Help! To modify old coop or not?!?

[tree_tyger]

Hello all! We are new chick owners. We just purchased a home with a ½ acre in So. Cal where it gets very hot and in a valley that is prone to winds. At the back of the property corner, there's an old stable (probably 30 years old) that was previously used as a coop. The coop shares a wall with another outbuilding. The roof was recently redone. At one time I think they also had goats and other critters in there, but it was not clean when we moved in ...so, we shoveled out quite a few inches of droppings down to bare floor, power washed the walls inside, sprayed a bleach solution on everything and spread a bunch of Sweet PDZ Stall Refresher on the floor. After all that work, it still smelled unbearably strongly of ammonia. After 24 hrs, we decided there was not nearly enough ventilation, so my husband removed one half of the southern facing wall down to the studs (we plan on covering this wall with hardware cloth, as well as the wall X'd off in one of the attached pics). The other portion of the wall X'd off faces the West. The winds generally come from N-S and NE-SW. We also plan to remove the boards and put up hardware cloth on this Western portion of this wall that has some bamboo growing behind it. We're thinking that will help shield the girls on their roosts from the sun and wind. The front door faces East and will also be converted to hardware cloth. The problem is the smell. Maybe we just need to shovel more of the floor out?!? We intend to add a few inches of construction grade sand for the ground (which we're hoping will help refresh the coop and eliminate the odors). Lastly, we plan to build a 6 ft high fence to create a "free range" run that is about 1/3 of our total property out back.

My question is: Before we invest any more time and money, do those of you with more experience believe this coop is salvagable or should we just dismantle it and start building from scratch. We're concerned the smell will just not go away. The chicks are just over a week old, so we need to make a decision fast!

And thank you all for taking the time to give us your feedback. This forum is an amazing resource!!

 

[Percheron chick]

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.

 

[gtaus]

Wow, I would have loved to have something like that when I started raising laying hens. Two years ago, I had to build from scratch. It was a labor of love, to be sure, but in the end I put in about $800 worth of direct material cost not including I already had most of my dimensional lumber. Today, those lumber prices have gone up 4X-5X in price. So I would have looking at spending over $3000 on my coop. If I faced that decision today, there is no way I would have built my own coop. I can buy a lot of eggs for $3000 and not have to do any extra work.

So, here's my vote for your project. I say upgrade what you got and see how it goes. Ventilation is always key with chickens, but it sounds like you will be increasing that, so you should be good. I expect your ammonia smell will go away with better ventilation. I would also suggest maybe using a temporary fan to force air through the coop to let it breath and freshen up.

I live on a lake, but am not a fan of using sand as litter in the coop. I just have never had good luck with using sand because it does not absorb any smells. What I use is a deep (6 inches) layer of wood chips in my coop. The chicken poo vanishes into the litter and the wood chips absorb the smell. Every once in a while I will fluff up the wood chips and/or throw another layer of fresh chips on the floor. I currently clean out my litter twice a year, once in the fall after the snow melts, and once in late fall before the snow starts falling. I never have a bad ammonia smell in my coop. At the slightest indication of ammonia, I will fluff up the chips and throw some fresh chips in the coop. My coop smells like the forest floor.

I don't know how much dirt you have already removed, or how well the previous owners kept up with the coop, but I would certainly dig out the top few inches. If the soil still smells, maybe a plastic wrap could be laid down on the soil to lock in that smell, cover the plastic with a layer of sand, and then top it off with a thick layer of wood chips. I expect that would do the trick.

But yeah, the nose knows. If the smell is no good for you, then it's no good for your chickens either. Other than the smell issue, it really looks like you have an excellent setup to upgrade and enjoy. We all should be so lucky. Best wishes.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Don't worry about the smell. You wet everything down and stirred the pot. Once things dry out you shouldn't notice it.

x2. I'm thinking that's why it might even smell worse now than when you started. Moisture + whatever-was-in-there = yuck.

 

[tree_tyger]

Thank you for your replies! We are feeling a little better about it all and are certainly grateful to have such a sound foundation to start with. And, yes, the price of lumber is high! We recently spent over $300 for just 6 sheets of plywood to refloor the workshop--ughh! I think we will definitely shovel a few more inches of dirt out and continue w/the "improving ventilation" plan. Hopefully the smell will improve once it dries out completely; it is still unusually cold and damp out today, so that might have something to do with it too!

 

[gtaus]

it is still unusually cold and damp out today, so that might have something to do with it too!

Cold and damp may increase the smell. Nothing wrong with putting a fan out there temporarily to dry things out. Then you would have a better idea of where to go from there.

I should have also mentioned that part, maybe a big part, of why I am such a fan of using wood chips is that I can get all I want for free from our county landfill. Nothing better than free bedding. Plus, after I clean out the wood chips in the coop, I spread them out in the chicken run and let them compost in place. When I need compost for the garden in the fall, I will sift out shovels full of chicken compost. I built a cement mixer compost sifter just to harvest all that chicken compost.

Speaking of which, if you have dug out the smelly soil in the coop, you could probably mix that in a compost pile if you have one started. If you don't have a compost pile yet, I would suggest planning on it because chickens are natural composters. They scratch and peck things into compost in no time. You just have to let the chicken poo in the compost age for a number of months before use. Chickens and gardens go together well.

At any rate, you certainly have a nice setup there to work with and your planned improvements should make it even better.

 

[3KillerBs]

Here's another vote for conversion. I agree that getting the place wet and stirring it up released the ammonia.

Additionally, ammonia rises so you need ventilation at the very top of the coop -- right now it's being trapped up near the roof.

Can you get the soffit blocks out and put hardware cloth in their place? Maybe even the top siding board too (the one above those tiny vents)?

 

[aart]

Don't worry about the smell. You wet everything down and stirred the pot. Once things dry out you shouldn't notice it.

My thoughts exactly.

I'd add more windows and remove the blocking here:

 

[tree_tyger]

My thoughts exactly.

I'd add more windows and remove the blocking here:
View attachment 2615766

Great idea too! We will definitely try that. And, yes, I forgot to add that we also have plans to add another large window. Thank you so much for your feedback!

 

[tree_tyger]

Here's another vote for conversion. I agree that getting the place wet and stirring it up released the ammonia.

Additionally, ammonia rises so you need ventilation at the very top of the coop -- right now it's being trapped up near the roof.

Can you get the soffit blocks out and put hardware cloth in their place? Maybe even the top siding board too (the one above those tiny vents)?

Definitely a great idea. Someone else suggested a similar solution with the ventilation up top too. Sounds like that will be part of our plan!