Coop Confusion!

[Lady J]

Hello everybody. I am excited to be a new member to BYC! I have wanted chickens for years. I am still in the planning stages because I want to make sure I have a safe, secure, comfortable place to house the girls upon their arrival to our place. I am struggling with my coop options.

Option 1: We have what used to be a dog kennel. It is about 30'x12', sits on a concrete slab, and has a pitched, shingled roof with open rafters. I absolutely cannot decide whether to enclose the entire structure by wrapping the existing 4x4 support posts with hardware fabric and adding a stand alone house inside or just enclose a smaller portion underneath the main structure using a combination of wire and plywood.

Option 2: Install a coop inside my horse barn and let the girls and my horses all be roomies.

Option3: Get a completely separate coop and place it closer to our house.

Option 4: Retrofit a 10x10 chainlink dog pen in our backyard for the girls.

Too many choices! Any votes for or against option 1, 2, 3, or 4 out there in BYCland?

 

[Kevin565]

. If your willing to do all the work I'd vote option 1

 

[kidcody]

from washington state glad you joined us!
You have a lot of great options to decide from, good luck!

 

[Lady J]

I am about to change my mind after reading all of the heart-breaking stories about how others have lost their chickens to predators! We will have all of the above...hawks, raccoons, possums, mice (don't know about rats), skunks, snakes, owls, roaming dogs....possibly coyotes. Have lived at our place 4 years and only ever heard one coyote. I am sure they are out there. I think I would feel better having their shelter on a concrete slab. Am learning from my reading that, even though the kennel has a roof, unless I fence it all the way to the ceiling beams, I will have to put some sort of additional top on it to keep varmits from climbing in.

 

[1muttsfan]

Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan

Chickens and horses don't always go well together in housing - chickens are VERY dusty and horses don't tolerate dust well.

1 with a smaller enclosed coop within the run or just adjacent to it, you really only need hardware cloth the bottom maybe 3 feet, the rest can be chicken wire.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

Hi and from Ohio. So glad you joined. I agree, don't put them in with the horses. I say build them there own coop but not too close to the house.

 

[The Red Rooster]

 

[weimarmama]

&

from Alabama. Glad you joined us.

 

[Lady J]

Thanks for your input everyone. Went out a remeasured the "dog kennel" this afternoon. The concrete slab is 34'x16'x8'h with a 27" opening for a door. It should make a nice sized coop if I can ever swing the materials. That hardware fabric ain't cheap....get it? cheap?! Just a little chicken humor there. P.S. Arkansas is now representing on BYC.