Chicken Coops

[Peppygal]

Hello Everyone
If spring ever comes to my neck of the woods, I plan on getting out to an old grain shed and converting it to a chicken coop. I have done reading and research on coops, but I would love to hear from all of you on what works best. My biggest concerns are ventilation and lighting. It gets extremely cold here in the winter and I need to know how to get good ventilation without drafts. I also don't know if I should put in a couple of windows for light. Please let me know of any helpful tips or send in pics of your coops so I can get an idea on what works in our climate.
Thanks

[Davinci]

The trick is not what works best, but how to make the most out of what you have to work with.

There is much debate over how to ventilate a coop without making it drafty. Well good luck with that! Isn't ventilation, by definition, a draft?

I have 2, double pane windows in my coop. I leave them open a crack all winter. We have 6 inch walls, insulated, and insulation in the ceiling as well. We made a HUGE mistake when we didn't insulate the floor. SInce our hen house is up on skids, cold wind blows under it and that floor gets COLD. Not Sask or Alberta cold, you know, BC cold. But remember, it's a damp cold! My rooster's combs still freeze off. If I had a do-over, I'd put a layer of rigid foam on the floor and deck over it with plywood.

I also learned to never keep water inside the hen house! The humidity and mess this creates makes a perfect environment for sick birds. I carry water to the birds all winter. They learn to drink while it's liquid. Packing in frozen buckets is a pain, but it's what I do.

Outside I have a fenced yard, an area of it has metal roof overhead, this keeps a snow free place for the outdoor feed and water. IF there is lots of wind I have to shovel out the blown in snow sometimes. But the birds will not go out if they have to get their toes in snow. I am very happy to have that covered area for snow protection, I would recommend it.

I also have a poo pit under my roost. The area under the roost is boarded off with a 4 inch board, like a sandbox. Most of the poo lands in the poo pit, thus when I shovle the hen house, I don't shovel the whole floor, which is usually dry, but the poo pit, where all the wet poo lands. This cuts down on cleaning time and cuts down on bedding usage. I shovel out poo pit. I shovel up slightly used bedding from ret of floor and toss in poo pit, then add fresh bedding to main floor area. So all bedding ahs double life, once on floor, then in poo pit, then in pile where I will use it later to kill my garden.

If I ever to this again I will put rubber mats or a sheet on linoleum (vinyl flooring) in the poo pit to keep the moisture from soaking into the wood floor. It sure rots that wood out fast. Something to keep the poo away from the wood would be better, I think.

[niglefritz]

I think that rubber mats might hold up better than linoleum. I don't know that for sure, but it sounds like it might work better.

The bottom of ours is painted. It was that way when we got it. Some old guy was fixing it up in an odd way as a little private cabin or something, someone bought the property and this was one of 13 that he had. Ours still has a number on it. Fancy. It was the storage shed/cabin that was in the best shape and they didn't need it, so they gave it to us. It was certainly in better shape than our last building (floor is rotting out), and it came with a regular light bulb socket and a "sunroof" of sorts in one area. It sure helps with lighting except when there is snow on it.

The paint did make some cleaning easier, but we need to put something insulated down over it this summer. The paint doesn't insulate and we can see the results in our chickens (yes, frozen comb on one guy and we lost a few birds too). We also don't have the soffits (under the eaves?) fully closed. All he put on it had was screen and it had not been put on very well. I can't imagine what it was like in there in mosquito season if he ever actually slept in there. It certainly was too open for mice too... We never did fix those soffits. I ended up having to stuff straw up into them to close off the mighty drafts at -30. That was a cold job in that awful wind that day. I left one space open between the tiny rafters on both sides and it seemed to help a fair bit.

We have other work to do to it this summer. I just hope that it actually gets done and that it works.

[Sweetened]

I started with this:









I had no idea what this hangy thing was and then it hit me... litterally.

That center piece was a pole that I kicked accidentally and the roosts came smashing down on my head

This is realtively what it is now, but we have a breeding pen in there that needs to be finished up. We also need to reinsulate and close that wall, and I'm whitewashing the walls this year as well in order to make it brighter in there.









Oh yes, plus many more chickens. I use deep litter method as their is a packed dirt floor underneathe all that. It's one helll of a clean out task in the spring, but it doesn't smell and is easier to maintain over the winter. The decomp also generates heat.

[ooptec]

Wow, beauty coop, and that window !!!!!!

Could make a dandy brooder/juvenile section in there too, w/a closed room for supplies maybe

Looks like a little roof patching, or effects of heated coop?

Having something that big is excellent

[Sweetened]

There used to be an old wood heater in there I think. It was left out of commission and used as a garbage dump for around 20 years. The roof still needs a LOT of work, we patched the worst part with some old sheet metal off the fallen barn.

The cement border needs to be patched up this spring as there are some nasty holes in it. Door needs to be replaced and I need to get all the mice killed that have moved in. I also have to re-decide on the ventilation I'll use, as right now the holes in the roof are what keep it ventilated.

[Davinci]

Looks EXACTLY like the mobile home my daughter just bought.

If you feel like rebuilding more tragic wrecks, come on over.

I like the idea of the roost that props up, maybe with a roof latch so you don't get bonked on the head. I do have one roost I can move to shovel, very handy. YOu guys did an amazing job!

[Peppygal]

I was planning on insulating the walls, but never thought about the floor.  It is up on skids, so I guess I should add that to my to-do list.  I have a bunch of old windows laying around from the previous owner, so I think I will throw a couple in there to help with lighting.  I don't believe they open so that won't help with ventilation.  I was going to do the poo pit thing, but it never crossed my mind about the floor rotting out, so great tip, thanks.  A covered outdoor area would be nice to have shade in the summer too.  It's crazy living somewhere where it can be plus 40 in the summer, and minus 40 in the winter.  I think I'll have to pick and choose which projects get done this year.  I'll have to do some before and after pics and post them when I'm done.

[Sweetened]

Your floor will be insulated by the debris or matter on the floor like shavings or straw and so on. Many, many, MANY people, use wood floors and replace them every 5-10 years depending on the situation.

[Davinci]

Our coop is up on skids, the floor is 2x6 cedar decking. Even though I put in bedding, the chickens scratch it here and there down to bare floor. It gets COLD! I heat the coop with a red bulb, but it would have made a world of difference to insulate the floor. If I made my bedding as deep as Sweetened suggests, I'd never get the door open!

I also agree that vinyl flooring is likely to rip the first time you gouge it with a shovel. Some of those rubber mats would be way sturdier. Might prevent the poo from freezing down too. It's impossible to shovel poo frozen to the floor.

Also, imagine yourself in your coop actually moving a shovel of poo from under the roost to the wheelbarrow outside the door. You need enough room in there to freely move around. Imagine trying to awkwardly reach under a roost that you can't move out of the way. Will you use a hoe to pull the stuff out of the back corner? Picture this now rather than when the poo is 2 feet deep and you realize there isn't enough room to work a shovel.

We also put a sloped roof over the nest boxes. Sloped so chickens slide off. If you put a flat roof over your nest boxes, or no roof, they roost on the edge of the nest box and poop in it all night and you get poopy eggs. Chickens will roost anywhere you don't prevent it. And they poop there. Keep that in mind when designing things.

[Chickenlady]

My coop has a cement floor, not that we made it like that..it came with our homestead.
2 rooms, with each their own door and a door in between to go from one to the other.
It's insulated with woodchips..think the coop is same age house (1930 ish) and huge windows on the south.

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