snhchick
Chirping
- Jul 6, 2015
- 72
- 4
- 59
Hi Everyone,
I've finally got the space in my barn intended for our 3 new Silkies cleaned out (mostly) but I'm concerned about ventilation and predator proofing the coop. I have two spaces: the "foyer" which may be more or less of an extension of the run (daytime predator proofing), which is 5'x6' and the nighttime coop, which will be 6'x12'.
Here is the side of the barn that I am planning to use (sorry haven't rehomed all of the storage stuff I pulled out).
The reason that I show this is because of my ventilation concerns. The door slides open and can provide some ventilation to the coop, but I'm not sure that it will be adequate.
This is the door leading into the main coop. Note that there are no windows, only half walls.
The wood on the floor marks about where I intend to create a divider wall. The floor is dirt. The space is 6'x12'. My plan was to build the wall with plywood and hardware cloth, but I'm wondering if I am wasting hardware cloth on an inside wall (which will only get air flow over the half barn doors when the outer sliding barn door is open).
Should I instead be thinking about cutting ventilation holes in the outside walls of the barn, covering those in hardware cloth and making the interior wall more solid?
I have concrete footers on three sides of the coop. I plan to lay down a welded wire skirt on the outside of the divider wall. I'm not sure how deep the footers go. There is this one spot where the wall has kicked off from the footer.
In this case, I think that the new wall will fill in the gap, but should I be concerned about predators chewing through the area where the footer has shifted part way?
And finally, the foyer. This was originally going to be my whole coop!
I may leave the big opening for now for air flow. If I need to predator proof it for nighttime, obviously I'll close it up and add a pop-up door. I live in New Hampshire, and someone I know who raises chickens here says that he doesn't let his chickens out of the coop in the winter (4+ months) because of weasels. So, if I want to allow the chickens outside at all, i will need to weasel proof the foyer as well as a portion of the run. I still need to check around, but I may also have an issue with entry points in the eaves. If I do, I will probably use hardware cloth to block entry. Should this be screwed down as recommended elsewhere?
Sorry if this is way too much information. I'm just about to start building the divider wall, and I don't want to have to redo it. Thanks to anyone who got this far in the post!
Jody
I've finally got the space in my barn intended for our 3 new Silkies cleaned out (mostly) but I'm concerned about ventilation and predator proofing the coop. I have two spaces: the "foyer" which may be more or less of an extension of the run (daytime predator proofing), which is 5'x6' and the nighttime coop, which will be 6'x12'.
Here is the side of the barn that I am planning to use (sorry haven't rehomed all of the storage stuff I pulled out).
The reason that I show this is because of my ventilation concerns. The door slides open and can provide some ventilation to the coop, but I'm not sure that it will be adequate.
This is the door leading into the main coop. Note that there are no windows, only half walls.
The wood on the floor marks about where I intend to create a divider wall. The floor is dirt. The space is 6'x12'. My plan was to build the wall with plywood and hardware cloth, but I'm wondering if I am wasting hardware cloth on an inside wall (which will only get air flow over the half barn doors when the outer sliding barn door is open).
Should I instead be thinking about cutting ventilation holes in the outside walls of the barn, covering those in hardware cloth and making the interior wall more solid?
I have concrete footers on three sides of the coop. I plan to lay down a welded wire skirt on the outside of the divider wall. I'm not sure how deep the footers go. There is this one spot where the wall has kicked off from the footer.
In this case, I think that the new wall will fill in the gap, but should I be concerned about predators chewing through the area where the footer has shifted part way?
And finally, the foyer. This was originally going to be my whole coop!
I may leave the big opening for now for air flow. If I need to predator proof it for nighttime, obviously I'll close it up and add a pop-up door. I live in New Hampshire, and someone I know who raises chickens here says that he doesn't let his chickens out of the coop in the winter (4+ months) because of weasels. So, if I want to allow the chickens outside at all, i will need to weasel proof the foyer as well as a portion of the run. I still need to check around, but I may also have an issue with entry points in the eaves. If I do, I will probably use hardware cloth to block entry. Should this be screwed down as recommended elsewhere?
Sorry if this is way too much information. I'm just about to start building the divider wall, and I don't want to have to redo it. Thanks to anyone who got this far in the post!
Jody
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