Tuff Shed advice in GA

[Starrs]

Welcome to BYC.

Here is my hot climate chicken-keeping article: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/hot-climate-chicken-housing-and-care.77263/



Depends on how big those windows are and how good the ridge vent is. 1 square foot per adult, standard-sized hen is the usual guideline but my experience in central NC is that I have to have either DEEP natural shade under trees or at least 2-3 times that amount of ventilation to keep the coop temperature under 100F on a 90F day.

Your goal is to have the temperature and humidity the same inside and out.

Here's my article on coop ventilation: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/repecka-illustrates-coop-ventilation.77659/

If it were me, I'd replace the doors completely with doors made from hardware cloth in addition to the other ventilation.

Dramatic temperature shifts *could*, but won't *necessarily* lead to condensation on the underside of the roof that could drip into the bedding and onto the chickens. Maximizing airflow directly under the roof is often a good idea in these circumstances.



In theory 8x8 is enough for 16 chickens.

Thank you for the article!

I like the hardware cloth door for extra ventilation. I have a used 1x1” steel panel from a run and could make a door with it that slides in. I’ll measure everything out to see. It would be easy to line with hardware cloth.

 

[texsuze]

Husband has a Tuff Shed to store his motorcycles. We've had it for probably over 10 years, so not sure if today's Tuff Sheds are constructed the same way. Anyway, the floor material (and the doors) on ours is OSB; the floor panel closest to the door is rotting now from years of exposure, since the shed doors remain open except in rain/freezing weather. If your new Tuff Shed uses any OSB panels, I'd highly suggest painting them with the appropriate exterior covering once your modifications have been done. Might as well also paint the interior walls, too, since the sheds can be dark and dreary. Just sayin'!

 

[Starrs]

Husband has a Tuff Shed to store his motorcycles. We've had it for probably over 10 years, so not sure if today's Tuff Sheds are constructed the same way. Anyway, the floor material (and the doors) on ours is OSB; the floor panel closest to the door is rotting now from years of exposure, since the shed doors remain open except in rain/freezing weather. If your new Tuff Shed uses any OSB panels, I'd highly suggest painting them with the appropriate exterior covering once your modifications have been done. Might as well also paint the interior walls, too, since the sheds can be dark and dreary. Just sayin'!

I was able to change the floor decking so no OSB. I hadn’t thought about painting the interior. That’s a great idea! Especially to lighten things up.

 

[Starrs]

Shed is being installed on Monday! I can’t believe it’s so fast. Here is a draft of my thoughts on an internal layout. Again, this is my first time doing this, so I really appreciate everyone’s help and advice.

Although I am down to 7 right now, I typically have around a dozen hens. My rooster died a few months ago and I have not replaced him yet. I would like to have extra roosting space in case of a few extra girls and/or to space out in heat. I’ve had several breeds in the past, but am transitioning to all legbars.

 

[3KillerBs]

Shed is being installed on Monday! I can’t believe it’s so fast. Here is a draft of my thoughts on an internal layout. Again, this is my first time doing this, so I really appreciate everyone’s help and advice.

Although I am down to 7 right now, I typically have around a dozen hens. My rooster died a few months ago and I have not replaced him yet. I would like to have extra roosting space in case of a few extra girls and/or to space out in heat. I’ve had several breeds in the past, but am transitioning to all legbars.

View attachment 3349950

That look good. You should be able to access the entire thing easily.

 

[Starrs]

That look good. You should be able to access the entire thing easily.

That’s so good to hear! I tend to trip over everything and am trying to accommodate for that

 

[Ridgerunner]

When I first glanced at that looking at the tunnel I thought you had a 1525 square feet run. Wow! Great! After another cup of coffee I saw it was a little bit less. It is still big enough.

Where is your human door to the run? You don't have human access directly from the coop to the run. You might want to position the run human door where it is convenient to the coop door.

I'd position that shed so rainwater does not go into the run. It's probably a gable roof so what you have should work. If it is a single sloped roof you might want to rotate it 90 degrees.

