Need coop ideas

[NewChick18]

I have a horse shelter that is 24ft long 10ft wide and 12ft tall that we are turning into my new chicken house, I have 8 silkies as of now unsure of sex will probably have to get rid of some if they are Roos, 2 female barred rock,2 female buff Orpington and a mystery chick , they range in age from 3 weeks to 6 days. Is that enough room for them? I also have 4 dog boxes that have never been used that are 4ftx3ftx3ft was thinking of building nesting boxes in those. We are trying to figure out how we are going to in close the shelter, thought about on one side build it halfway with wood then hardware cloth and the other side incorporating a door . But not really sure. What are y’alls opinions? Pictures included

 

[rosemarythyme]

That would be an amazing amount of space for a coop. You could even split up the space and use part of it for storage for chicken supplies, or add an integration section if you choose to add more chicks/birds in the future.

The dog house would be a great nesting box, especially with the hinged top. I was using a small dog house as a nest box for a couple of years (no hinged top ) and the girls took to it with no issue.

 

[jthornton]

You could frame out the front and cover it with welded wire fencing and add a nice overhang to keep rain out. Good ventilation that way. Read the Modern Fresh Air Poultry House book for lots of ideas.

JT

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

I would make 4 nesting boxes out of that 1 dog house since it's pretty big, just section it off into 4 areas and cut another opening...... so 2 nesting boxes per opening. That way you can save any more space.

Or maybe you can stack another house on top of it if it's the same dimension and build 2 ladders going up to it, so 2 nesting boxes per dog house totaling 4.