Sort of remodeling my coop? Need input.

[AngelinaThePekin8]

So this coop is currently housing 11 chickens and 8 ducks and has been for about 2 years now. And the ventilation isn't very good. I did not build this coop, and it was originally made in town for four hens.

I am here trying to make it work until I can find a better way to house my flock. It has been great at keeping predators out, but some snow can get in from certain spots which will be shown. I need advise, or suggestions and even other opinions besides my own. Now I am going to stop talking and post the pictures of the coop.

The pictures below are of the back of the coop and is the lower ventilation, I took the covering off today and cleared all the debris out of it too help improve ventilation until I can make more ventilation else ware.

The pictures below are of the front upper ventilation, I took this one's cover off as well and made sure it was not covered in debris which it wasn't.

So in the picture above and below are the nesting boxes, the door let's snow get in on really windy snowing nights.

Above is the "human door" entrance and this picture is to show what material is protecting the wooden floor, which needs to be replaced with something better.

So in picture number five there was a metal thing that was not needed anymore so I took it out today as you can see in the photo below.

The pictures below are the chickens door, it also lets some snow in sometimes at night I believe.

This is how much light gets in from the chickens door.

The black rubber stuff was stapled in but all the staples came out of the wood so I extracted them from the black rubber thing

View of the coop from back vent.

The boards have warped and I thought this was something worth taking a picture of, it doesn't let snow or anything get directly into the coop. I don't know why we didn't stain the coop or paint it when we first got it.

The photos below are the bottom of the nesting box's, which the older hens like to sleep in. And the coop is on four cinder blocks.

Outside of the spot where snow gets into the nesting box's

These pictures are of the ventilation with the covers back on.

Please feel free to ask as many questions as you want on what I have been doing for the coop and for the chickens and ducks. And what I plan on doing to improve their lives. I want the older chickens and ducks to have a good last few years however many that may be and all the younger ones a good rest of their lives. I hope I made sense of everything, if not please do let me know.

 

[mowin]

I will say why would you house ducks and chickens(19 total) in the same coop only recommend for 4 hens? But at the same time, I commend you as I don't see any frostbite on the gals.

Your obviously doing something right. Any mods would definitely help the chickens and the ducks.
I would definitely separate the two. Aale duck has different " hardware" than a rooster. If Donald duck tried to mate with a hen, he could damage her badly.

 

[3KillerBs]

I would definitely separate the two. Aale duck has different " hardware" than a rooster. If Donald duck tried to mate with a hen, he could damage her badly.

I've got to agree with this.

I'm also astonished that you don't have serious behavioral issues. Do you free range them or turn them into a large run every hour of daylight?

I think you need to think "replace" rather than "remodel" -- though with some improved ventilation the little coop should make a nice broody hutch or isolation ward when you need it.

What level of building skills do you have?

Would you be more interested in building from scratch? Converting a shed? Making a cattle panel hoop coop?

 

[mowin]

I've got to agree with this.

I'm also astonished that you don't have serious behavioral issues. Do you free range them or turn them into a large run every hour of daylight?

I think you need to think "replace" rather than "remodel" -- though with some improved ventilation the little coop should make a nice broody hutch or isolation ward when you need it.

What level of building skills do you have?

Would you be more interested in building from scratch? Converting a shed? Making a cattle panel hoop coop?

Somehow, things are going well. I'm glad the chickens look healthy. I'm as confused as you are, but let's try to figure out how to help.

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

They free range all day long. And then get locked up around 8:00pm and then let out around 8:30am. And I don't think I have ever encountered any behavioral issues. The rooster gets a little frostbite on his comb bit nothing severe just the tips really. And as building a new coop goes we have a bunch of pallets, and some other wood but I am not sure if those are going to be used for other things. Around 7 years ago we had like 30 chickens and at one point two geese and then two ducks which were both drakes, and before we got them we built a if I remember right a 10 maybe 15foot long coop that was probably ten feet tall, but one day it got blown over because of a dust devil.

 

[3KillerBs]

They free range all day long. And then get locked up around 8:00pm and then let out around 8:30am. And I don't think I have ever encountered any behavioral issues.

That's probably it then.

I'm working on an article on chickens' space needs and one of the exceptions for the case of crowding creating problems is a flock that free ranges pretty much every daylight hour every day of the year.

I guess you get a lot of wind if your old coop was blown over, so no lightweight structures for you. What kind of snowfall do you get?

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

Okay, I just edited the first post.

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

That's probably it then.

I'm working on an article on chickens' space needs and one of the exceptions for the case of crowding creating problems is a flock that free ranges pretty much every daylight hour every day of the year.

I guess you get a lot of wind if your old coop was blown over, so no lightweight structures for you. What kind of snowfall do you get?

It sometimes gets to be a foot deep I believe. And we get daily winds of 20 to 30 even 40 mph hour winds, recently we have gotten 60mph gusts.

 

[AngelinaThePekin8]

I just put the chickens up, it is 1degree outside right now with 10 to 15 mile an hour winds. And something I forgot to mention is that the chickens have a respiratory issue right now. I had made a thread in the health and emergency forum. So I am trying to make sure I get better ventilation or something as soon as i can. That way whatever is going on doesn't get worse and that I can treat it easier.
Edit: this is what the other thread is called "Is this a respiratory illness or something else?" In the emergencies diseases and cures forum or whatever it is called.

 

[saysfaa]

I wouldn't block the cracks the snow is coming in until you add ventilation to at least replace the cracks.

Three good ways to do ventilation are: raise the roof so air can come in between the walls and the roof. Or raise part of the roof in a monitor style or cupola. Or open one side of the coop.

I am not sure if you can change the roof; possibly raise it a few inches?

I did the open side method. It works when the rest of the coop is pretty much air tight. It also needs to be deep enough for how wide (maybe also how high) it is. 8 feet of open width per 12 feet of depth works. So does 6 feet of open width per 10 feet of depth. I haven't seen it scaled any smaller than that; it might need to be at least a minimum depth to work well for chickens.

There are no drafts because air has no opening to flow out so it can't rush in. The chickens breath out moist air which is warm so it rises. This pulls air in from the bottom on the open side. As the warm air cools, it flows out the top of the open side but no faster than the chickens breath rises. Well, on sunny days it flows a little faster from the sun warming the air but still no draft.

I don't know all the details of the other two good ways but in both cases, wide eaves work well to shelter the open areas so snow and rain are blocked. Think a foot or more of roof overhang.

You might add hurricane ties to hold the roof on. And to hold the coop to the foundation or the coop to the skids and to anchor the skids. Or posts or piers or whatever your foundation is.