After lots more discussion and reading, my husband and I are thinking we might like to convert an old greenhouse that's on our property into a coop. The sides have been taken down long ago and it was used by the previous owners as log storage. It's actually potentially in a really great location for it. Near enough to the house to be convenient, lots of forested area around it that we weren't planning on using for garden, near the kitchen.
More pictures here
It is 10 feet long by 7.5 feet wide, so if I'm correct it could comfortably hold around 20 chickens (assuming a few of them were bantams). That would be more than big enough for us. Our plan right now is to take down the latticed sides and replace with plywood. We thought we'd put pop doors on three sides so we can rotate which pasture they're in, though you'll notice the bottom couple of feet or so is logs so I'm not sure if we'd need ramps up to the pop doors on the inside as well as the outside? It is directly on dirt. We figured we would put hardware cloth down on the floor to prevent predators from digging in, and then cover it with bedding (pine shavings?) and use the deep litter method. We would also bury hardware cloth around the outside. We would make sure to add some ventilation. We may even have the first two or three feet as a more open coop design (similar to something I posted about in this thread), with the ability to close up the coop for the times in winter when it's chilllier.
My questions are, first, can anyone see any potential problems with converting this? Is the roof as is okay or would we have to replace/change that too?
If we wanted three different pastures to rotate the chickens around, say using each one for 1-2 weeks and then giving it a rest, with the intention that none of them would get fully picked over, how big would each one need to be?
Any other ideas, tips, things to think about?
Thanks!
ETA: Keeping this as a greenhouse in this location is not an option. See more below, but basically it's a crappy spot for a greenhouse as it's not in full sun in fall, winter, and spring. It's also one of the best places for chickens as it has enough room that we can create several different paddocks for them without having to have a portable coop. So even if we don't repurpose this greenhouse, it will come down and we will build our coop here.
More pictures here
It is 10 feet long by 7.5 feet wide, so if I'm correct it could comfortably hold around 20 chickens (assuming a few of them were bantams). That would be more than big enough for us. Our plan right now is to take down the latticed sides and replace with plywood. We thought we'd put pop doors on three sides so we can rotate which pasture they're in, though you'll notice the bottom couple of feet or so is logs so I'm not sure if we'd need ramps up to the pop doors on the inside as well as the outside? It is directly on dirt. We figured we would put hardware cloth down on the floor to prevent predators from digging in, and then cover it with bedding (pine shavings?) and use the deep litter method. We would also bury hardware cloth around the outside. We would make sure to add some ventilation. We may even have the first two or three feet as a more open coop design (similar to something I posted about in this thread), with the ability to close up the coop for the times in winter when it's chilllier.
My questions are, first, can anyone see any potential problems with converting this? Is the roof as is okay or would we have to replace/change that too?
If we wanted three different pastures to rotate the chickens around, say using each one for 1-2 weeks and then giving it a rest, with the intention that none of them would get fully picked over, how big would each one need to be?
Any other ideas, tips, things to think about?
Thanks!
ETA: Keeping this as a greenhouse in this location is not an option. See more below, but basically it's a crappy spot for a greenhouse as it's not in full sun in fall, winter, and spring. It's also one of the best places for chickens as it has enough room that we can create several different paddocks for them without having to have a portable coop. So even if we don't repurpose this greenhouse, it will come down and we will build our coop here.
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