Plastic shed coop

[GreenGoddess]

For those of you who are looking for coop designs, here is my plastic shed chicken coop.. I got the shed for free off of freecycle and I already had the fencing and wood posts (also gotten off of freecycle).. The only thing I had in the entire shed was $15 and my own blood sweat and tears...

Here is the old "coop/run"
http://s135.photobucket.com/albums/q139/nc29beachgal/Old Coop/



And here is the new coop and run
http://s135.photobucket.com/albums/q139/nc29beachgal/New Coop/


If you have any questions on how I did anything, just ask..

Goddess

 

[joletabey]

That's really nice! Congratulations on a good job!

 

[Woods_Woman]

I like...Looks easy to maintain/clean too. Very nice.

 

[GreenGoddess]

Thanks.. Being that the entire thing is plastic, I should just have to take soap and water to it if it gets really bad.. And the Wheat grass is free until I run out of it from the empty lot across the street so i can go get more anytime I want to.. lol

Goddess

 

[gsim]

Looks like an improvement to me. However, I would add a roof vent of at minimum 1 or 2 sq ft area of ventilation. I can't see for sure, but if you do not have a poop board, install one under the roosts. Make it of OSB and glue linoleum to it. Size it so that it extends from wall to 12" beyond front roost. Scraped daily

it will improve the air quality, make coop cleaning easier, and make litter last longer.

 

[GreenGoddess]

As I said, I'm not too worried about the litter being that I can go cut it from the empty lot anytime I want to but a droppings board is a definite possibility in the near future... I just don't have the materials for it at the moment.. As for the vents, There is one on the front and one on the back near the roofline.. Plus the Chickie door is open...

Goddess

 

[woodenart]

My experience of plastic was condensation, somebody has already mentioned this and a solution. Also found that the plastic around the hinges became 'brittle' and just snapped away from the shed, maybe you could add reinforcing or extra hinges to lighten the load.

Mark

 

[GreenGoddess]

Quote:
Yup.. Got that one covered too... One of the doors actually cracked while I was putting it together from the stress of being put together, taken apart and put together again so I went ahead and put hinges on both doors, top and bottom... I also put brackets attaching the walls to the floor, 2 in each corner.. I still want to put brackets in the top corners to hold the walls to the roof but that will have to wait.. At least a few days.. I also want to get a slide lock instead of using a clip to keep the door closed because if it's windy, the doors will come away from the shed and open a little bit.. But, a slide lock will stop that from happening.. But, at least it's functional now and my babies are out of the rain and cold.. Instead of just being sheltered by a tarp..

Goddess

 

[woodenart]

Okay, good you got the hinge problem covered. I saw these sheds for sale outside a large DIY store in the UK, there was 3 of them and every one had cracked top hinges, only through customer use opening and closing, okay, maybe deliquent kids swinging on them as well

Mark.

 

[GreenGoddess]

Yeah.. We get some pretty tough winds where we are because the land is flat and there are no trees around my yard to act as breakers.. And I've even noticed that although I have a metal bar going through the lock hole in the door, the doors still try to swing open and leave a small gap.. If I didn't have the extra hinges for support, the doors would end up ripping off.. So I'm glad I did it to begin with.. As I said, when i was putting it together, just from the stress of it being a used shed and putting it together again, the top of the door started breaking at the hinge so I took care of the problem immediately... And so far so good.. It rained all day yesterday and when I looked in the shed a little while ago, there's no water inside..

Goddess