New ReUsed Coop

mommyoftwo

Chirping
6 Years
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Mar 25, 2013
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Im going to be picking up this shed on Friday or Saturday...

It will need a lot of work...but it FREE. Which is right in my budget. Their is a house door sitting beside the shed next to the pig...they just took it down to make barn doors which they never added. How should I make it into a coop. The coop does not have a floor. It has two double pain windows and big gaps at the top for vents. It will need a door and maybe a another window? This will be my first coop and my first building project. My chickens are almost 10 weeks old so I need to make it sooner rather then later. They are starting to outgrow my dog house that they are in. I know I will need to add roosting bars (not sure how to make them), nesting boxes(not sure what else I can use), a feeder and water. Does the walls need insulation for winter? I live in southern Michigan. It normaly gets down into the 30ish but has been know to get colder. My budget for this a free or as cheap as I can make it. I love to reuse anything I have. I have a ton of pallets that I was going to tear apart to make my coop before I found this shed. also have mike crates, 3 and 5 gallon buckets, some pvc piles and lots of other odds and ends things in the garage. should I put Food and water inside or outside the coop. The coop will be attached to a 10 by 24 feet run. I cant allow my chicken to free range to many wild animals and loose dogs to eat them.
 
Wow, so many questions. First of all, congrats on the score.

It looks like the windows are on one side and the back. In that case I would put a window in the other side - cross breezes are the best for ventilation. The vents in the roof are AWESOME. That is how my coop (see my "My Coop" page for some ideas that might help answer some of your questions) keeps from getting overheated in the summer - the heat rises and vents out through the roof.

The milk crates will be perfect for nest boxes. I prefer to have my feed in the coop and the water outside. My reasoning is that inside the coop I never need to worry about rain getting in and ruining it, and it keeps it out of reach of my dogs, and other passing varmints. On the other hand, I don't want water in the coop because if it spills, the bedding gets moldy, plus they can scratch bedding into it.

Roosts can either be attached to the walls (if there are studs in the walls, they are perfect attachment points) or free standing. I built a free standing roost in my previous coop, that consisted of uprights, with the roosts across, and then a "foot" for each of the uprights, to keep it from wobbling when the birds jumped up onto it. That worked out fine. Now my roosts are attached to the studs in back, and have legs that will fold up so I can fold the whole roost up when I want to clean under it. I tried a ladder style roost but it didn't work because everyone wanted to be on the top and there was constant squabbling at bed time. So I switched to a style with 4 roost bars on the same level and bedtime is now far more peaceful. Plus, I can fit more birds in the same space as the 3 bar ladder style roost.

I would not insulate. Chickens are very cold hardy - the main thing you want to avoid is drafts. So - plenty of ventilation, but no drafts, which confuses people some times but as long as you have the roof vents to vent heat in the summer, and no breezes blowing across the roosts in the winter, you'll be all set. I have similar windows on my coop, and I can close them on the really cold days in winter, or remove the panes of glass altogether for maximum air flow in the summer. Insulation provides a place for mice to nest, and will keep in the nasty ammonia odors that are harmful to their lungs.

Dirt floor should be just fine. The biggest concern there would be predators digging in. I was fortunate to have a concrete slab on my property when we purchased it so it was the perfect place to put my coop. If you can put rocks or bricks around the outside of the building to prevent digging predators, I would recommend that. You will still have mice and rats tunnel in, but hopefully some of your birds will be mousers and keep them from being too big a nuisance.
 
My chicken coop will be inside an 6 ft wooden fence that I have bulit for my dogs. The edges are cement where I placed the wooden fence to keeep the dogs in. Im not sure If I can remove the panes in the windows, I have only went and looked at to see how I going to have to move it. It will be here this weekend and then I will play with it. Their are studs on the walls, but no inner boards covering them up. It just bare studed walls...they had used it for a shed for the tractor.
 

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