Grain bin made into chicken coop

See and thats my worry. We are in Minnesota. So it can get up over 100 and as low as -40 in one year. So making a coop out of it that can comfortably house them in all those conditions has me wondering if it's possible.

Although I'm thinking of not keeping them over winter, but I don't want to cut out the possibility.

I hear you on the rental problems. We rented ours to neighbors for a few years and ended up selling it to them. Good riddance. The cement base now makes a good place to store firewood that isn't ready to use yet. Plus we can use the area for a small pasture and not worry about the neighbors leaving a gate open.

Peg

if you can sell them it might make it a lot easier , you can put down a row of concrete block and build traditional building on the slabs or park trailers on them so that they don't sink into the ground in the spring , you wouldn't need to break them up

how many chickens are you looking to have you don't want to have alot more space than you have chickens because you have to try and keep that above freezing in the cold months

next question how are you being taxes on them , I had a freind who found it a lot more cost effective to get rid of buildings he had a grainery , singel car garage that had been the rabit shed a pole barn , a milking barn , a pump house that no longer had a pump in and a rectangular corn crib that he tuned into a 4 car garage he tore down the little buildings that were in poor repair and took the savings on his taxes

a chicken coop with no foundation usually doesn't get taxed so if 1-2 dozen birds are what your looking for that may be a savings

I guess it depends on how big the coop I make will be. If I have to actually buy a coop then I likely won't be able to house more then 8 tops. If I make a coop I'd like to have 15-20 chickens and 5-10 guineas. More the following year if everything goes well.
I'd like to be able to sell and share eggs, plus use them for meat. I'd love to never buy another chicken from the grocery store again.

My husbands grandparents butcher once every other year. So I'm hoping to learn from them and a couple of his uncles that also butcher chickens.

Right now I'm planing for a future flock. It won't be this year since I'm not set up at all. And spring will be focused on my vegetable garden. But I want to use this summer to get set up for chickens. And use this fall to learn the butchering ropes from my husbands family. Hopefully these aren't unrealistic expectations.

I would sell them then reuse the concrete base to make guest cabins, chicken coups or barns. If there is a will there is a way.

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I'm so done here.

If they didn't get so BLASTED HOT AND MUGGY WITH NO AIR MOVEMENT in them, a coop would be a great idea for them. As mentioned, they get extremely hot and extremely draftless in summer. As in you can not touch the walls on the inside kind of hot. Fry an egg hot. Hauling grain in the summer is my LEAST favorite thing on the farm to do.

I would try to sell them. The pads could always be moved or re-purposed for something. They are a pain. I wonder, how big are the bigger ones? Most farmers these days don't like smaller ones any more, with 200 bushel corn, etc..

If you were to use them for a living, breathing life form, you MUST insulate them somehow, and then ventilate them as well. Grain farmers who have shoveled them clean in summer, would know the heat I speak of!

Been there, done that. Only thing worse is maybe stacking hay in one.

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Sell them, and then build what you want. pocket or invest the rest.

to ventilate if you decide other, culverts 20' long 4-5' deep. in a star or better configuration around it. at ground level exit. something like a large smoke stack top center and a bit longer then the original roof.
The stack and building become a solar chimney, drawing the coolest out side air though the culverts and the ground cools it.
the more culverts the better.

I don't know how to tell how big they are. Will it say on it somewhere how many bushels it is? I haven't opened them, or really spent much time by them, other then mowing and weed whipping around them in summer.
I'm also wondering how I'd tell if they are good quality or not.

Here is a far away shot I took this past summer. I tried to zoom in a bit. It gives a better idea on the size of them and how they are located on the property.
ImageUploadedByHomesteading Today1422627878.166296.jpg



Would the ones along the tree line still get really hot in the summer? They are shaded around 1-2pm. But in direct sun all morning-noon.

I can't imagine the bases could be removed whole. The big one I think is on 2-3ft of cement. Possibly more if it goes below ground.

Maybe rebuilding on at least the big one might be our best option. Or cheapest if anything. :/

Sell, the bins and put a yurt on them(so you can easily reuse the concrete slabs). Then use the yurts for whatever. I cold see a spiral chicken roost in the middle then all the laying boxes,feed on water on the outer wall.

I had to look that up, lol. I had no idea what a yurt was.

Does brick get as hot as metal? If a brick yurt was built in place, but the metal top was used would that work? I'm afraid a wood structure wouldn't hold up well. Our area is notorious for high winds and tornados. I'd hate to build it and have it blown down right away These have been here for some time it looks like and haven't been damaged yet, so I know they are sturdy.

I really appreciate all the opinions and advise!

We did exactly that at our former home. We had 4 grain bins of various size. We made a screen door out of chicken wire and left that open unless it was super cold. We free ranged in the day. Feed and nest boxes were in the bin. We could also crack the roof vent in warm weather. Never had problems with health. Was super easy to clean and predator proof.

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If you don't mind me asking where was that former home located? Is the weather comparable to MN?

I don't mind if I have to make a coop, but it would be so nice if I could find purposes for the bins.

I would rather a grain bin made into a coop any day. Predator Proof, wind proof and won't fall down due to snow load. Easy to clean concrete floor.

Then of course I love how they look.

Do you have one?
I'd love if I could find someone that has done it to see how. And what the layout looks like inside.

I plan on free ranging during the day so they won't been restricted to living in it 24/7.

No, but I dream of it every time I see a silo. I see hundreds of building here made out of the same idea just turned on their sides. I however like the look of the silo much more.

I haven't seen any around here repurposed. But we live in a big corn and soy been growing area. So I think most farmers use them for soy and corn or rent them to farmers that will. I might just have to do some more searching online.

Just FYI, if you insulate anything with any sort of foam, chickens will eat it. You will have to have some sort of protection for it. I don't know why, but chickens LOVE to eat styrofoam and foam of all sorts. At least mine do.

Here's some neat link on repurposing a grain bin

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/66...verted-to-coop

http://greengardenblog.com/2013/01/2...n-garden-spot/

http://www.dancingrabbit.org/about-d...in-renovation/

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...12cbc9b50f.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...f0fe693d4f.jpg

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/876444/grain-bin-coop

http://bigbangstudio.blogspot.com/20...-swim.html?m=1

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My attempt at a blog. Hopefully entertaining and useful.
http://senselesslyrandom.blogspot.com/

I agree, sell the bins and use the slab circles as a base for something else. Do you know of anyone wanting to get rid of the wire corn cribs? They make excellent spaces for chickens to hang out in the fresh air when hawks and eagles are out. We have two attached to our chicken house on the south side. The chickens go through a small wire tunnel to the first crib and another to get to the second. We through sunflower an other seed in there to germinate for the ladies to munch on when danger is out.

You could build a wooden structure on the slab and attach it to the wire cribs as a run if you could fine some of the wire cribs. We have several more that we took apart to create a large fenced in yard for them on the north side of the chicken house with assorted grapes growing on them and a few gooseberry and raspberry plants growing inside. I never get any of the fruit. Chickens can really jump high if they are motivated!

You could also create a nice area for you, think gazebo. Table, chairs, maybe some mosquito netting. I know, I'm getting carried away and it's not even my yard. Feel sorry for my DH yet?