Renting... worth trying to fix old coop?

[au-chick]

Hello! I'm from Australia and new to all things chicken and also to posting to the forums. Seeing as I've spent the last week pouring over the site and other forum posts... I thought posting a question would be the quickest way to get some expert advice on how to proceed,

We were planning to build a coop and get 3-4 chickens when we move into our new home in 18 months. We've just moved into a rental for the time being and it just happens to have a huge backyard and an old chicken coop. The landlord was contemplating demolishing it, but once we asked about it, said we could use the coop if we wanted. If we do of course, it'll be up to us to fix up/maintain while we're here.

Once they saw the coop, our kids have been asking when we can put chickens in it... They're only young, so seeing as we've been talking about chickens for a while, they see a chicken "house" and can't see why we can't just pop some in there and call it a day.

It's pretty run down and we wouldn't consider ourselves the handiest people... is it even worth giving it a shot if we'll just be using it for 18 months? Where would we start? Or would we be better off building/buying some moveable type of thing that we can take with us instead?

I've popped some photos below and look forward to hearing your thoughts Thank you!

 

[eggbert420]

Looks good to me.

 

[Serenity06]

If it's just for a year and a half then I would use it like it is. Patch any holes of course. Chickens don't care how it looks as long as they can't get out and predators can't get in. Then when you move you can maybe buy something to put together at your permanent house

 

[donrae]

I'd find a way to make it work

Okay, first thing I see is, it's metal. I'm guessing with your climate it's going to get stifling hot in there. You may need to open up some windows on the back and sides, for more airflow.

Not sure about your predator load where you are. That's going to be the balance with ventilation, those windows will need to be covered, usually with something like hardware cloth, to give the birds a secure place to sleep at night.

It's a nice large building, you'd have plenty of space for storage, and to feed and water inside the coop. I'd still plan on a run off one side, to give them access to the outdoors....although if you're just keeping a few birds, looks like they'd really have enough space just inside that building. IDK, my mind just says chickens need get outside

.

And look at it this way, this will be a great "practice" coop. You'll have ideas and designs come to mind, that you'll want to implement in your "real" coop when you purchase your own place!