Property came with old coop. Help!

[HenRae]

That looks like a good start to a coop. You have gotten some good advice here too. Hope you'll keep us posted on the progress.

 

[BDutch]

Bet this is going to be long thread with a lot of confusing advices.
Everyone who has chickens has different coops, floors, runs, circumstances, predators, weather and breeds.
There is not one answer. Some ideas:

• a dirt floor is great were the chickens don't poop too much or you better make a deep bedding (some clear this only once a year).
• If you have a big coop with windows, you can do with a smaller run as standard or free range your chickens.
• IMO you only need 2 nestboxes for 6-8 chickens.
• A whole side with only hardware cloth is great for ventilation. A 50-100 years ago this was recomrnded for a healty coop. On the south side!
• The chicken wire I know is not rat proof. I used ½ “ hardware cloth.

 

[HenRae]

I definitely will keep you updated! I will be asking a million questions I'm sure.

 

[HenRae]

Bet this is going to be long thread with a lot of confusing advices.
Everyone who has chickens has different coops, floors, runs, circumstances, predators, weather and breeds.
There is not one answer. Some ideas:

• a dirt floor is great were the chickens don't poop too much or you better make a deep bedding (some clear this only once a year).
• If you have a big coop with windows, you can do with a smaller run as standard or free range your chickens.
• IMO you only need 2 nestboxes for 6-8 chickens.
• A whole side with only hardware cloth is great for ventilation. A 50-100 years ago this was recomrnded for a healty coop. On the south side!
• The chicken wire I know is not rat proof. I used ½ “ hardware cloth.

 

[ValerieJ]

a dirt floor is great were the chickens don't poop too much or you better make a deep bedding (some clear this only once a year).

Everyone who has chickens has different coops, floors, runs, circumstances, predators, weather and breeds.

This is so true! I think a dirt floor with deep litter would be the easiest thing, but if you live in a rainy area like I do, it would be a mushy mess all the time. The water spreads underground, it doesn't have to rain directly into it. I have an outdoor shelter that is wet right now and it doesn't leak or rain in there. But we are having a lot of rain right now. So I recommend a raised floor.

 

[springvalley123]

This is so true! I think a dirt floor with deep litter would be the easiest thing, but if you live in a rainy area like I do, it would be a mushy mess all the time. The water spreads underground, it doesn't have to rain directly into it. I have an outdoor shelter that is wet right now and it doesn't leak or rain in there. But we are having a lot of rain right now. So I recommend a raised floor.

I live in the desert, and I have water spreading underground into the coop! Also, although my entire lot is practically a single solid slab of granite, mice did find the dirt floor of the coop pretty quickly! I'd opt for a slab. If mice don't bother you, their predators probably will. Lots of great ideas already posted, best of luck!

 

[electrycmonk]

If you consider the cement floor direction I can give some simple 'cheat sheet' number to play with. I'll be updating my coop thread with some details and g33kie number in the coming week(s?) Too so.... It's kinda like a goulash, chili, or stew recipe we all know the key ingredients but, there are so many tweaks......

So welcome and good luck with your endeavors. Look forward to the resurrection updates & pics.

 

[paintedChix]

Welcome to BYC!

You will get as many answers as there are people who answer your post, LOL. Since you do not already have birds, have you thought about checking out what others around you are doing? How does it work for them? Do they actually like it and if not - what would they do to change it? How does it protect their birds? How is it to clean out the coop, the run, the next boxes?

How much time do you have to clean daily/weekly/monthly/yearly? What do you want built in for your feeding/watering/nesting?

I am a fan of having less work and birds on the ground - so even coops here sit on the ground w/o any flooring and we use a variety of materials for the bedding (DLM). We get hurricanes, freezing rain, snow/ice and a lot of wind. We have had drainage issues a few times - we've moved the coops (portable at one time, not so much any more); we've dug trenches to direct water. We have had plans to install gutters on various buildings and haven't yet. We have not put in actual french drains - just didn't get to that type of project yet and have found that during storms, just redirecting the water has worked for us. We are also on VERY sandy soil and I love using the DLM method to bring it around to better soil. It mostly drains well - so even when it's gotten wet, we usually don't have pooled water for any amount of time and as each coop/run builds up the DLM we have fewer such issues.

We don't bed the tractors - even during storms or cold. We do move them to fresh ground regularly. Right now, we've had rain almost every day for the past week and the rest of the Holidays promise more to come. It's not coming down in deluges but instead misting & sprinkling alternating with periods of harder rains. We did end up with some pooled water in our drive way, but all the tractors and the coops are doing OK.

I do not know what type of weather you actually get there, though I have been up to Holmes county many times in the past 10 years even during the winter. That open front combined with a run might work out great - only putting up hardware cloth and being prepared to line it with plastic or wood panels during the wettest/snowiest times. I think I'd put a roof on an open air run and put in either cement or hardware cloth aprons below around the building your coop is attached to as well and repair the roof you have. Your chickens will be healthy and happy. My 2 cents worth.

Happy Holidays!!

 

[Japuvian]

Hi! I too inherited a chicken coop when I moved this year. These are the things I decided to do to my coop and why:

-Scrubbed out the coop with vinegar and water to try and sanitize.
-Painted the inside of the coop with white wash because it is pretty and also provides some antimicrobial benefits.
-Spread DE all over the inside of the coop and let it sit for a few weeks to kill any remaining mites that might be rolling around.
-The chicken run was sand. I decided to pull out all of the old sand and replaced it with new sand. Again for sanitation purposes.
-I changed out the perches from round dowels to 2x4 for warm chicken feet.
-Added a bunch of ventilation
-replaced holes patched with duct tape with metal cloth

I may have gone overboard with the sanitation aspect but since I didn't know if the chickens prior to mine had been sick I decided to go ahead and do my best to mitigate disease.

 

[pennyJo1960]

DE is not recommended for coops now use bleach in a sprayer same result liked the photos heck double ones make sure we see them all right I have 2 with dirt floors 1 with floor love dirt floor bad weather the girls do dirt bathes inside ... Good luck Hardware cloth is your new best friend