Tuff Shed expansion, need ideas

[fat brown hen]

I can't come up with something that is a long tern practical solution that makes caring for them easy without doing something pretty dramatic like tearing out a wall or part of a wall and rebuilding it for structural support and building a walk-in extension. You need to take into account your roofline so water drains.

I could see framing in a human sized door if you can find a spot considering roosts, nests, pop door, and roofline and adding a walk-in annex. That probably requires totally removing a stud so make the door frame solid. At least you'd have access this way. With an 8x8 shed,15 chickens, and some getting pushed off of the roosts I'm assuming you have two 8' roosts side by side in there. I'm not sure what your new roost layout would look like, would probably need to be separated.

You can put a self-supporting box next to that shed and put a pop door between the studs. I'd hate to try to manage that myself. How do you get access, it just seems so awkward. But you can build a "tunnel" between the two, either at ground level or up in the air some. I'd make the tunnel at least 18" high and at least a foot wide. Wider might be better if your stud spacing can handle it.

Okay, so it sounds like it's impractical to "enlarge" a tuff shed so I should instead think about building a second coop connected by a tunnel. The studs are 16" OC so it would just be a matter of adding a second pop door. I could probably fit through the pop door, but I can also build a human-size door on the second coop if needed.

 

[fat brown hen]

I'm confused about the part where you want to use the same wifi door for both sections of the coop... it's a pop door??

There's a wifi-controlled chicken door on the shed (not pictured). I want everyone to enter and leave from that door, so coop #2 should connect to coop #1. It's because I am too lazy to open/close two separate doors.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I could probably fit through the pop door, but I can also build a human-size door on the second coop if needed.

You'd be OK crawling through bird poop? You re tougher than I am. If the new coop is a walk-in then a human door accessable from outside. If you build one of those small elevated coops provide direct human access to it from outside, not through your existing coop.

 

[SourRoses]

There's a wifi-controlled chicken door on the shed (not pictured). I want everyone to enter and leave from that door, so coop #2 should connect to coop #1. It's because I am too lazy to open/close two separate doors.

Ok, now I'm really confused. How are you going to keep chickens separate if they're using the same door?

 

[fat brown hen]

You'd be OK crawling through bird poop? You re tougher than I am. If the new coop is a walk-in then a human door accessable from outside. If you build one of those small elevated coops provide direct human access to it from outside, not through your existing coop.

Right, of course. Just thinking out loud. I have dumb thoughts sometimes.

Ok, now I'm really confused. How are you going to keep chickens separate if they're using the same door?

They don't really need to be separate. I just want to give them more space. But now I'm wondering if they would even go into a second coop connected by a tunnel. Hmm...