Resin Shed for a Coop?

[SkyAcres]

I have a 6x6 resin shed that houses a few old bikes. I was thinking of converting it to a chicken coop for the six new Red Pullets we brought home today. Right now they are housed indoors in a brooder (dog crate/cage), but when they are big enough I will need to have a coop ready for them. Instead of building something, I thought perhaps I could put this RubberMaid shed in our fenced in vegetable garden and the chickens will be all set.

The other idea is use this shed outside the vegetable garden allowing them to freely roam the 2 acres of grass eating ticks, etc and come back to the shed to roost.

We live in rural NY and I do worry about predators, though since we do have coyotes and racoons in the area at night and hawks by day. Should I consider making it more secure and confining them?

Any thoughts or tips appreciated.

John

 

[bnjrob]

You'll need ventilation in it but otherwise I don't think it is a bad idea.

 

[Jaxon4141]

I would do yourself a favor and think about how you can make it secure from any predator at night. Since you have raccoons and coyotes they will eventually find your coop and then you won't be a chicken owner for long. If you have raccoons and coyotes you probably also have fox, skunks and opossums. All of these will take chickens at night. As for free range chickens, there will also be occasional losses during the day, it's almost unavoidable. That is one of the cost of free ranging chickens. Let's see a picture of you shed, someone will give you some suggestion on how to tighten it up.

 

[SkyAcres]

The shed I plan to convert into a coop looks exactly like this one:


On the left side I intend to cut an opening and use some wood to create a sliding chicken-door with a ramp up approx 3' up.

It has some built in sky lights (4 of them - two are shown on top of roof in the pic near the apex. There are also two windows in the white doors. Do you think this is enough light for them?

I am trying to get an idea how much ventilation I will need. I could cut in a screened louver on the back near the roof. Then have a means to cover it up in the winter.

I am also toying with installing a screen frame where I can open on door completely during the summer and seal the opening off with a screen frame that is the same size as the door.

All of this will sit inside an existing fenced off 20x30 foot vegetable garden. I was thinking of fencing off one half of it for the chickens as a run and then use the other half for vegetables. Then alternate every year moving the shed to the opposite side so the chickens fertilize the one half each year.

Perhaps my main concern right now is that the garden is 25 feet from the house. What sort of odor can we expect? Typically it is downwind from the house, but still wondering if the smell is rather strong or not so bad. We are starting with six red pullets.

If any of you have any tips or concerns with anything I mentioned, I would love to hear it. I hope to start working on this stuff later in the week.

Thanks.

 

[budersmom]

Did you succeed at converting the resin shed to a coop? I am thinking of doing the same just not sure how easily it will convert. Any tips you learned would be great.