Garage conversion to coop?

[nessatar]

I live in the city proper and am planning to raise a few hens this spring. I've been gardening for a few years, so this is the next step in our "urban homestead" progress.

The coops I have seen for sale are much too expensive for us, so I am trying to decide whether to build from scratch, convert a dog house, or convert a corner of our large garage into an indoor coop with access to a fully enclosed outdoor run. I am leaning toward the garage idea because our garage is unused (except for storage of lawn and garden things).

Has anyone has success with this sort of project? The garage is unheated and unlit (except for one south facing window), but I think any other coop would be as well, right? Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated by this newbie.

 

[arlee453]

There is someone here who has a built a coop in the corner of their garage - it's really neat...i'll see if I can find the link.

As long as you keep it cleaned out regularly, it should work well, I'd think.

Ah ha - found the one I was thinking of - Sea Chick's... Great pics here of how they integrated the run and coop...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=17801

 

[HenHaven]

That is the coop that came to my mind...it is very attractive too!

 

[nessatar]

Wow, that looks great! I don't have *fantastic* carpentry skills, so modifying an existing structure would be super. Glad to see it works!

 

[SeaChick]

Yup, that's us. I am really happy with the garage coop!! There may be different/more info in our "coop page" (see signature below) if you want to see more.

I would have loved to have a beautifully designed and built freestanding coop, like gargen art, but we had time and money constraints and this was ever so much easier.

If you have any questions about this project please feel free to ask!

I think we spent perhaps $350 for everything, and most of that was the fancy roofing for the run, and insulation. We started collecting materials months in advance: I salvaged the rough-hewn 4x4s and lots of scrap plywood from a local construction site; we got pieces of thin paneling (to cover the insulation inside) and some 2x4s on "big trash day"; got cheap windows and linoleum from the local Habitat for Humanity "Re-Store", etc. WE also saved some $$ by framing the new interior walls with 2x3s rather than 2x4s.

Stacey

 

[SeaChick]

Oh, I would say try to build the coop to encompass the south-facing window if you can. Especially if you live where there is crummy weather and you don't have a fully-roofed run, they're bound to spend time indoors. Garages can be awfully dark. I'd recommend stapling hardware cloth over the window (maybe the outside so you can still easily open it in summer) and having it in the coop. You are definitely going to need ventilation, that window can be some, and I'm really happy we built the two other opening windows into our interior walls (Actually one window and the door window panel; both are "screened" with harware cloth.)

It did not take terribly good carpentry skills. If get a real basic book from the library or Home Depot it will show you how to frame stud walls. Corners are the trickiest. But if you have a table saw, square, measuring tape, electric drill/screw-gun you will be all set.

Stacey

 

[ams3651]

Im am planning on doing a similar thing to a free standing one car garage "shed" I have, in the spring. I hope it turns out half as nice, I dont have and real big carpentry experience but looking at the builds in process on here I have some great ideas of how to do it.

 

[nessatar]

Thanks Sea Chick!

We have been doing some remodeling around our house so we have quite a few leftover supplies. I think we should be able to do this rather cheaply. There is currently a fenced dog kennel (10x20) attached to the side of the garage, so we will just need to put up some taller posts and enclose the whole things with wire. I don't think we have raccoons or anything, but I don't want to find out the hard way!

I found some other threads on this forum discussing some cheap and easy nesting boxes, too. I am really looking forward to incorporating as much "reuse" as we can.