We were going to use the old chicken coop by the barn for our egg layers up until recently when I decided that it just wasn't nice enough for them, and that it would take too much to make it really suitable. We looked around the property after deciding that building a new coop would be too much money, and decided to use the original Ice Shed that was sitting infront of the house just to the left for our coop. The building measures 17 ft long x 12 ft wide, and at the front of it is a large 8 ft "bunker," that we plan to use as storage for feed, brooms, cleaning supplies, etc.
The building has a loft in it, and no insulation, on the outside is wood siding that needs to be removed, and on the inside is the original wood panelling from 1870 that is in immaculate condition. It currently has three windows, and two doors, the door on the side is going to be removed and walled over, and the window on the end facing the house is to be removed and turned into a door with a chicken door in the larger human door. The end that fronts the driveway will get a facelift, and a new steel fire-rated entrance door. Everything seems fine so far right? ... On the window that faces the left side of the property there is very stiff, very thick metal mesh, you can still buy this at home depot and it's called security mesh I believe, instead of using hardware mesh on the windows we're going to use this security mesh, it's reall durable, cheap, and will for sure keep the predators out! Here's the catch, the foundation is in a state... it's cracked on the inside, and yes I realize the foundation is 100 something years old, also the apron around the building (foundation) has two largish holes in it that go to the inside, my question is... is there something we can put on the concrete, a bonding agent to bond new concrete to old concrete? Secondly, the coop's square footage is 204 sq. ft., we have 15 birds but plan on increasing the size of the flock in the spring/summer of next year, adding 6 Buff Orpingtons and 6 Rhode Island Reds... we currently have 15 RIR X Col. Rock (still in the brooder). How much space for our run would I need? Space is not limited so give me a number, that would include space to expand the flock.
We plan on using for siding the smartside panels from home depot, the pink sheet insulation, and buying reclaimed windows from Habitat for Humanity ReStores, newer windows might I add. We're leaving the wood on the inside intact because it's so nice, and well done, but we want to paint it.... would a homemade milk caesin paint be okay for the chickens? Also, the Ice House already has power to it... it just needs to be hooked up to the house power again, and it has a fuse box inside the door we're going to relocate to the other end where the bunker is, and it will be turned into a breaker panel not fuses, how many ceiling lights should I have? currently there is one flourescent tube box up there, I wanted to put in a regular light fixture and use the caged outdoor lights from home depot as my ceiling light, and for lightbulb I was thinking of buying the compact flourescent daylight bulbs... would this be a good idea? or should I stick with the regular compact flourescents?
Here are some photos of our building!
^^ That is the bunker, inside it are about 15 old nestboxes! .. we're going to clean and paint them for the girls. I want to enclose that bunker in one end so I have a "viewing," area to stand, make up feed, etc away from the girls .... pooing bums! would regular chicken wire be okay to make the partition wall?
And incase you missed the chicks on my other thread, I took some extra photos today.
The building has a loft in it, and no insulation, on the outside is wood siding that needs to be removed, and on the inside is the original wood panelling from 1870 that is in immaculate condition. It currently has three windows, and two doors, the door on the side is going to be removed and walled over, and the window on the end facing the house is to be removed and turned into a door with a chicken door in the larger human door. The end that fronts the driveway will get a facelift, and a new steel fire-rated entrance door. Everything seems fine so far right? ... On the window that faces the left side of the property there is very stiff, very thick metal mesh, you can still buy this at home depot and it's called security mesh I believe, instead of using hardware mesh on the windows we're going to use this security mesh, it's reall durable, cheap, and will for sure keep the predators out! Here's the catch, the foundation is in a state... it's cracked on the inside, and yes I realize the foundation is 100 something years old, also the apron around the building (foundation) has two largish holes in it that go to the inside, my question is... is there something we can put on the concrete, a bonding agent to bond new concrete to old concrete? Secondly, the coop's square footage is 204 sq. ft., we have 15 birds but plan on increasing the size of the flock in the spring/summer of next year, adding 6 Buff Orpingtons and 6 Rhode Island Reds... we currently have 15 RIR X Col. Rock (still in the brooder). How much space for our run would I need? Space is not limited so give me a number, that would include space to expand the flock.
We plan on using for siding the smartside panels from home depot, the pink sheet insulation, and buying reclaimed windows from Habitat for Humanity ReStores, newer windows might I add. We're leaving the wood on the inside intact because it's so nice, and well done, but we want to paint it.... would a homemade milk caesin paint be okay for the chickens? Also, the Ice House already has power to it... it just needs to be hooked up to the house power again, and it has a fuse box inside the door we're going to relocate to the other end where the bunker is, and it will be turned into a breaker panel not fuses, how many ceiling lights should I have? currently there is one flourescent tube box up there, I wanted to put in a regular light fixture and use the caged outdoor lights from home depot as my ceiling light, and for lightbulb I was thinking of buying the compact flourescent daylight bulbs... would this be a good idea? or should I stick with the regular compact flourescents?
Here are some photos of our building!
^^ That is the bunker, inside it are about 15 old nestboxes! .. we're going to clean and paint them for the girls. I want to enclose that bunker in one end so I have a "viewing," area to stand, make up feed, etc away from the girls .... pooing bums! would regular chicken wire be okay to make the partition wall?
And incase you missed the chicks on my other thread, I took some extra photos today.
