Coop design inside of barn???

[clifton776]

I have a barn I'd like to use to house chickens. I can only find coop designs that are free standing on this site. I'm thinking of building a horse stall type thing to keep them inside. Does anyone know of any plans available showing where to mount nesting boxes, roosts, etc. within a barn? I live in Ohio so it would have to be insulated for the winter....thanks

 

[patman75]

Nest boxes inside a barn can be anything from a milk crate, 5 gallen bucket, 2X12 cubby holes, etc. They dont have to be insulated. I live in Michigan and my coop was not instulated and they did just fine. As long as they are out of the wind they will be fine. You might have to heat the water to keep it from freezing and you might have to collect eggs twice a day on ther really really cold days to keep the eggs from freezing.

Good luck with the chickens!

 

[blasto]

As a kid I spent time on my aunt's farm and she had converted an old horse stall in to a chicken area. The stall had half-split barn doors to a small outside paddock so they had stapled chicken wire around the existing fencing and over the top of the run and left the bottom door open to the outside. Basic nest boxes were mounted on the stall wall about three feet up and there were roosts that looked like a wide wooden ladder leaning up against the corner. I was only there in the summers, but I'm sure nothing much changed in the winter except maybe the big door to the paddock area was shut and the chickens just came and went through the small pop hole. This was Up North Michigan (the upper part of the Lower Peninsula) so I'm sure it got really cold but there was no insulation and I'm sure the stall was drafty. It was a really basic set up, but it was perfect for the flock. They didn't shut the barn up at night, but they always had a couple of farm dogs that slept out there.

My cousin just had her husband frame out "walls" with 2x4s inside her barn, framed and hung a basic door and covered everything with chicken wire. She bolted 5gal. buckets to the wall for nesting boxes and bolted various horizontal branches in the corner for roosts. Again, no added insulation inside the barn for her Michigan winters. Good luck with your project!

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Lucky you!! I've seen some converted barn coops here as well as three sided (open air) coops. That's basically what you'd be doing since you have the back side...just wire the front, give yourself an entrance, them an exit into a run. Nestboxes, which as patman 75 already mentioned, can be made out of anything, and some roosts in a corner. What I'm learning from this site is that there are many ways to skin a cat...or at least many ways to house chickens

 

[CARS]

I have posts holding my loft up that are spaced about 9' apart. I just added studs between them and wrapped them in wire.

I even built a couple rooms for storage and brooding

And if you have small critters, you can hang cages

Don't waste your time and money trying to insulate a large building. Just keep it ventilated and draft free.

 

[cparian]

Great ideas! Good luck with your design.