Shed (Coop) finally moved!! (Pics included)

[bbowen]

Well, some of you may remember this thread. Well the shed has been moved. My mother mismeasured the width so when the guy set it down the front cement blocks were off but otherwise its ok. Shed is rougly 6.5ft deep, 10ft long, and 8.5 ft tall.

Here is the front (South Facing) side:




East facing side:



West facing:



North facing side (back):




Looking through current front doors. I'd like to frame that in and put a regular insulated door in.:



East facing interior. Where you see the steel rectangle is where I'm thinking of putting the pop door:



West facing interior:




Ok, so I live in very northern New York State. It is not uncommon for us to get minus 20 degrees Fahreheit in the dead of winter,

I plan on:

1) Insulating all the walls and then putting up plywood for the walls.
2) I'd like to install some windows
3) Change the exisiting doors to a regular exterior insulated door (if I can find one cheap enough and small enough).
4) put linoleum on the floor
5) Run power to the building
6) Install auto coop door

Questions:

1) Where would you situated the windows? Note that currently under the rafters at the front and back of the building is open to the outdoors. At the very least I would screen that in with hardware cloth. Is that too much open space as far as heat loss/snow?

2) Where would you put the nest boxes?
3) How about the roosts?
4) Is my door location ok? How does one decide on the height of the door opening with the Deep Litter method? Do you build a platform so the chickens can step up or do they just step up and go out the opening.
5) when I run power: what's good for lighting? heat? should I have outlets and should where should they be placed?

Sorry for all the questions, this is my first coop!!

Thanks!

 

[Engteacher]

That's going to be great! I'm envious! Since I don't have my coop yet, all I can do is congratulate you on your great beginning.

 

[chicmom]

Wow, I just bought a shed that looks very similar to this one off of Craigslist. It's an 8x12, and it's shaped like yours with the slanted roof. A few differences are mine has some windows cut out. I was lucky enough to get it for $650.00, and free delivery.

I'd like to see how you set up the inside....I need a some ideas. Mine has an 8x8 room and a 4x8 room for storing food and such. I have to put some new chicken wire in the windows and do a little work to make it predator proof. Then I've got to scrape it and paint it. It should look really cute when it's done. It's white now, like yours. I'm thinking of painting it like a red barn.

Thanks so much for sharing your photos, and keep us posted!

Sharon

 

[BankerJohn]

So far, I think you are on the right track. I am no expert and cannot give advice on your insulation and window plans. We live in sunny Florida and proper ventilation is much more important that insulation. Our coop is open air to the run.

Best of luck and update us frequently, with pictures, on your progress.

 

[Dogfish]

1. First I'd measure the stud spacing and see what the width is, then try to find 4 windows that would fit in between the studs. Two for either side of the front door, and two on the sides. The back window could be larger, or just none. If no ready made cheap windows exist that size, then you get to frame in the windows. Do that before you cut out the windows in the plywood. Do you know what a header board is, and how to frame one up? Pretty simple, but by not cutting the plywood before you finish framing, you retain more structural integrity during construction.

2. Put the nest boxes in the back wall. A row 4 or 5 would be good. Maybe even 6. Try exterior insulated nest boxes. I have some pics of mine if you want to see them. Again, frame up the opening before you cut out the plywood. Exterior boxes keep you from having to go into the coop, and give you more room overall in the coop.

3. Situate two ladder type roosts in each of the back corners. Bottom rungs widest, upper rungs shortest. Tie these into the studs. Use your level.

4. Door location is fine, just frame it in for the proper door width. Go to Home Depot and use a tape to measure their pre-hung doors. The sticker will also tell you how wide to frame the opening. Usually the width of the outer door frame plus a half inch. Make sure each side of the door opening is plum and it is square. Buy an outward opening door. Inside the coop you can just screw a piece of plywwod across the inner threshold that is higher than the litter heighth. I just put a dado in a block of wood, cut it in half, and screwed that into both sides of the interior door jamb. The dado is wide enough for a piece of plywood that just lifts out making cleaning easier. For the pop door, have the bottom a foot above the floor of the coop floor as it is now. Build a small platform 1' high x 2' wide x 2' deep. The chickens will jump up a few inches to get out and down a few inches to get in. You'll just have a taller ramp, but you won't have litter spilling out or blocking the pop door.

