Should I repair/salvage old coop or build new?

[pearlinoyster8]

I am a total novice to chickens.

We moved from the city to a 2nd house on my inlaws 5 acres in the Central Valley of CA in August.

There is an outbuilding that my husband told me was used as a coop when he was growing up out here. Ever since I heard that, I've dreamt of cleaning it out, repairing it and trying my hand at raising chickens. I started some of the cleanout work the past few weeks.

Then yesterday when I was at Tractor Supply I impulsively bought 8 chicks!

After doing research into what a good coop really needs, I'm afraid I bit off more than I can chew in repairing the old one ... it's more of an empty shed at this point than a coop -- no roosts, no nest boxes, etc.

The inlaws have lots of scrap lumber around the property (including sheets of plywood, boards of varying lengths, pallets and sections of an old telephone pole) that I can use to repair/remodel the old coop or to build a new one.

What would you do?

 

[GiddyMoon]

I believe in keeping as much of my money in my pockets and reusing what we can, in every possible way...you would be surprised to find how much a good size coop can run by doing everything new..some people spend $1500 and more once they get into it and find they need to keep adding something they didn't plan on or costs were higher..

Do you have the income to just build a new one? If this is what you want to do, by all means..go at it..but it sounds like you already have a lot of what you need to get it going. Save your money for good hardware cloth, paint, new pieces you don't havve and more chickens!

I grew up in Sac, I know central well...we now live in AZ. Remember, you don't need to keep them in a wood box that will cook them.....I suggest reading the free online book.. Open Air Poultry Houses. You can build a much simpler structure and get healthier birds.

As for an empty shed..many people drool over empty sheds..roosts are nothing but logs, an old ladder or 2x4s from your property...hen boxes can be large old baskets or milk crates. If you spend some time looking at the coop link off the front page..and going thru the threads..you will see a lot of amazing things people have created out of old stuff!

 

[TigerLilly]

Part of the fun of owning chickens is to do things yourself. Personally, I would revamp what is already there (I'm 'thrifty'). Let your creativity loose...then, in the future when chicken math has it's claws firmly attached, you can always ADD ON!

 

[7L Farm]

I moved & remodeled this vintage coop. Its probably 50 years old.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Oh, roosts and nestboxes are EASY. Adding ventilation (often necessary) also pretty easy.

What matters is what kind of structural shape the shed is in. You'd have to show us a buncha pics or ask someone local who'd be able to recognize solid vs doomed.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[pearlinoyster8]

I'm hoping to be able to reuse as much as I can. Even if it's just the framing and roof!

I ran into problems posting pics. But I will try to paste in a broken link to an album of some pics I took today (copy and paste into your browser, and take out the space after s802)

s802 .photobucket.com/albums/yy306/sierdsmama/Old%20Coop/

 

[pearlinoyster8]

Quote:
I'd love to see pics of the inside if you have them!

 

[macadam8157]

If you Google Pallet coops or something like that, it will give you lots of ideas!But yes def go with recycled lumber, cheaper and just as good.

 

[greenpeeps]

Keep it!! You could make a space for storage, It's so nice and all you need is a broom and a coat of paint. Why waist the time and money to build something smaller. KEEP IT! or send it my way

 

[7L Farm]

Sure I have pics. I pretty much did what your talking about. I took the roof, the frame etc. The man that built this old coop was my grandparents care taker. I used his design . The only reason I moved it was where it was had grown up so much it would not have been a safe place for t

he birds.

I have redone the roost since this photo. I now have 2x4 on the top & another 2x4 across the side so they all ro

ost at the top looking out both windows. I added a feeder as well.