Help! Ideas to Maximize Run Addition?

[khind]

I hope these pics make sense. Remember, there's a small coop attached mid-east of this coop/run.
Purpose: My reason for adding more run is to add square footage, but I'd also love to add ventilation to the coop itself. So I'm looking for suggestions on how I could do that. But there's not much to work with, I'm afraid... However, by adding footage, I would have more room to install a swamp cooler or other cooling device.

I realize now that the windows I cut out of its walls could have been made larger, so I'd like to do that. However, I'd also love to just knock out all or a lot of the west wall of the coop. The strongest and coldest winds in my state come out of the north, so the most I could do on that wall would be to make a thin window up top for all year (or maybe that's Not a good idea for winter?) &/or a larger window only for the summer that could be closed up for winter.
Does the fact that about 1/2 the wire coop floor is exposed count as ventilation?
(In winter, the run is wrapped in plastic, on the n, e, & s walls; the w. wall is only covered in the same ventilating shade cloth that's up in the summer and on rainy days.)
Note: the only reason I keep bringing up the ramp to the coop in the pics is for viewers' orientation, & so that you can see that n. wall & where the w. wall is in relation to it.
Note: this metal roof is not insulated yet.
Note: the poles look illogical in one of the photos because of the angle I took the pic on. Yes, one is too tall & will be lopped, but they all widen the building west and lengthen it by extending back (north).

 

[igorsMistress]

One thing I've seen people here who live in HOT summer, COLD winter areas do is to open the coop into the roofed run for good summer airflow and then use plastic sheeting around the run walls (leaving the top open for ventilation), for winter.

Someone, I've forgotten who, has removable wall panels that change the coop from sheltered for winter to open air for summer.

I have that option. If you go to my coop page I show how we did it.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/a-desert-oasis-updated-2-2020.75224/

 

[3KillerBs]

I have that option. If you go to my coop page I show how we did it.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/a-desert-oasis-updated-2-2020.75224/

That's not the coop I'm thinking of, which I *think* is in the midwest, but it's a good illustration of the technique.

 

[khind]

I am so sad & I feel at a loss. I've been working out there on some project many hours of every day - working according to the weather - rewiring the large existing run myself, raising chicks in the house, who are now old enough to move outside & use that new run space DH and I are building, separating my roo from the ladies because he's got a favorite who now has a bald spot on her head...

New Run: We got the roof up and wired the walls, but next I still had plenty of work left to do: caulk ceiling holes left by the aluminum panels' previous use, haul in more dirt and start the deep litter, troubleshoot some key spots for security... all of which I go out there to work on. But in the process, we had some rain - fine. But then, more rain, and more rain, around 10 days' worth, almost all day long (& sometimes literally all day), including long, heavy downpours. And the rain is still coming.

So some of my lumber that I couldn't move is soaked (a few wood scraps randomly tossed out there have mold on the back side). Some lumber still needs to be cut to do patch work in the hard-to-patch, awkward-angled spots that reared their heads between the existing coop and the addition; the ground is like a wet sponge, the dirt ground immediately surrounding the buildings (from chickens stripping those areas) is a muddy mess only becoming worse by my walking on it... And of course, I'm still waiting to caulk those holes in the new-run ceiling. I will need to go and get whatever replacement lumber I need today. But that surrounding ground must be addressed now - the erosion is really getting bad.

In our region which is usually in a drought, in the past couple years whenever a very heavy rain would be on the way (they'd become monsoon-type), I would prepare by hauling dirt from a couple of huge piles we have on the property. I would shovel it around the coop where the chickens dug for their baths, & inside the runs in the same low spots. But those piles are now just soaked-through hills (of mostly clay).

I've got deep litter in the large & small runs. The small run is still doing well - it's dry and smells like nothing. One positive note.

But the large run has started to get wet & keeps getting wet along the interior edges/"floorboard" areas from all this rain, so I rake it around, but for the first time, that deep litter now stinks! I've raked the wet spots & used zeolite...
(I cover the run walls with garden shade cloth. It does a good job of ventilating, and some mist gets in, I'm sure, which is fine. But I think the rain has just been heavy enough & the winds strong enough that rain got in through gaps.)

And, worst of all, last evening when I went to check and lock up the large coop for my ladies who had gone up to roost, when I opened that coop/roost door, I caught a whiff of MOLD. My worst nightmare. All the work to make your chickens' lives healthier, and now they're going to get sick and die of Mold!

So... I guess I need to treat the wood inside the existing coop for mold, and make a new door to replace the roost door (which seems to have the most water damage), and then...? hope that the mold gets killed and dries enough for me to prime and paint it with the anti-mold products I bought, until I can bit-by-bit replace some of those wood pieces...? I don't have electricity out there - I run an extension cord; once the rain stops, maybe I can get a small dehumidifier to run in there during the day while they're all in the run, in the meantime?
I wonder if I need to start over with deep litter in that large run. If so, could I throw out the litter that looks good right onto the surrounding muddy ground, and work it in with some hauled-in wet soil? (I wonder if it's too wet for any sod to take...)

