Have the chickens, now I need a coop. Please help!!!

[FunClucks]

I have 8 baby chicks, maybe a week or two old (got them from Rural King right after birth). I had a pre-fab coop with run picked out, and was planning on adding another big run to give me 80 ft of ground space, but reading on here realized that there wouldn't be enough space in the coop area for 8 chickens to roost. I am needing suggestions on what kind of coop to build/modify/cobble together. I'm a totally new chicken owner, and sort of good with building things, but it usually takes much more time than I have available while managing small children, hence the attempt to purchase a pre-fab coop. The rejected coop: https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/precision-xl-superior-construction-annex-coop-37077d

Would you recommend I try to convert a metal shed? Maybe this one?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Arrow-N...yQqEnNl8mMhL1QkcTcxoCL_0QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I am in north Alabama, where it is super humid almost all year, maybe we get a few low humidity months in the spring and fall, land of tornadoes, maybe 3 days of snow a year, but usually a month or two of below freezing temperatures. We barely have enough cold time to grow apples. I have about 1/2 acre semi-wooded fenced back yard (chain link), with a stream about 20 feet outside my fence line and vertically down 6 ft. Almost all the trees are 40-50 yr old sweet gum, with one black walnut right next to where I plan to put the coop and run. Issues with poison ivy, issues with ticks and fleas, red hawks, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, neighborhood cats, opossum, water snakes (water moccasin, cottonmounth, rattlers), king snakes, squirrels, song birds, mosquitoes. The proposed coop area gets moderate to heavy shade most of the year (when the leaves are on the trees), and on the worst months the yard is very hot and humid, and the air doesn't move much. We have mainly weeds, violets, and rye grass in the yard at the moment, due to the shade, and lots of tree roots. Heavy clay soil that dries like concrete, and some type of sad grass that looks sorta like Bermuda. Termites are bad here, and there's lots of rotting wood on the other side of my fence and stumps on my property.

For the coop I'm worried about ventilation, poop smell, and keeping the birds safe from predators, as well as having enough space for them and for me to clean it out. There will probably be a number of days they have to stay in their coop instead of their run, for various reasons (weather, etc), and I expect I won't be around during the day most days to check on them when I let them out - they'll get a morning and an evening check. I plan to possibly free range them with supervision, but may not if the run is large enough due to the constant presence of hawks.

The area I have to build the coop and run in is 24' x 48', but I I'd like to enclose 80-100 square feet, and locate a number of pallet hot compost piles nearby. I was hoping to do the deep bedding method, but not sure how successful that would be at keeping smell down in humid alabama.

For the run, should I attempt to build something with 2"x4" and 1/2" hardware cloth, or purchase one of these the chicken runs on Amazon, etc. and cover it with hardware cloth?

I have access to free pallets, but I haven't found anything else I can repurpose, so would have to buy new. Untreated wood, unsealed wood, and unpainted wood is a very bad idea here, so I'd have to do something to every wood surface, if I go that direction.

Any and all suggestions would be welcome.

 

[nuthatched]

The metal shed isn't a bad idea, as long as you really up the ventilation and put it in the shade.

 

[aart]

The inside of the shed.

https://images.thdstatic.com/catalog/pdfImages/18/1802dd4d-dbc6-447a-a6bc-35764f64f785.pdf

I'm kinda worried that once I start removing metal sheeting on the sides it won't be structurally stable.

As long as you don't cut thru the metal framing it should be ok.
Adding wooden framing would work too....and may be needed anyway for windows.

 

[Percheron chick]

Not a fan of metal sheds. They look trashy very quickly, are easily tossed around in a wind storm, are hot, hot, hot and will become even more structurally unsound the more holes you cut to improve ventilation.
Take that $500 and build an 8x8 hoop coop. Line it with hardware cloth and roof it with metal. You will need minimal tools and skills. You can easily get it built in 2 weekends max. Easy to expand or just use as the run down the road.
Chickens in the south should not be housed in a 4 sided structure. Build for the most miserable weather in July and August. Heat kills more chickens then cold.
Thank you for researching those cute prefab coops and saving your $$.

 

[FunClucks]

How do you guys think this idea will hold up for the chicken run frame?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08LGMZVVN/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2KDBGPI4VU5M7&psc=1

Some awesome person in Florida(?) made a mobile coop out of the 7'x7'x12' version of this:

I plan to make a permanent coop by covering the 20 Ft version of this completely in 19 gauge hot dip galvanized 1/2" hardware cloth, surround it with a 2 ft apron of hardware cloth, anchor using Shelter Logic anchors at each pole ( https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...auger-30-in-earth-anchors-4-pack?cm_vc=-10005 ) and connect the hardware cloth together with hog rings. I would frame out a door on one end and have the coop at the other, hoop coop but with a greenhouse frame. I plan to put french drains around the backside of the coop area so the rain water that likes to stand after a rain can drain to my ditch instead of flooding the run area, and use the excavated dirt from the french drains to raise the coop and possibly run area an inch or so.

