[Junie]

I am lucky enough to have a large, brick built henhouse( The previous owner of the house was a poultry farmer at one time).  At the moment I have a small section for the chooks, a small part for the chicks, and a large storage area.  I find it difficult to clean the house and would like to rearrange the interior. 
They have an outdoor area of about 4 x 5 metres, the chicken house is about the same, and I will extend their outdoor area for the summer with and electric fence.  At the moment, when they have access to the outdoor area, they must have access to the storage area - you can imagine the mess!
Any advice would be great..

[hillfooter]

This goes to the heart of a much under considered aspect of chicken keeping and one which many houses on the market today, I think, get wrong.  Interior house design.

Good design must first and foremost use robust and appropriate materials and although a brick built chicken house sounds good, for a small number of chickens in a free range system it's probably not the ideal material for the reasons you mention.  It's difficult to provide removable walls etc with brick so access is a problem.   When designing houses, small is best with lots of access for cleaning which should just consist of sweeping out into a skip or barrow.  Having lots of floor space which needs cleaning should be avoided.  For this reason sheds are often hard to convert satisfactorally.  A good house should be quick and easy to completely clean if you just have a few chickens.  If it takes more than 30 - 40 mins a fortnight for 8 hens you've probably got it wrong.  If you need to regularly poo pick in the house you are being over fastidious or have the design wrong.  Good design gives the chx what they want and keeps the poo away from them and their eggs without your constant intervention,.

Remember a chicken house is purely for them to roost in at night and if your nestboxes are in there, to to lay in as well.  It's by no means essential they lay in their house and external nestboxes can be provided if that's more practical for you to access and clean.  A dark secluded box shaded from the sun and wind is what the hens need placed low down.

I'd confine their access with an external pophole and sectioning off the interior if possible.  Have a grid of roosting bars suspended over the dropping floor which has litter to soak up droppings and is easily swept out.  The chickens should have NO access to the under perch dropping area and the floor space in their area should only be sufficient for their acess to the perches and nestboxes.  Food and water should be kept covered in ther RUN not in the house to discourage them spending time there and causing more fouling.  Their run is where they should be in the day not the house.  Feeders should be suspended at back height to discourage vermin and prevent fouling.  Water should be stood on the ground (not suspended which will be prone to being knocked and spilt) and raised up on bricks to prevent fouling.  The run should have shelter and shade.  

Use the available space for feed storage and tools and don't mix with the chickens access.

If the building can't be easily partitioned consider building a lean-to house on the side as you'll soon get fed up of struggling to maintain an impractical house and it'll quickly become a smelly insanitory eyesore.

Best of luck.
HF

[Junie]

Thank you for that Hillfooter - I was thinking the same, but had not thought of putting food and water outside - I am having problems with my water supplier at the moment as it keeps sploshing over the side - making shavings wet and making things worse.  I will reorganise with your ideas in mind - we need to redo the roof, relatively soon, so it will be major works then!  I will let you know how I get on.. - Maybe some time though!