Is orientation important when planning out the coop?

[Knock Kneed Hen]

I'm converting an old 12 x 12 horse box stall into my coop. I'm in southern California so the coldest it's been here in the mountains has been in the upper teens with some wind...that's real rare though. It usually doesn't get below 25 degrees. The stall is a pipe corral model that we've added T-111 to the outside of. It has a corrugated tin roof. It's currently covered on the west, south and east sides. We get extreme winds from the east and the storms roll in from the west. The door is on the north and that's the side currently not covered. I was thinking of moving one of the panels from the south to the north side to let more light in on the south side. I just worry about the wind. I also bought some plexiglass so that I can cut out a couple of light windows on the south side. I will also be adding an enclosed yard for them to scratch in and I also plan on letting them free range. My biggest concern are the winds. We get pummeled from Oct-May from the east so it absolutely must be sheltered or the poor things will get wind-whipped. I plan on giving them some well-built snuggly nest boxes (sorry, not the right term I suspect LOL).

My question is, if you imagine the 12 x 12 broken up on each side into 3's (4 ft=the width of each plywood) and remember that the door is on the north side how would you set it up? Are the nest boxes supposed to face into the sun? Should the roost be up against the wall and if so which wall?

I have my horse stalls covered east, west, north and 1/2 south walls. This works great for them. They don't lay of course so they don't need a ton of light when they're hunkering down in there out of the wind.

Thanks for any of your help. Warning....I may be considered a bit of a nut. I just want to get it right. Ugh!! I wish I could have started from scratch but I'm fortunate to have what I have so I'm not complaining...or am I? LOL

 

[patandchickens]

Chickens actually prefer a dimly lit place for laying, so it is *fine* to have the nestboxes back in the darker portion of the coop. So I would say, just do what you have found works well for your horses; you can add a few extra plexiglass window type panels if it seems *too* dark in there, but as long as the chickens have access to outdoors, and as long as it doesn't get too *hot* in there in the summer (much more of an issue for chickens than for horses), you should be fine.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[gsim]

Quote:

I would do the door on the south side if I had a choice. Good idea to let more light in there too as sun is more south in wintertime. I am in Tennessee and did mine that way. N side has no windows at all and I have a window on E, W, and two windows on S side plus the two pop doors and my entrance door. Nests are on N side and roosts are twice as high and on So side. Coldest winds are N, NW, NE. Summertime breezes are predominantly SW. So that is the reasoning behind mine. Have you considered predators and how to protect from them? A converted shed can be a predators dream. Weasels only need a hole the size of a quarter to sneak in and they are chicken vampires. Just at thought before you get too far along.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Thanks. I don't know if we have weasels or not. I've never heard anyone speak of weasels in the 10 years I've been at this location. We have coyotes, skunks, possums, & raccoons. We have moles and ground squirrels too, but I don't think they bother the chickens. I'll have to check into weasels.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

The stall will need to look like Ft. Knox with hardware cloth wire covering everything that isn't absolutely solid wood...including overhead. Even with this in mind and what appeared to be a tight coop...we still have raccoons and possums get in and kill chickens. We finally surrounded the coop top and bottom with electric fence and...voila!...no more dead chickens.

I would say that the hardest lesson to learn when starting out with chickens is how to make a predator proof coop...and even believing that it needs to be so solid.

...and welcome to BYC!! If you're here for information and opinions...you have certainly come to the right place!!

 

[Bossroo]

I'm in central Cal.. Take this from someone who did what you are about to do... make sure that the mare motel in anchored on conctrete piers very well to the ground every 6 feet and at all corners at least 2 ft deep into the ground or that pipe structure will have flying lessons in a nice stiff wind. My 4 stall mare motel flew about 30 feet and landed there on it's roof.

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
If you have moles you might as well forget about keeping chickens. They are ferocious predators. They will burrrow underneath the coop walls or tear through the walls. It's an awsome sight to see a mole drag a 10-pound rooster down into it's mole hole...terrifying I tell ya!

Ed

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
If you have moles you might as well forget about keeping chickens. They are ferocious predators. They will burrrow underneath the coop walls or tear through the walls. It's an awsome sight to see a mole drag a 10-pound rooster down into it's mole hole...terrifying I tell ya!

Ed

I didn't really say that...did I?

Ed