Seeking Wisdom and Advice on Coop/Barn

[ChicKim062]

Greetings! We bought a home with a barn. The barn has a coop attached. The coop is roughly 10 feet by 5 feet, fully enclosed. Currently we have 4 hens, but will be doubling that soon. My first concern is whether there is adequate ventilation. They also don't use all the roosts, only the bottom one. The nest boxes don't seem too accessible either. (Back story, we moved from Columbia, SC, where we had a coop from Tractor Supply. This barn setup is all new to me.) The girls are only in the coop at night, but come winter, I'm sure they won't want to be out much. It sometimes gets into single digits at night and we had a few days where it didn't get out of the teens. It's also very windy here.

There is a little door that leads from the coop to a part of the barn that I assume was once a cattle stall. The area is about 10 ft by 30 ft, dirt floor. There's chicken wire blocking it off from the rest of the barn. The door at the far end leads to an area of the property that is already fenced off where I let the girls free range.

I'm thinking reinforce the barn portion with hardware cloth, open up the trap door and let them have a gigantic enclosed area. Is this a good idea? What would you do? I am open to all suggestions for improvements to the coop as well as ideas for the barn.

(Originally, i was going to use that area to colony raise rabbits. Thoughts?) Photos attached of the coop and barn.

Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[Wezdin]

those egg boxes look pretty accessible to me. The floor looks kinda wet, i would recommend the deep litter method on the floor. welcome to BYC!

 

[Ghosty]

Do you have pics of the ventilation, or is the only vent the open door?

 

[ChicKim062]

The open door is it.

 

[Ghosty]

With it only being five feet deep, I don't know if I would put the vents on the door side. I had a 5 x 16 coop, before I expanded it, with the window vent on the long side. The birds just got too much wind in cold weather with the depth only 5'. Maybe a big window vent on the short 5' side, so you have a depth of 10', and some eave venting, would work. I assume you will want to shut your door.

 

[Ghosty]

Of course, if you expand into a stall behind it, it will be a different story. Is the stall directly behind the current coop?

 

[ChicKim062]

Of course, if you expand into a stall behind it, it will be a different story. Is the stall directly behind the current coop?

Yes, there is a little chicken sized door that goes from the coop to the stall.

 

[ChicKim062]

those egg boxes look pretty accessible to me. The floor looks kinda wet, i would recommend the deep litter method on the floor. welcome to BYC!

The floor in the coop is dry, with about 5 inches of straw and shavings. The barn floor is damp, but unused.

 

[Ghosty]

I think I would stick to the 10 x 5 for now, till you get that stall area fixed up, it looks pretty rough. I would look up threads on ventilation and deep litter. Looks like there were problems with water coming in. Is that why all the plastic sheeting?

 

[ChicKim062]

I think I would stick to the 10 x 5 for now, till you get that stall area fixed up, it looks pretty rough. I would look up threads on ventilation and deep litter. Looks like there were problems with water coming in. Is that why all the plastic sheeting?

No, it's dry. The sheeting is more like tyvek, I assume it was used to prevent drafts. The barn is at least 70 years old.