how do i convert half a shed in to a coop

[tsc11]

i need some ideas for my new chicken shed im getting ready for the winter days

 

[NewChic13]

We converted part of our shed into a coop. We used an old unused work bench for the nest boxes.
Here's how it turned out.... (sorry the pics are sideway, not sure how to turn them.) It's not the prettiest coop on BYC, but the girls seem to like it!

Outside run

Inside coop

Now I just need to finish the water and feeding stations.

Have fun, Good Luck!

 

[ll]

Our Hen House is a shed

good luck!

 

[stargazingmommy]

my coop is built in a corner of the shed. 2 walls are shed, 2 are pallets.
this weekend I'm going to be opening the wall on the side of their run and making an enclosed path to the duck pen, so the chickies can go play in there, since the ducks won't stay in there.

 

[Huskeriowa]

This is how I did mine and it seems to work well for me. Good luck.

 

[chickiepie]

Here is what we did with our shed coop. I framed up the area on one side. It is slightly unfinished in these pictures. Also, on the wall of the shed (not showing) we built a sliding door that I believe would be impossible for any creature to open. Heck! I can barely open and close it myself.

 

[NottinghamChicks]

Quote:
Here is my shed conversion. We purchased it on Craigslist for $125, turned 3/4 of the interior into a coop and added a run. Now in the winter I can get out of the weather to clean, collect eggs, and feed. Works wonderful! I have the floor raised up to waist level so I have extra storage inder the birds.
Exterior view

Looking inside the prople door

Inside the shed looking into the coop

Looking out to the run

Looking through run

 

[Ridgerunner]

Photos really do help.

How to post pictures/avatar
http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=26838

Then some reading that I think should be required for people building a coop. I'm not sure where you are or what your climate or conditions are, so you may not need them all, but Pat is good. They are good articles.

Pat’s Big Ol' Ventilation Page
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-VENTILATION

Pat’s Cold Coop (winter design) page:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-winter-coop-temperatures

Pat’s Big Ol' Mud Page (fixing muddy runs):
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-fix-a-muddy-run

I have no idea how big yours is, how many chickens you have, if you want a walk-in or not, or how you manage your chickens so it is hard to be very specific. But, in general, for a coop you need a few certain things.

It needs to be predator proof. Basically any hole bigger that 1" needs to be blocked some way. Some snakes, rats, and some members of the weasel family can still get in, but they are real hard to stop anyway. Keeping the openings 1" or less will keep the bigger things out. So depending on how the shed is built, you may or may not have work to do to make it predator proof.

For digging predators, if you don't have a solid floor, I suggest putting an apron around the coop. Take maybe 18" of wire (hardware cloth or such. I used 2"x4" welded wire) and lay it horizontally around the coop and connecting it to the bottom. That way, a predator goes up to the coop, starts digging, hits the wire, and does not know to back up and start digging again. Some people bury it an inch or two, but I just laid a few big rocks on it to hold it down. It got covered up on its own pretty quickly.

You will need ventilation. Read Pat's article. Again, I don't know what your shed looks like. When I built my coop by closing off the end of a 12' x 60' shed, I had to tear out the end wall and rebuild it for the door, pop door, and window. So I built a solid 8' high wall with all those things in it, but left the rest under the peak of the roof open and covered it with hardware cloth. I did the same thing on the top of the wall I built inside the shed. On the two sides, I closed off the areas between the roof, the top of the walls, and between the rafters with hardware cloth. So I have good ventilation on all four sides up high. I also left an area at the bottom of the inside wall open at ground level and covered that with hardware cloth. I can block that off in the winter but open it for the summer. But in the winter, all the ventilation at night is well over their heads so they are not in a draft when roosting.

You will need roosts. The minimum I suggest is 8" per bird and I prefer more. They will not use that much room once they are up there, but they spread their wings when they jump. They need room to get on and adjust their positions. Plus mine can get vicious on the roosts when I have younger chickens. In those close spaces, they really enforced their pecking order rights. I like to have some extra room so the ones at the bottom of the pecking order can get away from the others.

I position my roosts as low as I reasonably can and still have them higher than anything else so they sleep on the roosts. In my coop, with my nesting boxes, that is about 4 feet high, which is about 4 feet under the bottom of my ventilation. My full sized chickens can and do fly straight up to the roosts, but they can also use my nesting boxes, which are off to the side, as an intermediate launching pad.

You'll need nesting boxes. How many depends in how many chickens you have. The rule of thumb is one nest for every four hens, but that is just a very generic number for people that have to have a number. No matter how few chickens you have, I suggest a minimum of two. That gives you some flexibility if one goes broody. If you have a dozen to a dozen and a half hens, the 1 nest for 4 hens is a pretty good number, but if you have more than that, you can start looking at a 1 to 5 or 1 to 6 ratio. It never hurts to have extras but you don't absolutely have to have them.

That's basically it. To make a shed into a coop, you need it to be predator proof, have ventilation, have roosts, and nesting boxes. Anything else is gravy. To convert half a shed into a coop, you need to build an interior wall.

I did put a people door on the inside wall to the rest of the coop. I store the feed, extra bedding, and other stuff in the rest of the shed, so that door comes in handy. You can carry feed and not have to get in the rain.

Hope some of this helps. Good luck

 

[Moonkssd]

I am in the process of doing this now. We have made a wall with a door in the middle of the shed to access a storage room.