell or other what not.

The feeder would be huge so could hold 2 bags of feed at once... so hopefully no other feed storage needed.

And the coop poop shelf scraper would hang on a nail on the wall, shovel would hang on a nail on the outside wall of the coop.

A small tote hung somehow from the ceiling could hold chick supplies. Or, put a cabinet on one wall of the coop to hold chick supplies.

But that is me....

Ok..... so in regards to your set-up. Nothing wrong with setting it up the way you have it drawn out.

How many chickens?

If more than a few, I would be tempted to have the perch along one wall, with a poop shelf underneath. The angled roosts will not hold many birds.

I think everything will get dusty, solid wall or not... because there is a door connecting the 2 rooms.

But eh, nothing wrong with the room getting dusty.

No poop shelves for me…I do deep litter and it works well…I’ll be able to open those large doors and shovel it all out into my tractor bucket in one swoop! Lol

 

[sustainusfarm]

Assuming the height is there, I'd move the side door to the back, rather than the front corner where its currently located. Open Out, not in - you can always place an overhang to offer weather protection. Reduce the number of nesting boxes, you need 1 per four or five hens - the remaining space in your shed doesn't have the square footage to comfortably support more than (guessing at the overal dimensions here) 10 birds, possibly fewer. Three boxes is enough.

Place the boxes on the wall at a height where you can access them from the side, not the top, while you have good visibility - that's probably between 46 and 50" to the middle of the nesting box. Now you don't need space above them for a hinge, so you get that wall spacve back above the boxes. Food can be stored underneath. A couple 40# or 50# bags will stand upright under the nest boxes, and not intrude into the walking area, making it feel more roomy.

BRB - going to measure to the middle of mine - my wife can see in them easily too, she's short (ish), while I'm 5'10" on a good posture day (rarely), so it should give you a strarting point to find what works best for you. /edit - middle of my nesting boxes are 55" in elevation. The boxes themselves are 12" deep, 16" tall, and either 14" or 16" wide (some of each)

If you do put a window in the wall, just mount a piece of plexiglass (wider, rather than taller). Doesn't need to be thick, or framed pretty, just needs to let you see in. Of course, you again give up wall space doing that.

and looks like you are running electric? I'll assume you are competent to do - its not difficult, after all. I'd mount your disconnect on the inside, likely bringing service up the wall you are builing, and place it next to the nesting boxes, in the space where one of the boxes you are removing is currently located. Remove the outside light fixture, and relocate it as a shallow LED under the eaves, where its weather protected and less visible. Unless you plan to pull permits and get an inspection, likely better you don't flaunt your work to any who might care.

Have you given thought to adding a back gutter, rain catch, and gravity fed watering system???

View attachment 2827878

I’ve had my fill of poop shelves thx…lol. I do deep litter and then I’ll open those big doors and shovel it all out at once. I can’t have that much open eves in this area… besides the cold, the blowing snow will be an issue in this open location…I did order some great vents that open and close by themselves depending on temps….

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I’ve had my fill of poop shelves thx…lol. I do deep litter and then I’ll open those big doors and shovel it all out at once. I can’t have that much open eves in this area… besides the cold, the blowing snow will be an issue in this open location…I did order some great vents that open and close by themselves depending on temps….

That's why I was talking about under eave venitlation - snow doesn't blow upwards.

and I deep litter, too. Unfortunately, my birds can't go from the floor to a convenient (for me) height nesting box without an intermediate surface - thus my efforts to turn a needed horizontal space into a useful area as a brooder/grow out box or non-medical quarantine area for integration.

My raised coop is designed as a "U" around a central shaft that the door opens into, so I can stand upright. I deep bedding on top, periodically rake it down to join the deep litter underneath, where the ducks frequently sleep. The chickens often dig around down their too - either bug hunting or seeking relief from the heat. The concept is much the same as poop shjelves, but the maintenance is much less.

20 birds in that space will need a lot of ventilation - and I'm unsure how much you can count on their ability to free range if your snows are as bad as I infer. The windows won't cut it, particularly if they are closed, and your roosting bars need to be above your nest boxes, which starts to raise them into the window's draft zone. Worst place they can be when its cold.