You have more roost space than you need for a dozen chickens, nothing wrong with that. But I'd change the inside layout. Instead of a roost on each side I'd wrap the roost around one side and to the back to make it continuous. An ell shape. I believe your coop is 8' wide. So I'd move the pop door a little closer to the corner and leave a three feet gap in the roost so you have easy access. That's still plenty of roost space. Move your nests to the clear side wall. This frees up more clear wall space in case you ever need it for something. Maybe a broody buster or a place to keep an injured hen. I just like the flexibility and it should give you a little more room to work in there.

A lot of this is just personal preference. What you have should work fine.

 

[Starrs]

When I first glanced at that looking at the tunnel I thought you had a 1525 square feet run. Wow! Great! After another cup of coffee I saw it was a little bit less. It is still big enough.

Where is your human door to the run? You don't have human access directly from the coop to the run. You might want to position the run human door where it is convenient to the coop door.

I'd position that shed so rainwater does not go into the run. It's probably a gable roof so what you have should work. If it is a single sloped roof you might want to rotate it 90 degrees.

You have more roost space than you need for a dozen chickens, nothing wrong with that. But I'd change the inside layout. Instead of a roost on each side I'd wrap the roost around one side and to the back to make it continuous. An ell shape. I believe your coop is 8' wide. So I'd move the pop door a little closer to the corner and leave a three feet gap in the roost so you have easy access. That's still plenty of roost space. Move your nests to the clear side wall. This frees up more clear wall space in case you ever need it for something. Maybe a broody buster or a place to keep an injured hen. I just like the flexibility and it should give you a little more room to work in there.

A lot of this is just personal preference. What you have should work fine.I do have a human door to the run. It’s on the end, and I did not include it in the diagram. i’m going to play around with your ideas about the restain space. It would be handy to have a free corner.

When I first glanced at that looking at the tunnel I thought you had a 1525 square feet run. Wow! Great! After another cup of coffee I saw it was a little bit less. It is still big enough.

Where is your human door to the run? You don't have human access directly from the coop to the run. You might want to position the run human door where it is convenient to the coop door.

I'd position that shed so rainwater does not go into the run. It's probably a gable roof so what you have should work. If it is a single sloped roof you might want to rotate it 90 degrees.

You have more roost space than you need for a dozen chickens, nothing wrong with that. But I'd change the inside layout. Instead of a roost on each side I'd wrap the roost around one side and to the back to make it continuous. An ell shape. I believe your coop is 8' wide. So I'd move the pop door a little closer to the corner and leave a three feet gap in the roost so you have easy access. That's still plenty of roost space. Move your nests to the clear side wall. This frees up more clear wall space in case you ever need it for something. Maybe a broody buster or a place to keep an injured hen. I just like the flexibility and it should give you a little more room to work in there.

A lot of this is just personal preference. What you have should work fine.

I do have a human door on the side of the run that I did not include in the diagram. I’m going to play around with your ideas about roosting space. It would be helpful to have an empty corner. Thank you for the suggestions!

 

[Starrs]

Coop is basically complete! I used @Ridgerunner suggestion of L shaped roosting bars and got 16 feet in (2 bars - one at 34” and the other at 22”). I installed an auto door in the corner and 3 nesting boxes. And I still have an empty corner in case I ever need to put anyone in a crate for isolation. I’m putting hardware cloth over the screened in windows. I’m going to try to build removable frames that I can latch on. I’m also still working on @3KillerBs suggestion of a ventilated door for summer. I ended up using my extra 1x1” steel panels to build the connector from the coop to the run. But I’ve got a few months to figure this one out.

Yesterday I let the chickens wander in and out of the coop and then put them on the roosts after dark. I closed off access to their old coop before letting them out this morning. Tonight they put themselves to bed in their new coop! I’m going to double check in a little bit to make sure the auto door closed.

Thank you everyone for all of your help!!

 

[Silexian]

I built screen doors out of one half inch by one inch welded wire. For my walk in doors. I blocked in the back of the door frame. The screen door sets against the blocking. Then is secured in place with four slide bolts.