Coop help, need ideas

[Ste]

We are new to the world of chickens but have wanted to get some for quite some time. We want some egg hens. Our neighbors moved and gave us their turkey coop which in this picture is almost completly put together but this picture shows the inside. It has a front with a door and a plywood roof. We would like to convert it to a chicken coop and needs some ideas on how to do this. We are in San Diego so it doesn't really get cold here (it's November and it was 93 degrees today - too hot if you ask me!)

Do we need to completely enclose it? We have a large yard that they will have access to and it's all fenced so I think we would be safe with letting them out. Can anyone give me some ideas on what we need to do to get it ready for some hens?

 

[skatcatla]

Hi there! Did you survive the fires ok?

I think if you just wanted to go with the basics, you could get by just fine with a roof (to keep rain off) and enclose the whole thing in hardware cloth to keep predators and rodents out.

Add something for a nest box and you'd be good to go!

 

[Ste]

The fires came within 4 miles of our home. It was very scary but thankfully we didn't have any damage.

What is hardware cloth?

 

[Ste]

Ok I went and looked it up - it's the wire around the outside. There is wire around the top. Is this wire to large? Do we need to get a smaller size?

 

[Dawn419]

Hi!

Welcome to BYC! Here's an excellent post about hardware cloth.

Dawn

 

[skatcatla]

Yeah, we were south of the Malibu fires. A lot of smoke and very nasty for awhile!

The wire along the top is probably fine, since I don't think rodents could easily climb straight up the sides, but make sure you don't stick anything on the outside that they could use to jump from. You'd be amazed at how high up rodents can get!

For the bottom or front or an attached run, you'll want 1/2 inch hardware cloth which is much tougher and has harder holes. Rats could easily bite through wire like what you have on the top. Are you going to put a floor in?