Help! To modify old coop or not?!?

[Percheron chick]

You'll be so pleased with the coop once finished.
I would shovel out more dirt if you aren't making any progress with the smell. With the two sides opened up, I suspect that you will notice a measurable decrease quickly. Consider painting the inside of the coop. The wood will absorb lots of odors. Kilz makes an odor blocking primer. Will help brighten up the interior too.

 

[aart]

Spreading it in the open air would probably work better. If you keep it shut up in the cans, and if there is any moisture in it, it is more likely to grow mold, or start rotting in a stinky way.

Ditto Dat^^^

Add a thin layer (~1")to the run at a time.

 

[gtaus]

Hi again! I have had some people point out that they would be concerned about mites and other parasites in the free wood chips. This is what our city wood chips look like (mostly oak, pine needles and eucalyptus). What are your thoughts on this?
View attachment 2634136

Those chips look fine to me. Where I live, I do not see mites and parasites in our chips, but it may be different where you live. If everything looks good, I'd just put the wood chips to use as you get them. I have my excess wood chips in an open pile outside. I agree that storing them in a waterproof, air tight, container might not be the best option because they might turn moldy.

I like fresh wood chips in my coop, but if I get a batch of older, darker, more broken down chips, I just throw them directly into the chicken run. Last year I got a trailer full of wood chips from the landfill that were older, darker and had been mixed up with soil from the landfill tractor scraping the ground to repile the chips. At that time, that is all they had. But it worked just fine in the chicken run and the partially decomposed wood chips just made my chicken run compost even better.

 

[tree_tyger]

Well we finally got the chickens into the finished coop remodel this past Sunday! The exterior still needs paint, but the inside is done...yay!!!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Well we finally got the chickens into the finished coop remodel this past Sunday! The exterior still needs paint, but the inside is done...yay!!!

What a difference!

Um, one thing to consider... is that meant to be a poop board under the roost? If so, I'd axe the 2nd ramp and move the roost down, like maybe 8-12" above the poop board, or else you're looking at some pretty amazing splatter. Don't ask me how I know this...

 

[tree_tyger]

Don't worry about the smell. You wet everything down and stirred the pot. Once things dry out you shouldn't notice it.
I would work with what you've got. You've got power which is always a bonus. It's pretty dark and dreary so any walls you can replace with hardware cloth will add natural light and increase the ventilation. No such thing as too much ventilation. You can repurpose the chain link panels for the run. Lumber is crazy expensive right now. You'd be looking at $1000 to replace it.

Lots of votes for adding more ventilation but I forgot to ask if we need to worry about the wind. If it's really windy, I suppose we can put up a tarp, but do we need to worry about drafts where the hens are roosting when a tarp is not needed?

 

[gtaus]

As long as the ventilation is above the birds's heads when they're sitting on the roost, wind won't be a problem.

OP states they live in So. Cal. I know that where I live in northern Minnesota, we do not want drafts underneath our roosting hens because the cool, or cold, air might prevent the chickens from keeping themselves warm in the cold months.

I wonder if OP has the opposite problem and needs to be more concerned about keeping the birds cool. In that case, would a draft under the roosting hens be beneficial? Dear Wife is from the Philippines, and their chickens would roost in the trees at night. Certainly there would be drafts underneath them all night.

@tree_tyger, it would be helpful to you if you added your geographic location to your profile. You will find lots of good advice on this forum, but something recommended for raising birds in the northern states may not be good advice for you down in So. Cal. Location matters.

 

[tree_tyger]

"it would be helpful to you if you added your geographic location to your profile. You will find lots of good advice on this forum, but something recommended for raising birds in the northern states may not be good advice for you down in So. Cal. Location matters."

Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely try to get to updating our location, but that is why I described our location in my post. Yes, it is warm & dry in So Cal (we even get a few triple digit days in the Summer) plus our valley can be very windy.

Our weather averages:
Summer High: the July high is around 92 degrees
Winter Low: the January low is 42
Rain: averages 17 inches of rain a year
Snow: averages 0 inches of snow a year

We were definitely confused by what we researched regarding protecting chooks from drafts & winds. Perhaps that's just a cold weather area concern? It seems open air coops with full hardware cloth walls are used in hot areas, but do they still need a fully enclosed area just around the roosts? If I understand correctly, if we live in an area that tends to get very hot, it is not so much a concern.

 

[Windrider]

Hello, fellow Southern Californian! I am not too far from Simi and often participate in dog agility trials there. You guys are defiantly hotter than we are on the coast. Windier, too.

Still, for our climate, I really think the open air coop is the way to go. I agree with another poster that said your old coop looks dreary. If it were mine, I'd take that entire south wall down to the studs and cover in hardware cloth, as well as the two side walls to about half way back. That would leave a three sided section in the back for roosting out of the wind.

My favorite example of this style coop on this forum is here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/texas-coop-build-pic-heavy.1371038/
I basically build a miniaturized version of this and have been happy with it for over 10 years.

 

[tree_tyger]

Hello, fellow Southern Californian! I am not too far from Simi and often participate in dog agility trials there. You guys are defiantly hotter than we are on the coast. Windier, too.

Still, for our climate, I really think the open air coop is the way to go. I agree with another poster that said your old coop looks dreary. If it were mine, I'd take that entire south wall down to the studs and cover in hardware cloth, as well as the two side walls to about half way back. That would leave a three sided section in the back for roosting out of the wind.

My favorite example of this style coop on this forum is here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/texas-coop-build-pic-heavy.1371038/
I basically build a miniaturized version of this and have been happy with it for over 10 years.

Yes! Dreary is definitely the right adjective. It was nice to add the window on the West wall. Really opened it up to some daylight and my neighbors lovely bamboo Would love to see an agility trail one day! We have a Giant Schnauzer that would probably love that kind of work!