Hello from North Dakota

[Christy85]

No idea why the chicken coop floor would be that far down, interesting, hope somebody has an idea, wonder if somebody dug it out to put in or replace a floor / bottom and never got around to it? If its dry sounds like a candidate for the deep litter method.

This coop is old, maybe 50+ years, which makes me exceptionally curious about it. It has a cinderblock foundation which we'll probably dig down in a spot or two to see how deep it really goes. I'll post pictures on here one day to get some thoughts. My husband's theory is that it's just been cleaned out that many times that the floor is lower than it used to be. It seems more... intentional to me. But yes, I would like to do deep litter method, especially for the winter to give a little warmth to the girls.

My husband did a little research and found out that we can rent a "trencher" to run electricity to the coop, probably for $250 for the whole project. I'm digging the converted horse stall idea myself. Then we will only have to fence in one large area, and we can add goats more easily to our little farm family. We'll have to get out there and do some measurements of each of the spaces, see what is going to work best.

I'll post some pictures in a few weeks or so to see if we can get some thoughts. If we decide to clean it all up and use it as the primary coop, I'll post some project photos along the way.

 

[chickwhispers]

Welcome to BYC!!!

I too have an older built coop. Mine has a cement floor though. But foundation walls ares built up 12 inches above the ground instead. I can think of a couple of reasons for putting in a sunken floor though:

1) to keep predators from digging down in. Once they hit the cinder blocks and find they cant get through they're done so I've heard. I would still put wire down 12 to 24 inches out and buried.

2) to help keep it warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. with deep litter in it it will stay warmer than one built on top of the land with deep litter and the earth is definitely cooler in the summer.

It does seem like it would be a chore to clean out as you'll have to "lift" every scoop and pitchfork up.

Good luck with your flock and projects!

 

[Kelsie2290]

Question about the coop building, could it have been built as something else and re-purposed into a coop? Smokehouse, root celler, Springhouse, if you ignore the chicken features does it remind you of something else? Here is a BYC link to a coop which is below grade for the deep litter method https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/738320/diy-chicken-coops-and-managing-the-flock-by-the-old-timers Coop actually made for this method maybe ... you'd think if it was just from cleaning out, somebody would have put a load of dirt or gravel in there sometime in the last 50 years.
You can always start with chickens in the barn and move them to the coop in a year or two if you decide, esp if the barn already has electric and is in better shape....that way you can get the barn finished and ready first since you probably won't fill up all the stalls with goats at once...

 

[Christy85]

Thanks Kelsie, super helpful and I've "subscribed" to that thread you recommended.

I went out to the coop to take some pictures to show you, and found it is in fact a poured foundation. If it was poured at the same time as the house, it would be about 85 years old.

Outside:



Inside:



Please excuse the mess, this is all the garbage the previous homeowners left for us.

 

[Christy85]

And just because I was outside with my camera, here's the barn:

It needs a person-sized door so we don't have to use that crappy garage door every time we want in or out. Right now it just holds our ATV (AKA snow plow) so it hasn't been an issue.


This is the picture of the stall I would like to fortify and convert to a coop:


There are two other stalls as well. For future critters.

This is the view from within the stall (facing south), to give you an idea of the natural light. It was just shy of noon when I took this picture. Of course chickens are not this tall, it was pretty dark from my chest height down.


Again, please excuse the mess as we haven't gotten to these projects yet.This is pretty much how everything looked when we moved in.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Got me, if that was built as a coop, they sure did a -really- nice job on it, for an 80 year old building it sure looks in good shape... are those doors/windows on the front able to be opened? Was that a window above the human door once? What is the head height on the short end, I would wonder about it originally being a chicken coop with the rafters like that, I know you have really heavy snow load there, but don't see how you are keeping the chickens from roosting on them, unless you have really fat chickens. Maybe start your own thread in the Coops forum, maybe somebody will know what is going on with that building...
Looks like you got a pretty nice barn also, wouldn't require much to turn a stall into a nice little chicken home, one light bulb in the middle should take care of the lighting needs, are they wired for light in the individual stalls already? If you do have a run etc, they spend most of the day outside during the summer anyhow and just go in to lay eggs, and they like darkish nesting spots anyhow, so you wouldn't need to light except in the winter when you close things up. I only have lights on in the main coop during the winter, even though it is still dark in the chicken part in the summer, they spend most of their time in the rest of the barn or outside.