I'm sorry this is so long. I'm so sad I feel like throwing in the towel, but I can't! I've got another few weeks b4 my job picks up again, so I've got to get the most done I can. Any kind of experience or ideas that pop up... I would appreciate. Maybe even more than that I just need to vent, and I know that people here would understand...

 

[khind]

Great idea about pallets. I have a couple just sitting around. I have some large boards too, but the last thing I need is large areas of wet ground covered up.
That pine straw sounds awesome! I have pine trees in my surrounding woods as well, some of which I've mixed into the deep litter. I wonder if I could do more with it. In fact, I'm going to have a forestry person out here soon to look at out pines & discuss how many of which kind should stay or go, and ways I can use the extras. I will definitely add the coop to our discussion.
DH & I decided to have some topsoil delivered. And then, I know I've seen some well-functioning chicken yards with what looks like rocks right up to the chicken house. It actually looks like gravel. We can get some of that as well. When I first started with chickens, I planted rosemary bushes right in front & back, which they dug around without digging up. The bushes all died one year in a freak freeze-thaw-freeze, & then the smaller herbs I replaced them with just didn't flourish... and then it all got dug into and I let it go. I'm thinking added soil and rock right up to the buildings and extending a couple of feet or so... (They would lose that dust bath area right there (which is shady), but there are plenty of other shade spots and trees in the yard.) And then plan out another simple, easy to maintain area beyond the rock. That might be a good start anyway.

 

[igorsMistress]

Well, after finishing my new run/addition, I just looked at your coop and description again the other day. It's so helpful! I've gotten valuable ideas from it. Thank you for all the detail!

Good morning. I’m so happy it has helped you! If you have any questions I’m happy to answer them.
Do you have pics of your new run/addition?

 

[rosemarythyme]

I also thought of doing the easier thing and just cutting and stapling on garden shade cloth, but I thought that anything with any give at all might encourage them just to try pushing a little harder to get through. These clowns!
Any thoughts or other ideas? I'm all ears!

If predator proofing isn't an issue, something like bird netting (preferably the stiffer, easier to handle stuff) or deer fencing stretched fairly taut and stapled on should work to keep them out of the openings.

If predator proofing is needed, then you'll want to go with hardware cloth or welded wire for sure.

 

[khind]

I just went ahead and used hc since it was the thing I had most handy that would be stiff enough for them to get the hint the first time they flew at it to try to sit in the openings (& some of them did indeed fly at it last night). I should have said that this is an interior wall.

 

[khind]

I'm finally attaching some pics of my run addition! I finished it - for now - in early July. But soon after getting the main work done, I discovered one of my sweet hens had gone blind... Maybe you can fill in some blanks... It broke my heart!! It also changed my daily work load for quite a while until she recently took a turn which indicated I would no longer be able to give her a happy, healthy life on earth... Thankfully, all others are asymptomatic, for now anyway, but I'll be keeping a closed flock from now on.
Here are pics I took back in July. The Run Addition is all the way on the RIGHT, to the right of the big wire outside door. At this stage, my adolescents would soon be integrated into the adjoining wired run and coop with some adult hens. (The small coop, also attached, is to the far left, visible in a pic or two. My adult roo is currently in there til the adolescents get a little older.) We made an inside door to the addition to keep the birds separate. It's also proven handy for doing things like wellness checks on the birds, in "privacy." Lol.
I also rewired the original run - the one in the middle with the big outside door- which is why that run and door look extra- cagey.

You'll be able to see cut-outs to the coop wall (a green wall) which I also covered in HC to keep the adolescents from perching on the thin walls. However, between my hen's health needs and now returning to work in brick and mortar, with a long drive, I'll have to pick up the job of creating suitable coverings for some wall holes I also cut on the Outside wall of the original coop (outside green walls) at a later date. Temps are currently back to the 90s and it feels like 103, so the chickens were happy for the extra holes in their coop walls.

On the new run, I wired on an apron. At this time, there are square pavers on it which serve as a makeshift walkway.

We had some challenges to adding on to the existing building. We ended up with some weird and wavy places, so I had to go back and add more lumber in places to make it all secure.

I planned on adding 2x4s to the outside to match the horizontal 2x4s in the inside, and I also need to find a suitable material to screw in to the outside corners from top to bottom, as the HC overlaps there and catches on the shade cloth. (I hope that makes sense. ) We also had to stop short of making awnings! The metal-cutting blade kept popping out during cutting of the roof, which made the work take longer than we would have liked... and made for a very sore arm! A wood blade stayed in! But it left jagged edges on the metal. Anyway, we'll return to the awning task when we figure out what's going on.

 

[3KillerBs]

Build a Feeder and Waterer shelter for your run: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/an-outdoor-shelter-for-the-feeder-and-waterer.76487/