The Front Porch Swing

[Alice28]

Whoa, Wyo - you trying to make me jealous?  

X2 on that! When can I move in? Lol.

Although I'd have ducks, not chickens. Then I could become the crazy duck lady, this is my new dream!

 

[bruceha2000]

This is the building that DH says I can use for chickens. As you can see, it is pretty short - maybe 6 feet at the sidewall on this side which faces south. the north side is shorter with no windows, but it has a number of animal doors which have been closed off.



The south side has a row of windows and the north side is divided into stalls. One of these stalls will become my main chicken coop. Any good ideas on this transformation?




The ceiling is covered with metal and I believe it is insulated above that. Each of those stacks on the roof is a 15" vent (behind the tree branches).

Fabulous space! Looks kind of similar to the shed part of my barn. Are the stalls open to each other above a short wall (~4') on the sides? You probably want that for ventilation.

Sounds like you want to do what I did, not necessarily in the same order. The stall is 12' wide and 10' deep, 7' high with 4' walls on 3 sides, solid wood wall on the back (OK as solid a a hundred year old addition to a hundred and sixty year old barn can be).
- I added the 1/2" hardware cloth on the dirt floor and part way up the sides of the stall wall AFTER we saw an ermine up by the house. The stall had rubber mats and those are on top of the hardware cloth. Suckers are heavy and hard to move around.
- I use 6+" of pine shavings on top of the mats and rake through it daily. Never need to change it and I don't scoop poop. Morning chicken chores is 5 minutes, half of that is getting the girls their morning BOSS.
- The stall already had 2x4 welded wire on one side and the front (other than the 4' high plywood door), chicken wire over the open space on the other wall. Figured I was golden until I started reading BYC predator threads. I put 1/2" hardware cloth over the other wire AND on the ceiling - the rafters of the lower section are the joists of the upper part.
- I have several well made human size 2x4 wire covered doors that came with the barns so I covered one with hardware cloth and hung it in place of the plywood partial door after putting in a 4x4 post the proper distance from the 4x4 that holds the door and a header for the door to close against. That left about a foot of space to the next 4x4 post. I built an opening for a chicken door at the bottom and covered the rest with hardware cloth. I got the Pullet-shut door about a year later, sadly just a bit too wide to fit the space so I put it in the plywood wall on the other side of the people door.
- For roosts running parallel to the back wall I used two 8' long 3" fence rails and an 8' 2x4. I made a hole in the plywood on the right side at 4', a foot from the back wall and slid the fence rail into that. The other end is supported by a hole in a 2x4 coming out perpendicular to the back wall with both a vertical leg and an angled leg coming forward at 2.5' from the wall. 18" forward of the fence rail I put the 2x4, screwed in to both the support and the side wall. I put the second round rail at 2' high 9" forward of the 2x4, again with a hole in the side wall.
- Later when I started having broody bird problems and got tired of putting the broody box up on the roosts and having the rest of the girls lose space, I extended the top roosts to the other wall with 2x4s and the broody box sits permanently up in that corner.
- I made a feeder from a piece of 4" PVC pipe connected to a plastic 12" flower pot base. It hangs between the roost and the front wall.
- For water I made a 4' long 3/4" PVC pipe with saddle nipples connected to the right side wall with the water container on the other side of the wall, no going in the coop with water. I later built that into the bottom of a nesting box with 2 partitions so I could insulate the pipe.
- The original nest box is a 4' community attached to the outside of the coop to the left of the chicken door with two hinged (and predator proof latched) lids for collection. There is a single entrance hole. That was the only box at first and they all used it. But now 7 have a very specific preference for the 3 open nests. No curtains, no roof, no privacy; still preferred by 7 out of 10 hens!
- There is a 1x6 screwed across at the bottom the door people and chicken door opening to keep the shavings in.

What I would do differently:
- hardware cloth the floor and up the walls at the start.
- make the roosts full width to start
- make brackets for the roosts so they can be taken out easily.
- do the same for the 1x6 at the door. I've only removed the shavings once, when they got soaked with rain water running through from the upper barn. That 6" lip didn't make it easy and wet shavings are HEAVY.
- make the insulated nipple water pipe a self contained "component" or hinged on the back side under the nest box floor. 3 of the 5 nipples drained out (STILL don't know why they failed) the night before Thanksgiving 2 years ago. I had to take the nest box entirely apart to replace them and that had to wait until spring last year.

Roosts before extending them to the other wall. Don't have a picture of that. The plastic steps on the angle brace were for when the girls were little, they never use them now.



Broody box "stored" on the floor when not needed before I extended the upper roosts. It now sits permanently in the same location, just 4' higher.



Water pipe before it was built into the nest box. The Pullet-shut door is now on the right where that block was covering a "big enough for an ermine" hole in the plywood.




Open nest box with water pipe in the "basement", orange 5 gallon insulated drink container on opposite side. I did have to extend the middle nest dividers to keep the girls from picking on each other. Originally they were the same as those on the ends





View from the inside, pre access hole being cut for the community box and pre open box.



External nest box



Birds' eye view from the roost




barn (and indoor chicken run) alley

 

[Blooie]

X2 on that! When can I move in? Lol.

Although I'd have ducks, not chickens. Then I could become the crazy duck lady, this is my new dream!

Sorry, Alice - that title already belongs to my daughter. She has 22 ducks. Did I mention that they all live IN the house? No, not a duck house or any other kind of house - they live in her house. The ducks, daughter and her SO, and 2 rock doves.

 

[Blooie]

Okay, most of you regulars "know" my little granddaughter, Kendra. Well, check out what happened today - I'm so excited! It was her very first time trying this! I see a wheelchair with cobwebs in her future!

 

[Alice28]

Okay, most of you regulars "know" my little granddaughter, Kendra.  Well, check out what happened today - I'm so excited!  It was her very first time trying this!  I see a wheelchair with cobwebs in her future!

Oh my goodness! Go Kendra! Even the dog looked excited!

 

[wyoDreamer]

Blooie - that little girl is going to be going 100 miles per hour really soon. So happy for her! you go girl !!
the rooting galley is all set the cheer her on.

 

[wyoDreamer]

@bruceha2000 - I was hoping that you would weigh in, I know you have good ideas.

The floor of the barn is concrete, so no need to wire mesh the floor, but it is probably a good idea to do the adjacent stall wall. I picked the corner stall for the chickens so I could limit the amount of wire mesh as much as possible. It is also next to the area that we are going to fence for the chicken run.

I was thinking of making the nest boxes as part of the divider wall that I need to build at the front. I want to try to maximize the light into the coop as much as possible. The people door will also need to be in that area.

Do you think it would work to have the roosts in the back where the roof gets so low? It is only about 4 foot high back there. I was thinking of making a ladder of roosts, kinda like yours, hinged at top so it could be swung up to the ceiling out of the way for cleaning. The lower roosts would be in the back where the ceiling is lowest.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Oh my goodness! Go Kendra! Even the dog looked excited!

@Blooie - seeing Molly running through the video made me smile. My sister just said last night that my dog Pistol Pete may be 8 years old, but he still acts like a puppy. He does look a lot like Molly!

 

[dpenning]

Okay, most of you regulars "know" my little granddaughter, Kendra. Well, check out what happened today - I'm so excited! It was her very first time trying this! I see a wheelchair with cobwebs in her future!

That is awesome Blooie! Go Kendra!

 

[vehve]

Blooie, tell Kendra, way to go!