Sort of remodeling my coop? Need input.

[Krugerrand]

A 1" round hole isn't even 1 square inch of ventilation.

Chicken coops need square FEET of ventilation, not square inches. Sawing out pieces of siding would be more beneficial.

An approximately 13.5" diameter hole will give 1 sq ft. That's about 14 x 1" holes per bird.

 

[3KillerBs]

An approximately 13.5" diameter hole will give 1 sq ft. That's about 14 x 1" holes per bird.

Which will turn structural lumber into Swiss cheese.

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

So I am thinking that converting a shed would be better than making a pallet coop, I want to know what I should look for in a shed to convert into a chicken and duck coop for 8 ducks and 9 chickens.
I live in wyoming so the weather is not the greatest and it gets REALLY windy here depending on the season we can have weeks of almost nonstop wind varying in speed depending on time of day and weather.
I may even convert a storage shed that we already have but I don't know if that will happen.
I want something cheap but good quality, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[3KillerBs]

I want to know what I should look for in a shed to convert into a chicken and duck coop for 8 ducks and 9 chickens.

IIRC, ducks have the same space requirements as chickens except that they don't roost.

Are you going to house them in the same space or have 2 separated spaces under one roof?

17 birds would need about 68 square feet of floor space so an 8x8 shed would be just a little tight and an 8x10 shed would be roomy and comfy.

Here are some good shed conversions to help inspire you:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-mulligan.74743/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-coop-page.65912/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-scoop-on-a-rubbermaid-big-max-coop.76444/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/toy-shed-conversion.64879/

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

I would like to buy it with my own money or most of it with my own money but I know my parents will most likely have to buy it or pitch in. I am doing research and trying to find the best option as I don't know if a shed would work.
I really want something better then what my chickens and ducks currently have, I lost two chickens two old age recently so the flock is smaller now the two drakes started fighting a while back and stopped but I still have a drake and a female duck separated at night in a playpen inside my breezeway so I am a little less worried about space and stuff. I spot clean the coop any time I can I want to do a deep clean but that's hard to do and I don't really know how to do a deep clean with my particular coop.

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

IIRC, ducks have the same space requirements as chickens except that they don't roost.

Are you going to house them in the same space or have 2 separated spaces under one roof?

17 birds would need about 68 square feet of floor space so an 8x8 shed would be just a little tight and an 8x10 shed would be roomy and comfy.

Here are some good shed conversions to help inspire you:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-mulligan.74743/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/aarts-coop-page.65912/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-scoop-on-a-rubbermaid-big-max-coop.76444/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/toy-shed-conversion.64879/

Thank you!
I don't really don't know yet I kind of want to have them all be in the same area.
I think it will mostly depend on what type of shed I end up getting and a few other things.

My brother got two guinea keets a little over a month ago now. He is most likely going to get them their own coop but he might not be able to or something so I am hoping I won't have to worry about them being in the same coop as the chickens and ducks, I doubt they will have to be housed in with them but it's a possibility a slim one at that.
The guineas were about three weeks ago maybe allowed to start free ranging during the day and then they come back into the house at night. They are still to young to be outside fulltime they just started losing their head feathers a couple days ago and because they don't have their own coop that can't be outside of the house at night anyways.

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

I can't find any decent cheap wooden or plastic sheds on the home depot or murdochs website.
All the ones that would work are over $900 and I only want to spend maybe $800.
I think that converting the shed we currently have would be a cheap option and I think it is an okay size it is not 8×10 I am pretty sure, I will get the dimensions of it eventually.

