Jenn - I think that play structure will make a great coop, and it doesn't have to cost you much at all to get it ready. The key is not over-thinking it.
Get some hardware cloth or chicken wire (depending on your predator situation.....lots of predators = hardware cloth......few or very small predators = chicken wire)......and close in a safe area for them, where you'll be able to lock them up at night.
Cover the bad floor with a piece of plywood with a scrap piece of linoleum glued down onto it. Then throw some straw (or whatever bedding material you can get cheaply down there) down on the floor.
Add a couple of nesting boxes in their 'safe' area, where you'll also put their food and water. Chickens will happily drink out of a big bowl on the ground, and later, you can spring for a waterer with a little more capacity. Same thing for food.
as for the rest, I'd leave it and let the chickens use it for how it was intended....as a play structure. Just build them a ramp or two to get around, and place a bunch of roosting bars (2x4's) under the coop so they can hang out in the shade. I'd probably replace the existing slide and ladder with ramps. Instead of having the ramps extend far out away from the coop, to save space, you can always have them run up along the sides of the coop. For fun, you could always leave the slide, and simply screw traction bars into it, so they can use it as a ramp instead.......even cheaper!
If the gaps under the windows are simply those little gaps between the vertical boards, I wouldn't bother closing them......when you say "deep south", I'm going to guess that it never gets cold enough for a draft to become a danger.
I personally wouldn't worry about lowering it.
You can't get away from start-up costs, but I bet that if you're thrifty, you could have that structure ready for chickens for $50 - $150. That's a WHOLE lot better than building a coop from scratch, which is going to be $500 - $2,000, depending on how big/fancy you want to get. If you want to recoup that cost, you get 6 chickens, which will give you 30 - 40 eggs a week......sell a dozen a week to your friends (who will LOVE your healthy free range eggs) for $3/doz, and your coop is paid off within 9 months or so.
I'll second everything that post said!
and add, this. Make the nest boxes external so you don't have to reach in to get the eggs. I'd fix one whole side to swing open, you could then reach in with a rake to clean out the bedding when needed.
I can just about guarantee you can convert that for less than $150, and most of that cost is going to be whatever wire you wrap it in..
Get some hardware cloth or chicken wire (depending on your predator situation.....lots of predators = hardware cloth......few or very small predators = chicken wire)......and close in a safe area for them, where you'll be able to lock them up at night.
Cover the bad floor with a piece of plywood with a scrap piece of linoleum glued down onto it. Then throw some straw (or whatever bedding material you can get cheaply down there) down on the floor.
Add a couple of nesting boxes in their 'safe' area, where you'll also put their food and water. Chickens will happily drink out of a big bowl on the ground, and later, you can spring for a waterer with a little more capacity. Same thing for food.
as for the rest, I'd leave it and let the chickens use it for how it was intended....as a play structure. Just build them a ramp or two to get around, and place a bunch of roosting bars (2x4's) under the coop so they can hang out in the shade. I'd probably replace the existing slide and ladder with ramps. Instead of having the ramps extend far out away from the coop, to save space, you can always have them run up along the sides of the coop. For fun, you could always leave the slide, and simply screw traction bars into it, so they can use it as a ramp instead.......even cheaper!
If the gaps under the windows are simply those little gaps between the vertical boards, I wouldn't bother closing them......when you say "deep south", I'm going to guess that it never gets cold enough for a draft to become a danger.
I personally wouldn't worry about lowering it.
You can't get away from start-up costs, but I bet that if you're thrifty, you could have that structure ready for chickens for $50 - $150. That's a WHOLE lot better than building a coop from scratch, which is going to be $500 - $2,000, depending on how big/fancy you want to get. If you want to recoup that cost, you get 6 chickens, which will give you 30 - 40 eggs a week......sell a dozen a week to your friends (who will LOVE your healthy free range eggs) for $3/doz, and your coop is paid off within 9 months or so.
I'll second everything that post said!
and add, this. Make the nest boxes external so you don't have to reach in to get the eggs. I'd fix one whole side to swing open, you could then reach in with a rake to clean out the bedding when needed.
I can just about guarantee you can convert that for less than $150, and most of that cost is going to be whatever wire you wrap it in..
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