Garage coop

[Casey3043]

Here is the inside under construction

First day in the new coop at six weeks old:

Outside views

Hope this gives you some idea of the setup. I took the last picture because I got a kick out of how the baby chickens wanted to roost on those 4 X 4's that I had put along the bottom of the fence. They are there because some of the older hens had pushed under the temporary fence to get to the baby chickens' treats after finishing their own. So now the baby chickens decided to roost there, with their faces mashed against the fence, to watch the older hens. Guess I will have to fix up an outdoor roost for them.

You can just see the run and coop on the left where the older hens live, but they are out in their yard all day.

CASEY

 

[Garlydog]

Those are great! Yes you have given me some ideas. This will be much easier than a free standing coop. Do your chickens ever get out of your yard?

What is the recommended fence height for an uncovered run?

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
I wouldn't recommend a fan, it's just not necessary and they tend not to choke on dust (fire hazard as well as just an aggravation having to replace 'em regularly).

Just make plenty of LARGE, normal (passive airflow) vent openings, both to the garage and to the outdoor, and you'll be fine. With the exception that you might need a fan -- like a REAL fan, not a little bathroom thingie -- if summer heat is a problem. Although, ventilating the garage better will help a lot with that too.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Casey3043]

My outer perimeter fence is only five feet. In two and a half years, no hen has ever flown out. As you can see, the divider fence is a temporary plastic fence to separate the adults from the babies, mainly because they must be on different feeds. It is only four feet high. A couple of the older hens have pushed under when they were highly motivated by treats on the other side. As a result, I give the older hens their treats first and then carry the babies' treats up by their house to get them out of sight. None has gone over the top.

I have two dogs in the backyard. They have no access to the chicken yard. They are in the house at night. I have been lucky with no predators nor stray dogs even though I am out in the country, but I have already bought electric fence supplies, and that will be going up on the top and bottom of the chain link fences around the chicken yard and garden as soon as I can get to it. All the chickens are in secure houses at night, but I've read so many stories on here about dogs and foxes which are out during the day that I am getting a bit paranoid about predators now.

CASEY

 

[patandchickens]

FWIW, I've had sussexes (which are not exactly the lightest and most airborne of breeds

) fly onto, and thus over and out of, a 6' chainlink fence. And that's with very little 'running room'.

Basically they can fly over more or less any height fence if they WANT to; more or less any arbitrarily-low fence will keep them confined if they DO NOT WANT to get out; and the problem is, you can't tell in advance what their wishes are going to be. All I can say is, if you're not going to have a top on the run, make the fence as high as you can stand to, if it's important they stay in.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[TennesseeTruly]

Our coop is built inside what used to be our garage and now is converted to a barn. There were windows that were covered but we've uncovered them. We also took one part of the wall down and their run starts inside the barn and goes outside to the side of the barn. We also have artificial light.

The greatest advantage during this summer was when it was 98 degrees here, it was only 70 in the coop!! In the winter, we'll be buttoning up some of the barn to keep the heat in but I think the same concept will work. Because the coop is basically a building inside a building, inside will be warmer.

It's worked for us.

Laurie

 

[homeschoolmama]

My only thought would be to check you city/county ordinances. Here a chicken coop must be 50' away from residential buildings.

 

[Chickenaddict]

I have a garage coop as well, We furninshed a wall partition that we can easily take apart and use it for 1 wall of our new shed. Concrete floor and no run as the back of the garage goes to the crawl space under the house. I just keep the door open a crack for them to get in and out (they free range around the yard). The dust is definately a factor but if you vacuum once a week it doesn't get too bad. WHat i would have done differently was make it bigger lol and build a run in the garage for them. The biggest pro about it is the person who built the house ran a heat/air duct thru the walls of the house and into the garage thus giving us central air and heat in the winter. For lighting I use a big flourecent light that is on during the day. It is a double stall garage they are in and it does get quite hot. We are still ironing out the details like painting the walls or maybe even installing shower walls in there for easy cleanup, right now it is raw unfinished sheet rock which was already in pretty poor condition when we moved in. When we built this in the garage it was only meant for my serama flock but when the others who live outside in the free standing coop abandoned their home and also moved into the garage, they like it alot better and feel much safer. It is quite nice to pull up a chair and have a visit with them several times a day.

 

[Garlydog]

Quote:
How many birds do you keep? I would love to see any pictures you might have of your setup.

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Will try to take some when I get home. I have 10 buff orpingtons and one chick

in the coop at night. I think it's roughly 6' wide by 12' long.

Even for as big and fat as my chickens are, they had no problem sailing over a 4 ft fence. Just last week I had a 6 ft privacy fence installed and I doubt they'll be able to get over that.