new to keeping chickens

[scaredy]

Hi all, I don't have any chickens yet...but am preparing their home before I take on 3 or 4 chickens that are x commercial layers. I need to do this on a shoestring budget so I am converting my garden shed into a coup. Does any one have any ideas or tips that could make the shed chicken friendly? thank you
Scaredy

 

[Marigold]

Hi Scaredy, and welcome to the forum.
You've come to the right place if you want to make your own coop on a budget, and a garden shed can be successfully converted at relatively small cost. If you browse the Search box, top right, in the General Chickens section, you will find several long threads where people have shared their experiences and asked wuestions about design and conversion methods, so then do feel free to give us some more ideas about what you hope to plan, and I expect you will get lots of help.
Planning the run is equally important, and you need to decide the maximum number of birds you have room to keep, based on the calculation of an absolute minimum of 2 square metres of run space per bird (more is better, don't overcrowd them or there may be social problems such as bullying and feather pecking. The run has to be strong and foxproof, with sides made from weldmesh, not chicken wire, which will keep the birds in but wouldn't exclude predators. Again, you will find help on previous threads, plus answers to the questions you'll have as the project develops.
You may not have noticed the main Poutrykeeper site, see link at the bottom of the page, which has some useful sections on starting up with keeping chickens, housing, feeding etc, as well as lots of other advice.
http://poultrykeeper.com/

 

[scaredy]

thanks a lot for the information. I have checked out the site you mentioned and it appears to be really good, will have to bookmark it as I can see I will be referring to it often. I have had a chicken run donated by a friend , it needs a bit of TLC but I'm willing to do that. I won't get my hens until I am completely ready for them and have done all the research and groundwork.....I can't wait, I'm really excited about them coming The coup (coop) is a bit like fort knox as my hubby has put two slide bolts and a padlock on the door! I'm sure he'll be as safety conscious about the run.

 

[Lucylou]

Hi there, My coop was made from a tool store/shed that we already had, (from somewhere like B & Q) It had never been put together so we started from the flat-pack!

It has worked really well for about 6 years, we shortened the height & also cut in a 'pop-hole' which is a very basic door on a hinge. Since then the only thing we changed was the nesting boxes, we added an external one by cutting into one of the sides . Also have had to replace the main door hinges the ones that were supplied fell apart at some point. Apart from that its done good service. Oh, forgot to add we changed the roof to Onduline as the felt one was rubbish & started to leak, you will read on here everyone stresses that felt roof is susceptible to red mite hiding under it.

There is a picture somewhere on here of it (its blue!) to give you an idea, cheap & cheerful but does an excellent job!! You don't have to spend loads if you don't want to.