*FINISHED, with pics!* What would you do with a 15' by 10' shed/room?

[CountryFried]

Quote:
We average a low of 40 in the winter, but it does get below freezing here sometimes. I thought insulation would help in the summer, too? It gets pretty hot here then.

 

[patandchickens]

Insulating the exposed metal wall will help somewhat with late-day heat if it is the West wall; *possibly* if it is the South wall; not at all if it's the North or East wall. Personally, unless it is the west wall I would not bother. (If it is the south wall AND if next summer you feel a whole lot of heat radiating off it, you can very very easily insulate it then)

As for ventilation, what you really want in Alabama is one completely-open wall. Seriously.

Honestly if it were me, what I'd do is this. I would remove all the metal siding from the wall that is shared with the run. I would then beef up the run rafter/post structure enough to be able to add some 2x4s as purlins and use that removed metal siding to build a partial roof for the run. It may leak a little and it may not hold up to hail quite as well as if you'd used roofing-gauge steel but really in Alabama and for a chicken *run*, WHO CARES and it is FREE

Very seriously. If you do this, you would then want to fix up that wall you stripped open by adding diagonal bracing (just screw a coupla 2x4s on, one or two slanted to the right and one or two slanted to the left, over the largest diagonal dimensions that are available without obstructing whatever door access you want) and also add some good predatorproof wire, such as 1x1 or hardwarecloth. This will keep your coop about as cool as you can realistically expect. (Putting vents-to-outdoors high on the opposite wall from the open side may provide a little extra cooling but if it were me I'd wait til next summer and see if I really needed it)

Good luck, have fun, looks like a great setup (woo hoo, slab floor!!),

Pat

 

[CountryFried]

Quote:
The west wall is the one with the windows cut out, but they are now covered with metal on the outside. The narrow door is to the south, that's where it will open into the run, I could possible open into the run from the west, too. The north wall is the one that is metal only, and has the two pop doors already cut in it, but the run will not encompass that area. East wall is the one with the door into my workshop, I won't cut anything on that wall, because we do use the 3 bays for storage and working in.

The run is already mostly covered? (I'm trying to figure out what purlins are, I did google and read they are roof support, but I'm not sure I completely understand them.)

There's a rough drawing of the entire structure. The orange already exists, the black line is where I was planning to put the run. It is definitely not to scale LOL.

Is that enough of the run to cover with a roof? I'll cover any that isn't under roof with wire of some sort to avoid owls and hawks, of course.

Now if I do a 3-sided, do I need to make the 4th side a door? Do they need to be locked in at night, or do I just use it without a wall or anything on that side?

 

[CountryFried]

Updated the first post with pictures of our finished "coop", thanks to everyone for the ideas and suggestions!

 

[annaraven]

What lucky chickens!

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

What awesome space!! I see many more chickens in your future!!