Greenhouse Coop Conversion

[LeslieDJoyce]

We also have a pallet coop (built on a large nursery pallet) we use as the Cockerel Colony coop. I don't like the coop much. It was a lot of work to build for not a lot of interior space, and neither I nor the birds seem to enjoy a wooden coop. Also, I vastly prefer having the bedding in direct contact with the soil so I can do Deep Litter more effectively. And, finally, it was supposed to be "portable" but it is over build and therefore pretty heavy. It's hard to list all the mistakes we made with this coop.

To make the coop more useful, we put an extension on it last spring so we could get more birds in it and their roosts could be over the deep litter. The extension is the plastic-covered cattle-panel hoop part in the front.


Here is the outside of the coop before we put the extension on.



An interior view ... all the normal stuff. The floor is covered in hardware cloth to keep out the critters. The hardware cloth makes it no fun to try to rake the bedding, and the chickens don't much like scratching in there.



Cattle panels in place ...



Finished view, though I cut a hole in the plastic at the end for ventilation. Most of the end of the plastic part facing the camera is a door. The roosts are pretty high, but the birds seem to cope well with that.

 

[Blooie]

You sure have a fantastic setup, Leslie! I have a bad case of coop envy going on here! Can you see what would happen in this little town if I turned my entire lot into a chicken paradise? Love ya!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

You sure have a fantastic setup, Leslie! I have a bad case of coop envy going on here! Can you see what would happen in this little town if I turned my entire lot into a chicken paradise? Love ya!

Ms. Blooie is the person from whom I stole the T-post cattle panel idea. She has a gorgeous & secure run built for her flock using this system as a base. But she fancied hers up a bit. Okay, she fancied hers up a LOT. It's super cute!

 

[Blooie]

"Fancied up"? What, you mean this ol' thang?


Should tell you that we added another cattle panel to the end. Easy as pie if you ever want to do that (not that it looks like you need the extra space)! We just took off the end, which came of in one nice piece complete with hardware cloth skirt and apron still attached, put another fence post up on either side, arched the cattle panel over, wired it to the adjacent existing cattle panel, and closed it back up. Still need to get another piece of lattice to extend the little fence, but that'll have to wait until our next trip to Billings.

I am so stealing your idea of putting a hole in the greenhouse plastic for the fence posts and bringing it down that way! When we covered ours that was the one area we had the most trouble with. It was fine until we got down to where the panels were wired to the fence posts....got a little tight in there!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

"Fancied up"? What, you mean this ol' thang?


Should tell you that we added another cattle panel to the end. Easy as pie if you ever want to do that (not that it looks like you need the extra space)! We just took off the end, which came of in one nice piece complete with hardware cloth skirt and apron still attached, put another fence post up on either side, arched the cattle panel over, wired it to the adjacent existing cattle panel, and closed it back up. Still need to get another piece of lattice to extend the little fence, but that'll have to wait until our next trip to Billings.

I am so stealing your idea of putting a hole in the greenhouse plastic for the fence posts and bringing it down that way! When we covered ours that was the one area we had the most trouble with. It was fine until we got down to where the panels were wired to the fence posts....got a little tight in there!

Amazing what a little paint will do! And the lattice is adorable.

When you poke the fence post through the plastic the plastic might tear a bit. For us that's fine. But if you want to keep it weather tight, you could: a) be more careful; b) use Gorilla Clear Repair Tape to patch it up. Then you can easily roll up the sides for extra ventilation.

 

[Blooie]

Amazing what a little paint will do! And the lattice is adorable.

When you poke the fence post through the plastic the plastic might tear a bit. For us that's fine. But if you want to keep it weather tight, you could: a) be more careful; b) use Gorilla Clear Repair Tape to patch it up. Then you can easily roll up the sides for extra ventilation.

Yeah, we relied heavily on Gorilla Tape. We wound the plastic around those metal lath thingies with the predrilled holes and used zip ties to fasten them together. Ken marked where the holes would go, we put Gorilla tape on that spot on each side, then when he punched the holes for the tape the plastic didn't rip. It held up perfectly through heavy snow and 60 mph winds without a tear! Love Gorilla Tape, so I'll take your advice on using it when we use your method of handling the fence posts. Great tip, by the way!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Fantastic, @LeslieDJoyce

Don't know how I missed seeing your hoop build until now, but that post is so helpful in showing the detail of how you put it all together. The gate/door build is helpful for me too since we'll be doing a goat enclosure w/ some cattle panels here shortly and I was contemplating how I wanted to do the gates.

 

[CzyChikenMath]

I see abandoned, or seemingly so, greenhouse frames all over the place....makes me drool.

Nice coop/orchard system!

.......

Oh how I wish I saw abandoned greenhouses...if any one does in the south jersey/philly area, please let me know. I would like huge space for all my birds... would like 4 sq feet for each,, and my flock is at 250 and will grow

 

[CzyChikenMath]

We have done a couple of cattle panel hoop coops using T-posts instead of a wooden frame and we loved how simple they were to construct. One of them is 25' long.

Do you have any predator problems (including fox?)

 

[aart]

Maybe if we tag @LeslieDJoyce they'll come back and update?