Grain bin coop

[firefly76]

Hello BYC world... I'm a new member and new in general to chickens. Don't even have mine yet. But they are on order lol.
My husband and I are in the process of converting a grain bin that we have no use for into a chicken coop. We moved to our property 4 years ago have just under 5 acres an old bank barn and a couple other out buildings... We originally planned to convert the old milk house that is attached to the barn into the coop but it was just too far gone... So after I did more poking around online I came up with the grain bin idea as it has just sat unused since we moved in. So far we have built the wall in the bin dividing it so there is an area for the chickens and then a storage area for supplies.
I have 10 day olds on order to be picked up in 2-3 weeks. And like everything I do they are unique (I like to think so at least) I ordered 2 americaunas, 2 australorps, 2 polish, 2 silkies & 2 cantelopers (sorry I don't have my lil order list so spelling may be way off) really excited to continue work on the coop an meet my lil ones in the weeks to come. I also have two kids who I look forward to watching interact with the chickens (boys 3 years and 5 months)
Hope that our existing animals interact well with the chicks/chickens 2 cats & 2 dogs (one golden retriever and one labX)
What else do I need to know or do? Any advice welcome!! Hope to add photos of the coop in time...

 

[chickencopper]

Grain Bin? I like that. I love to see pics of unusual ideas. One pic is off a station wagon, one of a fridge. Good Luck.

 

[gander007]

Alright

great to have you joining the BYC flock

BYC has a very useful learning center

Sounds like you have some good ideas and something to work with

Good luck with your chicks and please put up some photos when you get your chicks

 

[Ren2014]

 

[TwoCrows]

Welcome to BYC!

So glad you could join our community! You picked out some very nice breeds. Unfortunately, most dogs, even the most well behaved dogs, see chickens as dinner. Lots of threads in our emergency section on how their dogs killed their chickens. So be very careful with your dogs and do not trust them around your birds. There are some threads here on how to train your dogs to be good around chickens, however not all dogs respond to these techniques...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/829562/training-teaching-a-dog-about-chickens

If you run into any trouble with your grain bin coop conversion, you can always post some questions in our Coop Construction forums for some help....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/9/coop-run-design-construction-maintenance

Enjoy this new adventure you are on and welcome to our flock!

 

[drumstick diva]

I must say I have never heard of cantelopers - maybe it's a breed that loves to eat cantaloups

Just kidding. Could it be an AUSTRALORP? I don't know many breeds and can't spell or pronounce a bunch of others.


PS if you really want a unique bird - put "Showgirls thread" in the search box. They are a variety of silkie and share many traits, except one. Both males and females are called Showgirls - there are no showboys!!

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Welcome!

Make sure you have plenty of ventilation in the grain bin coop- and cover your windows with 1/2 inch hardware cloth, which is the only thing that will keep out rats and weasels, which kill chickens.

I have a metal shed coop that I used to have chickens in and it gets very very hot in summer. I had to keep the doors open all day.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! The grain bin to coop conversion sounds really interesting, TwoCrows gave you some links to post on for suggestions. Sounds like you have a pretty little flock picked out and should have a nice colorful egg basket. I am also trying to figure out what a Canteloper could be, besides as drumstick diva said, a melon loving hen... really curious now, do you have pictures?

 

[firefly76]

Chanteclers is the proper spelling, I was way off. Next time I will reference my notes before posting lol!!

My son and father-in-law in front of our grain bin that is being converted into our chicken coop.

The interior wall that will divide chicken area from storage area. Wall will also have the nesting boxes built onto it accessible from the backside for easy egg pickup as well.

We also are looking for two matching windows to install that will be left open during summer months to help keep it cooler and keep some air movement.