Shed Conversion

[phcetus]

I plan to begin raising hen's for egg's this spring, if spring ever comes to Long Island so I'm full of questions. I have a 10 X 12 shed that isn't used for much and thought I would convert it to a chicken coop. However, I have read where others frown on that saying a shed is too big but don't say why. Is there a good reason not to convert a shed or is this just a personal preference. Also I was wondering how high the next boxes should be off the floor and how many boxes would I need for 6 hens.
Thanks......

 

[Trefoil]

You can never have a too big chicken coop. Most everyone that is lucky enough to have an unused shed and wants a chicken coop, convert, its the way to go. The only real rule about the nests is to have them lower than your roosts so they don't sleep in the nests and dirty them up. For 6 hens, I would have at least 2 and maybe 3 nests, in case one of your hens goes broody. They will probably all lay in one aside from that. So you could start out with one and add if necessary. Before you start the conversion, check out your shed really well and take care of any possible cracks or holes that could allow a predator access. If your area has mink or weasels that means covering any hole over 1/2". Good luck, enjoy, and most of all Please post pictures.

 

[Alaskan]

There is no such thing as too big. Some people say that a building can be too big because then the chickens can't heat it up well enough. However, if this is a problem, you can always make a smaller roosting section inside the much larger coop.

In a cold climate, a very large coop is WONDERFUL since chickens hate playing in snowy windy weather. If the coop is too small they soon become bored and unhappy and start to eat each other.

I really like either:

1.exterior access nest boxes, about a foot up from the floor. However, they can be whatever height works best for you, AS LONG AS the nest boxes are LOWER than your roosts.

Or

2.. Nest boxes directly under a poop shelf with the perches over the poop shelf.

In my set up I have tried to maximize square footage. So, there is enough play space on the floor for the hens, then the nest boxes, topped by a poop shelf then the perch.


https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/my-coop-journey

 

[DMoody]

I converted a portion of my 12x18 into a 4x12 coop area. This gives me plenty of room to store supplies, get their dry meals ready and all the wild bird supplies and gardening stuff. While I am doing all of this I let them roam the rest of the shed, they are very curious. I also made a door in the side so they can go into a run my husband made from a dog enclosure that is also 5x12.
Oh and my husband ran electricity.
Good luck and go for it.

 

[phcetus]

Thanks very much for the quick replies!
I need to replace the roof and will probably replace the floor also. The only predators are raccoons and hawks. I have wood chucks under the shed but don't think they should be an issue

 

[phcetus]

If you have any pictures to share I would appreciate it.

 

[Alaskan]

There are many pictures on the coop pages on this web site.

I included my coop page in my post above.

 

[AmyPaperlady]

I converted a 10x10 not-a-greenhouse (inside joke, one that's over-explained in the thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/811612/converting-a-not-a-greenhouse-to-a-chicken-coop ). I will say that things would've gone much faster if I'd 1) had an actual plan and 2) if I'd not been a bit scared of the power saw, and so did my cuts by hand (my husband did do some cuts for me, but I was being stubborn and wouldn't let him do much). Now that the winter rains have finally started, I can see that I've some roof issues that I hadn't fixed as well as I thought, but since it's supposed to rain until Friday, I don't know how much I can do...

 

[aart]

There are lots of shed to coop conversions here.
A tip for searching BYC here:
Advanced Search>Titles Only>shed coop

 

[phcetus]

Thanks very much for all the help and links to photo's. I have a pretty good idea what I need to do now.