Help Needed

[BrandonsBirbs]

and glad you found an inexpensive metal shed. SHoot us some photos, maybe we can help out.

Also, I use a sliding gate hasp, mounted vertically near the bottom of the door to keep my people door open on my coop - i just push the bolt down into the dirt. Works great. Possibly you can do something similar. Just make sure it clears the ground when the rod is over the other post. If needed, you can put a "reciever" in the ground to take the other end with a short piece of PVC, etc.

View attachment 3324242

It's not full height but works kind of perfectly for us because we needed it to not be! Really poorly rated brand but Ive had 5 of these in different sizes and every single one has been great, people just complain about the assembly.

Good shout on the hasp I like those, we can't do anything to the brick floor but could definitely make that work, those to be fair these doors stay open anyway normally.

 

[BrandonsBirbs]

Sounds lazy but I can't be bothered to screw the wood on I just feel like that's another job to do and with the shed on bricks nothing will get underneath it so dirt would probably be fine, my only worry would be rain could probably get in around the bottom

Yeah the roofs for some of these sheds provide okay ventilation to start with so it's a case of only a few smaller vents around the sides

I will add, the amount of water that gets into quail shed which has no floor and is on bricks, is pretty minimal but our cages are all evelated anyway.

 

[BrandonsBirbs]

There is also...

The mighty "gate drop rod" - which can be made from a bent piece of scrap rebar and some strap/conduit fittings you had laying around (plastic or metal). Though the plastic don't last long.

Sorry cannot visit the Lowe's site in the UK it's banned idk why

 

[BrandonsBirbs]

I have a coop/run combination - that seems to be what yours will be for the days you are gone.

I don't how much you will need but this may help you decide how much to build.

I based the size on 14 sq feet (1.3 sq meters) per chicken for a planned flock size of 4 to 6 hens. This was taken from the 4 sq feet for coop plus 10 sq feet for run often recommended as minimums by this community. The chickens have 8'x10' (2.4 x 3 meters) - outside dimensions, though. Five standard sized hens seemed uncomfortably cramped. Four seem very comfortable.

They have three or four levels of various sizes above floor level (roost - if you count it as a level, poop board, platform with feed on it, platform with nests on it). The floor space loses a few sq cm to the waterer and a couple thousand sq cm to the dust bath tub. They currently use all the levels as floor space except the roost (they will get on it in the daytime but only to talk to me as I clean the poop board - as far as I've seen), and under the nest box platform (it is either too low to be comfortable or they don't like how crunchy the autumn leaves I use as bedding are, maybe).

I think personality is important as well as sq meters per chicken. I'm pretty sure the fifth hen, Spice, was a trial to the others. She was much, much more active than the others and in their faces. She and another hen also never really settled who was top hen... after 17 months together. It was never open warfare but it wasn't peaceful, either.

My current four (three australorps and one brown leghorn) seem very content and having enough space. I expect if I had four but one was Spice, the space would still seem quite tight.

Oh. I didn't read everything.

A shed that size should work for what you want to do.

I hold doors open with cement blocks too. Or pails of feed - which are a little easier to move. Someday I might get around to a kickstand or something.

That's okay, I appreciate your insight it's very useful and I have no idea the true size of these bantam silkies as I do believe the US and UK sizing is different so I wanted to overdo it. According to the sizes I found (giving birds 2.5sqft each) I need around 10sqft total, this is 24.5-25.5 total sqft inside so I think that's golden.

Temperaments definitely a big factor though, quail have taught me that!

I could even do the nest boxes on the outside to provide even more space, I'm assuming only two of these would be plenty, but on the outside I could do 20

 

[3KillerBs]

my only worry would be rain could probably get in around the bottom

Is a drainage ditch around the thing possible?

 

[BrandonsBirbs]

Is a drainage ditch around the thing possible?

Not if it meant touching the bricks, I can have whatever I want on top but not really allowed to drill into them or take any out

 

[3KillerBs]

Not if it meant touching the bricks, I can have whatever I want on top but not really allowed to drill into them or take any out

If it proves to be problem it might help to put a gutter on the shed and lead water away.

You might even be able to put sandbags around the exterior to direct water around the coop.

 

[BrandonsBirbs]

Well managed to build the shed last night, took about 4 or 5 hours on my own in the pitch black (sunset is @4:25pm) with a handy Poundland torch. Looks great, seems pretty solid, shorter than I'd like but it's actually the perfect height for what we needed.

1 of the 6 Silkie eggs smelt REAL bad so thrown it.. put the last 6 in today, the seller of these decided to send them late because they were feeling lazy.. yay for staggered hatches.

 

[BrandonsBirbs]

Considering these for the flooring, very well reviewed and supposedly waterproof completely. Very thick too.


Having a lot of issues with the condensation, all those vents and it's not made a difference.. not sure what to do. Should I cover the walls with insulation? It would have to be removed in the summer? Idk