Advice on this disaster of of shed

[Nksg75]

We finally did it! We bought acreage outside of the large city(no more HOA!)
We have 9 acres, and a half rotten shed! Hooray!!
I already have 30 chickens(elsewhere) and ordered 50 more to pick up in May!
I have time, tools, however I am lacking an idea of what to do with this thing. It’s 16’ wide and 18’depth.
The main posts are fine, some of the other boards on the top are rotten, those will be removed as well as some of the metal roofing. It’s in a great location (I can see it from the house).
I have built mini coops before, however I never have built this large. I would like to make it larger, so do I just recycle what I can and use the posts as a start?
Give me your inspiration! What would you do with this thing if you were to have 80 chickens they will all be free ranging. I will need to put up some structures for Shade and safety especially being in Texas.
We plan on running electricity out there however after fixing up the house we’re not ready To pay to run the electric line all the way to that shed.
Any help appreciated!

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

Seeing how there's not much of the thing, I would just take it apart, (save the materials for later) and rebuild your shed the size you want it. If the corner posts are good and secure, you could leave those in. You will still have to buy a lot of materials.

 

[Celeste Cannon]

Don't know a thing about building, but good luck and congratulations! Looks beautiful!

 

[jthornton]

The first thing you want to do is sound the posts for rot. Take a hammer and tap each post near the ground a rotten one will have a very dull sound. They may look fine on the outside but be rotten on the inside, no point on building on rotten posts. If they are sound then you just need to tear off all the rotten wood and start fresh. Read the Prince T Woods Modern Fresh Air Poultry House book. I cleaned up the images and put them into the pdf file. For that many chickens your coop may need to be larger than what you have now.

A Woods coop is 1.6 times as deep as wide so a 16' wide would need to be around 26' which would give you 416 square feet.

JT

 

[Nksg75]

OK great thank you.
Yes, your right, I do need to check to see if the posts are sound. We have clay soil here in south Texas (and way too much rain), its a ticking time bomb for rot!
I am hoping they are sound, I have only put in a few corner posts for fencing, and that was not easy( might have been the fact that we did it without an auger!)
I realize I will need to expand it, just hoping to go off the existing structure. If I have to start from scratch, I may not finish it in time. May 2019 seems far off, however we don't live there yet, with all the other updates/repairs being done right now.

 

[Ted Brown]

You are in bonus (materials) territory already, just how to assess correct next steps.

A Woods coop is open to the south or s/e. How does what you have orient to that? Woods length is in the NS orientation.

Unless you get lucky think carefully dismantle and reuse all good materials (based on pic you have most or more of what you will need to rebuild one 10' by 16' Woods KD).

 

[Rietta]

That looks like some nice metal roofing to top your plywood with! Whatever you do, put something down on the ground to keep the dang snakes out.. and if you have coyotes as bad as I do, completely enclose the thing. I am using old windows, and a greenhouse vent fan on my old shed. Covering all openings with 1/4 inch mesh.. a bit extreme maybe but I get tired of dragging 5 foot rat snakes out of my current coop. Last spring before I decided to upgrade to the old shed we are working on now, I surrounded the current coop with 1/2 mesh and topped that with river rock. stopped the snakes from going under. Cant wait to see the finished product.

 

[Nksg75]

Oh, absolutely agree on all things anti snake!!
Can't do much about them, we mainly have coral, water moccasin, and a worker claims he saw copperhead.
I won't go anywhere without snake boots, and all 3 kids outgrew theirs, so went ahead and ordered more!!

Now as far as the woods coop, I have read about it, however mostly about northern climates benefiting from it.
Has anyone in here tried it in southern climates?

I am sure the coyotes are numerous, however I have 2 Aussies, that love those chickens.
Not your typical LGD breeds, however at our ranch they have run off quite a few coyotes, and a bobcat. I also have a decent aim.
I am more concerned about the Hawks. And realize that I need to have shade/protectors From airial attacks.
I need them to freerange, because I would like to eventually get that whole back pasture on ag land.

As far as what direction the opening is facing, I will look at the survey and figure out the direction.

 

[The Lazy L]

Other then the tin I don't see any thing worth salvaging. I'd tear it all down to ground level and start over.

 

[igorsMistress]

Being in the southwest, our coop has 3 solid walls and one completely open but that we can close off when it's windy or cold. Woods design would be too warm at the end of the day, especially if there's not much of a breeze to move air.