 

[Alagirl]

So this coop is currently housing 11 chickens and 8 ducks and has been for about 2 years now. And the ventilation isn't very good. I did not build this coop, and it was originally made in town for four hens.
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I am here trying to make it work until I can find a better way to house my flock. It has been great at keeping predators out, but some snow can get in from certain spots which will be shown. I need advise, or suggestions and even other opinions besides my own. Now I am going to stop talking and post the pictures of the coop.
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The pictures below are of the back of the coop and is the lower ventilation, I took the covering off today and cleared all the debris out of it too help improve ventilation until I can make more ventilation else ware.
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The pictures below are of the front upper ventilation, I took this one's cover off as well and made sure it was not covered in debris which it wasn't.
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So in the picture above and below are the nesting boxes, the door let's snow get in on really windy snowing nights.
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Above is the "human door" entrance and this picture is to show what material is protecting the wooden floor, which needs to be replaced with something better.

So in picture number five there was a metal thing that was not needed anymore so I took it out today as you can see in the photo below.
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The pictures below are the chickens door, it also lets some snow in sometimes at night I believe.
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This is how much light gets in from the chickens door.
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The black rubber stuff was stapled in but all the staples came out of the wood so I extracted them from the black rubber thing
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View of the coop from back vent.
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The boards have warped and I thought this was something worth taking a picture of, it doesn't let snow or anything get directly into the coop. I don't know why we didn't stain the coop or paint it when we first got it.
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The photos below are the bottom of the nesting box's, which the older hens like to sleep in. And the coop is on four cinder blocks.
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Outside of the spot where snow gets into the nesting box's
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These pictures are of the ventilation with the covers back on.
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Please feel free to ask as many questions as you want on what I have been doing for the coop and for the chickens and ducks. And what I plan on doing to improve their lives. I want the older chickens and ducks to have a good last few years however many that may be and all the younger ones a good rest of their lives. I hope I made sense of everything, if not please do let me know.

much of the problems can be taken care of with some nice screws and perhaps some washers.
The snowdrift, well, the coop needs some overhang all around! A sheet or 2 of plywood or some roofing should do the trick until you can build a good coop.

 

[saysfaa]

I think your best option is to build or remodel an existing shed.

If building
With that much wind, I'd go with a three sided building with a shed roof (one slope from a high side to a low side.

In the winter: three solid sides - no holes or cracks that air can get out through. Then leave the fourth side entirely open - as in, nothing across it except the hardware cloth and diagonal braces in the upper corners.

In the summer, the same open side. Then, also open the eave of the opposite side. The summer mode benefits from a wide overhang to shelter the opening.

That has the added benefit of being so simple.

If remodeling.
Almost no sheds have eave vents. I would add them by cutting them open or raising the roof. In either case, I would also add to the roof -make the rafters longer so the roof overhanges the walls by 2 feet. You can do that by sistering 2x4s to the existing rafters.

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

I lost two of my older hens from age one had a reproductive issue she passed away at the end of March and the other had sour crop likely from underlying issues most likely due to her age she passed away on the on the 14th this month. Both of these hens were over 8 years old or around that age.
I only have 9 chickens now although I am still going to build or convert, replace fix, as if I had 11 chickens still.

I think your best option is to build or remodel an existing shed.

If building
With that much wind, I'd go with a three sided building with a shed roof (one slope from a high side to a low side.

In the winter: three solid sides - no holes or cracks that air can get out through. Then leave the fourth side entirely open - as in, nothing across it except the hardware cloth and diagonal braces in the upper corners.

In the summer, the same open side. Then, also open the eave of the opposite side. The summer mode benefits from a wide overhang to shelter the opening.

That has the added benefit of being so simple.

If remodeling.
Almost no sheds have eave vents. I would add them by cutting them open or raising the roof. In either case, I would also add to the roof -make the rafters longer so the roof overhanges the walls by 2 feet. You can do that by sistering 2x4s to the existing rafters.

Thank you!
I think building or remodeling a shed is the best option as well, I've even thought about a hoop coop or something of the like.

I've been spot cleaning the coop as much as possible.
My two drakes were fighting for a while there (cause of the season) I had to separate them at night and during the day they've stopped fighting now but I am still separating a drake and a duck at night.
So there's more space for the other ducks and I have to clean up less poo in the coop, the current coop is hard to clean out cause of its design.