Beckyinma's Chicken Coop

Welcome to our coop page. This is a 4'x6' plywood raised coop, that is 18" above ground.  The pop door opens into a fully roofed, enclosed 5'x10' pen, with run space under the coop as well.  We haven't excavated for the pen yet, that will be soon.  The coop will sit slightly under the hanging roof that is built off the back of our shed.  The front side of the coop will be perpendicular to the back side of the shed, to give the run as much space under the overhanging roof as possible.  We live in a suburban neighborhood, with wonderful patient neighbors, so we wanted to make it look as much like the surrounding structures as possible, hence, the same paint color, trim and roofing.   I've included some very basic plans for the framing of the coop, most numbers are accurate, but are not guaranteed and it is not to scale.

I hope you enjoy looking at our pictures!

 This is the back of our shed, and the overhanging roof.  We had to move all those 2'x2' blocks out from under the shed so we could start moving the dirt around and grading the space properly, so we have no water buildup in the pen area.

 These are our 6 Ameraucanas, they are now 4 weeks old, as of May 27th, 2010.  We got them 3 weeks earlier than originally scheduled, from the feed store, but that's OK! It got us moving on the coop project, much faster.

Floor:

walls

 By the end of day one, this is what we had accomplished:

 Days 2 and 3 involved getting the siding up, painting and installing the exterior trim:

The next couple of days were SO HOT AND HUMID that I feel like I got nothing done.  Just the framing around the windows and doors, and painting the trim/framing.  

Got a roost installed inside, and finished painting, caulking and installed the doors and windows in the terrible humidity, and DH got the roofing installed before a terrible thunderstorm. Next morning, all was dry inside!

 These are our makeshift nest boxes that I imagine will have to be redesigned at some point:

 This is our T-shaped roost, approx 21" off the floor.  We plan on using a deep litter method, and I wanted to keep space in front of the people door incase I decide to keep the food and water inside the coop in the winter.  It would go in front of the nest boxes.

Above: We hadn't moved it into place yet because the area under the shed hadn't been prepped.  But we finally got around to moving a bunch of patio stones out of the way and slid the coop into place under the shed roof.  The only part of the coop/pen that gets sun is the back in the morning, into late morning, and a tiny bit of the run in the late day and early morning.  It is completely protected from the rain, and other elements aside from wind.

Below: Here is the coop, on the right side, tucked under the back of the shed roof.

Here are the girls enjoying their new coop space, fenced into just the coop while I finish the run area.

HI from our new house!

Roost? I don't need no stinkin' roost!   They didn't quite get the point yet, but they were still little...

The kids enjoying some play time before the upper fencing on the run was done.

FINALLY! All the fencing is finished, and the girls are ready to enjoy their new coop and fully enclosed run!

EGGS! Finally we've started getting eggs.  Whitey, our all white EE, began laying cute little mint green eggs at 20 weeks, and in the nest boxes no less!  Now we're waiting for the other 5 to get the hint.  

Thanks for stopping by!