For a coop, I'm still figuring that out. It will have large roof overhangs, three nesting boxes, and hold a few more than 8 chickens (current number). Predator protection would be solely from the hardware cloth covering the greenhouse frame, and the strength of the greenhouse frame, as I plan to leave the coop open pretty much year round (except for freezing temps, of which we get a few weeks around 20F in the winter). The coop will be inside a fenced back yard, so we don't get neighborhood dogs (so far), but we do get cats, hawks, etc. like I mentioned earlier. I wish I could say I will get up at the crack of dawn every day to go care for the chickens, but that's not realistically going to happen. My son swears he will, but he's pretty young. I think he'll have excellent follow-through but don't want to bet our chickens' life on it, so I figured with a large run and open coop they'd have plenty of space until I make it out there in the morning.

Thoughts?

 

[FunClucks]

Final summer run pics and winterized run pics (plastic on it in addition to the tarp). I added a pallet shelter in the middle, but the (stupid!) chickens kept roosting on top of it, and I got tired of putting them down inside the shelter, so I converted the top edges to a roost. My rooster got frostbite on his comb in the -9F weather, but that's totally unseasonable here. Probably won't happen again for years. Everyone kept all their toes, so I figure it's a win. Used my electric immersion bucket heater for a week to keep the water unfrozen.

No predators have gotten through the hardware cloth, though several have tried to dig. Trapped a raccoon, possum, and have seen foxes and hawks and the neighbor's cats around. No chicken losses this year. No free ranging due to predators and AI. Lots and lots of light due to transparent tarp. Getting 12-14 eggs from my 15 hens in the dead of winter (only one is molting).

Took somewhere around $1500+ to build, but I got exactly the size and configuration I wanted. Only thing to make it better would be exterior access nesting boxes, which would be totally doable if I had the time and inclination. I have some ideas to add poop boards to the roost area so I can collect more poop without shavings for the compost heap, but so far the chickens mix it back into the litter pretty well.

I'm still in the process of setting up a metal shed coop, but I don't think they actually need it. They made it through summer and -9F weather with just a touch of frostbite. I'll probably finish up the shed/coop anyway, but no rush, since we're heading into summer again.

Year-round Fort Knox open coop/run for the win!

 

[rosemarythyme]

This would just be the coop. So I'd have to level the ground, place ~2" of gravel, place cinderblocks and mortar them together, and then fill the gravel inside the coop with sand for a smooth surface for the chickens to walk on? Would the gravel deter burrowers, or would I still need hardware cloth apron?

Gravel doesn't stop burrowing rodents, so plan on an apron.

What's your soil like? You could just do the coop right on the dirt, instead of adding gravel and sand, unless you're intending for sand to be the litter.

 

[aart]

This would just be the coop. So I'd have to level the ground, place ~2" of gravel, place cinderblocks and mortar them together, and then fill the gravel inside the coop with sand for a smooth surface for the chickens to walk on? Would the gravel deter burrowers, or would I still need hardware cloth apron?

Just add the gravel under the blocks, no need to mortar them with one or two courses.
Definitely do the aprons as they can dig under the blocks.
Bedding inside the coop doesn't need to be sand.

 

[aart]

The area has standing water after a rain, so I'm thinking about building it up a bit where the shed will sit. Not sure if gravel or dirt is best to do that with.

Yep, dirt would be better. Gravel will just fill with water and eventually chicken poop for a nasty morass.

How would I attach the hardware cloth to the metal? For both the apron and the ventilation I plan to put on the coop sides and eves? All I can think of is metal zip ties, and that could get pricey cause I'd need a lot of them. I was thinking of pine shavings bedding.

Self tapping screws with washers for attachment.

Yep, sheet metal screws.

 

[EliteTempleton]

Rereading your comments about metal being better where you are, termites and painting being a concern, and how much you would have to modify the shed...
They have this mostly metal one on display at my TSC, it's one of the few perfabs I've seen since I have experience that I would buy. I looked at it pretty close as a breeding or sick isolation pen. It does have wood sides but I recognize the wood from a barn I built years back, it's probably the same and if so is pre-treated for termites and decently treated for water. Plus the rest will hold up and you have a good frame to modify down the road after you learn what isn't working. When I started I bought a similar one like you posted after the farm store worker tried to talk me out of it . That clean out tray is a joke. After about 3 months I built my own like he recommended.
I wouldn't put the floor in probably on this one either, looks like a nice mice cave if you do. Unless you have outdoor cats.
My thought for this option was also that you can probably easily add dog kennel panels to expand it over time. The holes are too big, allowing a predator to reach in and grab them by the neck or get one when it pecks outside of it but it's easy to add HW cloth for the ~18" around the bottom. Plus the covered run will help with your water issue and protect them from the bird flu.
Oh maybe chicken wire above the HW cloth to keep the small birds out of the feed also, if you hang it outside to give them more room.
Otherwise check out cattle panel coops and in general you could do well starting with a dog kennel option, starts fast, easy to keep modifying or growing and can add a different coop on the end if you don't like it so it's not a waste of $.