Renovating Existing Coop for Silkies

[ClinesSilkies]

Hello! I am new to the forum and so excited to be here. My husband and I just moved into a new home and we are so excited bc we can finally have Silkies! The house had an existing Chicken Coop, that is a nice size and a great shell, but needs a lot of TLC before we are ready for our crew. I don’t think there have been any chickens here for a long time.

I went out and took some photos and thought I might ask from you seasoned professionals for any ideas of how to improve this coop and get it ready.

So far -I know I will be pressure washing the entire thing as well as disinfecting it, I don’t want anyone getting sick.
Also- plan to patch up the roof and finish shingling the rest of it or possibly doing a tin roof over the entire thing instead- any thoughts on that would be great.
Next- my thoughts are to enclose the back portion of the coop, where the siding is in the photos and the shelves to create a safe place from wind and rain. Would you also put their nesting boxes in there?
Our plan is to let them be free range during days that permit it, and come and go from the coop and do course lock up at night. We have a great fenced in yard so they can’t wander too far.

Please any design input or things we should definitely know to help our silkies out would be greatly appreciated! I can’t wait to get this place fixed up.

Oh any color ideas would be great too!

 

[Shadowfire]

Welcome!
It looks pretty open. How cold do your winters get? The wire also needs to be re-done, lots of predators can get into holes that size, and it'll need some renovations with the roost, etc.
Good luck!

 

[PetesChicks]

Not sure where you are at how cold your winters get, but you will probably want to wall up the 2 sides for protection from the weather.

Also, replace all the chicken wire with hardware cloth. Chicken wire will keep chickens in, but won’t keep predators out. The first raccoon or stray dog that comes in the yard will have a hot chicken dinner with that coop. They will be able to tear right through the chicken wire that is there now.

Nesting boxes lower than the roosts, I have 4 (2 wide 2 high), my silkies always used the lower boxes, about 6-8” off the floor. Your roosts might be a little high for silkies, one of mine slept on the floor a lot, the other would use a ramp to get to the roost(about 3’ off the floor).

 

[9SpiceyChickens]

Welcome!!!

What other people have been saying is true- replace all wire with Hardwire cloth- preferably 1/4-1/6 of an inch holes.
If you get cold winters, then I would suggest boarding up the two sides- I would suggest adding some windows in it- using hardwire cloth, or if they're high enough, chicken wire.
Make sure the nesting boxes are shorter than the roosts. Also, I would suggest that you lower the roosts- Silkies aren't very good at flying/jumping/getting on roosts.

Also, for the color, make the outside red and the inside peach/light pink! I think that would be cute!
Just putting it out there- Silkies aren't very smart!

 

[chickens really]

Your location is actually a first thing to tell because without that it's hard to help you...

 

[aart]

Welcome to BYC!
Good advice given already.
Silkies need lower roosts as they don't fly well....or at all, AFAIK.
Decent structure to start with tho.

Where in this world are you located?
Climate is almost always a factor.
Please add your general geographical location to your profile.
It's easy to do, (laptop version shown), then it's always there!

 

[9SpiceyChickens]

Another thing- those roosts are pretty thick! If you can, I would suggest cutting or breaking off some tree branches- birds love their coop to be very natural!

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Hello! I am new to the forum and so excited to be here. My husband and I just moved into a new home and we are so excited bc we can finally have Silkies! The house had an existing Chicken Coop, that is a nice size and a great shell, but needs a lot of TLC before we are ready for our crew. I don’t think there have been any chickens here for a long time.

I went out and took some photos and thought I might ask from you seasoned professionals for any ideas of how to improve this coop and get it ready.

So far -I know I will be pressure washing the entire thing as well as disinfecting it, I don’t want anyone getting sick.
Also- plan to patch up the roof and finish shingling the rest of it or possibly doing a tin roof over the entire thing instead- any thoughts on that would be great.
Next- my thoughts are to enclose the back portion of the coop, where the siding is in the photos and the shelves to create a safe place from wind and rain. Would you also put their nesting boxes in there?
Our plan is to let them be free range during days that permit it, and come and go from the coop and do course lock up at night. We have a great fenced in yard so they can’t wander too far.

Please any design input or things we should definitely know to help our silkies out would be greatly appreciated! I can’t wait to get this place fixed up.

Oh any color ideas would be great too!

That structure is an aviary.
Silkies aren’t the best breed to free range as their crest hinders their vision and their feathers tend to absorb water instead of letting it slide right off.
If you do enclose the whole aviary it would make a very nice henhouse and then all you would need to do is add a large covered run.