5. Two light switches on the door knob side of the door with an outlet below. Add an outlet on each wall. Run two 12-2 wires from the switch box to two separate outlets near the top center of the roof. You could also use some 12-3, but why buy that unless you have some 12-3 laying around. 100 feet of wire for inside the coop (You'll have extra, but better than trying to cut it just right. One switch goes to a plug in shop light, the other goes to an IR heat lamp. Using plugs instead of hard wiring the units makes replacement a breeze. If 12-2 or 12-3 means nothing to you, definitely get help from somebody who understands what I just said. You may also want to wire for an automatic door. In addition to the IR heat lamp, ceramic fan heaters or the oil filled radiant heaters would be a good option.

My coop is only 4x8, and I have three wall outlets. One for a heater, one for the auto door, one for the electric fence outside in a weatherproof box under an eave. Two separate switches go to outlets for a light attached to a plug in timer, and an IR light attached to a temp sensitive plug adapter.

Have fun with it, and wire it as if your kids were going to live in it. Wire it correctly. Wire isn't really that cheap, but boxes, and outlets are cheap, and additional outlet only cost you an additional 18-24" of wire. Again, if you don't understand item #5, get some help from someone who does.

 

[ctjim]

based on your local north ny, moira is in the potsdam area correct?, for your window placement i would get 4 if possible and maybe place 2 on the south side 1 on either side of the door and 1 east and 1 west that way the sun would heat the coop as it rose from east and you would get the daylight in from the south side and end the day w/ some heat on the west side also w/ a breeze you would be able to have some nice ventilation w/ them on the east and west ends of the coop. being in north ny i would also def put in some electric service to the coop, esp for winter as you will need some sort of heating element for keeping the water from freezing and i would consider getting an ir heat lamp for the very frigid days and def some light for you when you have to collect eggs and feed and water if its early morning and evening. good luck that shed should make a great coop.

 

[MissJenny]

Yes, insulation is key -- as is ventilation. I don't know of a precise guideline for adding vents to a hen house, but they should be part of your plan. If it were me, I'd add vents to each side of the eaves and at least three along the back wall and two along the front, near the roofline.

This is a very cute shed. Are you gonna paint it? Will there be flower boxes involved? You know we want to see progression pictures.

Jenny

 

[greenpeeps]

Are you going to put a storage area in there? I would love to have storage in mine, but alast, it's just to small

 

[Deanner03]

I like where you're putting the door, if that works well with your run. I agree with finding windows that go between the studs, that way you don't have to deal with altering the structure of the shed. DH bought plexiglass type stuff and made windows for ours. There is hardware cloth covering them for when they are open.
You can purchase vents at Home Depot or Lowe's, and just cut into the shed and insert them (small circular ones, or square ones). Do one on each side so air can go straight through. If your windows can open, that can provide more ventilation in hot weather.

We're creating a barrier at the entrance to ours with hardware cloth (or something, haven't QUITE figured it all out yet either). We'll leave a small area in which we can stand and store feed/wood shavings, etc. The nesting boxes will be backed up to the partition (actually, the partition will attach to it on either side, and go above them if necessary) and have hinges to open them frome the back to gather eggs. That way, we're standing IN the coop, but not in the litter to gather eggs, and they are readily available from the door.
We picked up a scrap of linoleum for a really reasonable price at Home Depot that covered the floor. Do that before you do anything to your walls (insulation/closing in wise). That way...all of the flooring edges are covered, and shavings/dirt/poop don't get underneath.
We don't use an automatic door, so I'd LOVE to hear more about these. Ours is hinged, and meets the ramp that they use to get down. To close it, we pull a rope that is threaded through little eye screws and tie it to the 4x4 on the run. To open it, we untie it, and it generally falls pretty well on its own. (on our old coop...there isn't a chicken door on the new, work-in-progress coop).

 

[bbowen]

Thanks for the replies everyone!!

The hard part is that the door is only around 5 feet high and it can't go any higher or it hits the eaves. I know most standard doors are 80 inches. Not sure how easy it will be to find an insulated door at 5 ft high.

Speaking of insulation I was thinking of using the solid styrofoam sheets. How thick would I need? It goes from 1/2 inch to 2 inches, with the 2 inches being much more expensive. So, if I could get away with the half inch and have it be warm enough I'd prefer that.

I will look into windows. I'm thinking I might be able to get some used windows but I'll have to do measurements.

My auto door is from this place in the UK but it took them forever to even ship my order. You can get the same unit from Foy's Pigeon Supplies.

I haven't installed the door yet.

I do plan on painting the coop and putting faux shutter to match my house. Flower boxes would be cool too!

I would like to see those insulated exterior nest boxes. That would give me a lot more room!