Do you think this building would make a good start for a coop?

[cindyanne1]

My husband has pretty much decided to sell the coop/run he made for me already to someone with a smaller flock, and make another one for us. He's going to make something more permanant... fencing in a large pasture area and putting a regular chicken house in it.

What do you all think about this building at Lowes?

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=98483-25-LW108&detail=&lpage=none

He would need to finish the inside of it, of course... putting in some roosts and nests and windows. I'd like him to make the nests so they hang out of the side a little with a lid I can lift from the top to get the eggs. He'd have to cut a hole in the side of the building for that, but that hole shouldn't be much different than cutting in windows I wouldn't think.

Can you all think of anything else you would do to that building to make it coop-worthy?

 

[CoopCrazy]

With proper ventilation and an anchor kit .. It should be great.. Ventilation cause those things get hot... Now if you live were it gets exceptionally cold you may need to insulate.. I did that once for my goats just got the thin insulation for houses and covered it with cheap wll panel worked pretty well.

 

[briana1975]

Are you gonna put wood up for interior walls? No windows or vents I would be afraid of cooking my chickens in the summer.

 

[New adventure]

Have you ever put one of these together before? Major pain in ***! It took 3 of us three days to put up my MIL's and I swore never again. I built my shed from scratch by myself in less time than that.

 

[CityChook]

I'm no expert, but seems like I've seen some posts before about difficulties with metal sheds in cold climates. They tend to collect condensation? Do some searching....

 

[flopshot]

Quote:
yes they do. even without the assistance of chickens living in them. and as mentioned the assembly will put a good man into the mental health system. allthough i might consider converting an already existing building i don't think i'd spend 300.00 on a new one.

 

[sillybirds]

I'm not a big fan of those metal sheds, for chickens or otherwise. When the existing one at the house we bought was destroyed by some pretty stiff winds, I replaced it with a Royal vinyl shed which I like a lot. It's more expensive, but I think it would work pretty well as a coop. I remember someone here on BYC uses one.

 

[LaLoomis]

My chickens are living in this exact shed right now. I read a lot of other posts about metal sheds on byc and decided it could work for me. In L.A. we don't have to worry about condensation due to cold weather and I built it under a tree to keep it cool in the summer. I also built a different door with hardware cloth for ventilation. I read that the sliding door didn't work very well and I was concerned it wouldn't be secure enough.

I put it together by myself in a day. I was a little bruised and battered by the end but the shed went up pretty easily.

I'm planning on attaching nest boxes to the exterior and the run is off the back.

 

[preppy*hippie*chick]

On Columbus CL you can get a variety of wooden storage buildings. They look really nice, are built by Mennonite craftsmen, have free delivery and if you don't have the cash up front, they'll "rent to own" starting at $66 per month. Pretty cool! Here's a link.

http://columbus.craigslist.org/grd/1115010472.html

This is a link directly to the site.

www.adkinsportablebuildingsales.com

 

[Robin L]

Ive used one for a year in a half, the only problem was condensation this winter but I didnt have the right ventilation. No matter how much snow we got it as fine, high winds were not a problem (I live near farming fields and have little wind brake) For summer hubby made a front like LaLoomis. Hubby just got me a bigger one in Feb, Im just waiting for him to put it together and this time we will be insulating.