The Chicken Coop – A DIY Renovation
Our property came with a 16ftx8ft shed that had a lot of random stuff left behind by the previous owners. We left it alone for a bit, as it took us awhile to fully unpack and purge things we brought from our previous home, and we really didn’t need it at the time. The shed has 4×4 posts mounted horizontal all the way down each side and at the front and back. There are also posts in each corner from floor to roof. The floor was made of OSB screwed to several joists that were mounted to the 4×4 post along the sides. It is honestly bigger than we will ever need for chickens, but it has worked well as the chicken coop. Keep reading to see how we made it work.
Initially we were going to turn this shed into a small shop for Drew to do blacksmithing and woodworking. After we cleaned out the random stuff left behind, Drew decided to dismantle the floor. This turned into a big task very quickly. Many of the screws holding the OSB in place were sunk so far down or stripped. Drew ended up using a reciprocating saw to cut out what he couldn’t get out easily. The good news is we obtained a lot of scrap wood from this, some of which we used for the coop.
We are guessing at some point this shed had a concrete pad underneath it. As Drew removed more of the floor he discovered chunks of broken concrete, many of them still had rebar in them as well. Drew worked for quite a while on this floor and removed all but a few joists and the concrete. It was a pretty frustrating task, and he decided to take a break from it.
We didn’t decide on making the shed into a chicken coop until Abby was old enough to be in 4H. Her favorite cousin was in poultry and had chickens and that was a good enough reason for her to do the same. Drew and I had no issues with owning chickens, we both enjoy watching chickens roaming the yard and we love eggs. We considered this a win-win in our book. In July 2022, we bought our first flock and got to work on transforming the shed into a coop. There were still several floor joists and all the concrete in the back, but the front only needed a few modifications. We placed chicken wire all along the walls and in front of the floor joists and concrete. Added a board for the heat lamp to hang on and used some lattice and scrap wood for a door.
We had to make a door frame and buy a couple hinges. We also cut into the side of the shed to make a door for them to go outside. Then we set up a piece of wood as a ramp but would close it at night. The temporary run was some welded wire fence and a foldable dog playpen. The birds would stay cooped up while were at work and throughout the night. We would let them out once we got home from work until around sunset.
