- Dec 30, 2009
- 9
- 2
- 9
We just purchased a home in a rural area in the Pacific Northwest, and I have no experience with chickens. I have questions about where to locate the coop on my property.
There is a shop building about 50 feet from the house with a shed roof extension on the west end (a space one might park a tractor or stack firewood). The area under the roof is about 200 sq ft, and I was thinking that I might enclose this space to create a coop/covered run. (There would also be a protected sunny area, as well as supervised free range opportunity). The benefits of this coop location are that I have easy access to power (inside the shop), and, since there is already a roof and one wall, it would be considerably less expensive than building a free-standing structure. Moreover, it would be an easy walk from the house across a gravel drive that doesn't get swampy, even in the rainy season (not true of the pasture areas). Finally, this would place the coop on the far side of the building from the house, so it would tend to block noises. Our goal is eggs, and we would purchase 8 hens, probably Rhode Island Red (I'm still considering breeds). We also want to do meat birds later, but would do those in a different area of the property, I think.
My questions are thus: Are there potential drawbacks to having one wall of my shop building as part of the coop? Will the chickens destroy the siding? Also, this is a woodworking shop, so I would be running machines now and then. Would this flip out the birds to have a tablesaw suddenly start screaming on the other side of the wall, or would they just get used to the noise? Am I better off creating large, enclosed space or building smaller structures to place under the existing roof?
Comments? Anything I'm not considering? I can draw a quick sketch, if my description isn't clear.
There is a shop building about 50 feet from the house with a shed roof extension on the west end (a space one might park a tractor or stack firewood). The area under the roof is about 200 sq ft, and I was thinking that I might enclose this space to create a coop/covered run. (There would also be a protected sunny area, as well as supervised free range opportunity). The benefits of this coop location are that I have easy access to power (inside the shop), and, since there is already a roof and one wall, it would be considerably less expensive than building a free-standing structure. Moreover, it would be an easy walk from the house across a gravel drive that doesn't get swampy, even in the rainy season (not true of the pasture areas). Finally, this would place the coop on the far side of the building from the house, so it would tend to block noises. Our goal is eggs, and we would purchase 8 hens, probably Rhode Island Red (I'm still considering breeds). We also want to do meat birds later, but would do those in a different area of the property, I think.
My questions are thus: Are there potential drawbacks to having one wall of my shop building as part of the coop? Will the chickens destroy the siding? Also, this is a woodworking shop, so I would be running machines now and then. Would this flip out the birds to have a tablesaw suddenly start screaming on the other side of the wall, or would they just get used to the noise? Am I better off creating large, enclosed space or building smaller structures to place under the existing roof?
Comments? Anything I'm not considering? I can draw a quick sketch, if my description isn't clear.
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