After growing up with chickens on the property for the first half of my life, I was ready to have chickens again in my mid thirties. My wonderful wife agreed to a budget of $500 to build a coop and it began. I searched many different coop designs on this site and decided to copy Birdicus7's coop making a few changes. (a link to his design is below)
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/birdicus7s-chicken-coop-plans-and-progress-pictures
My dad is a retired carpenter so was very helpful when it came to making changes to the original design to save time or headaches.
This when I decided it was way too tall and jacked it up and cut 10" off the bottom of the PT 4x4's
We also decided to only have the one row of nest boxes for the 6 hens. Because of this I didn't need the side of the nest box to hinge, so I hinged the roof of the nest box and installed some weather striping to seal it up.
The main difference was the siding, we wanted to have the same siding and colors as the house.
I later came back with some PT 1x1's around the top edge of the linoleum to insure the edges didn't come up
For the water system I used the farmtek poultry nipples. I then plumbed a looped system with 3/4" pvc, that included a valve for draining, 800 gph bilge pump (for water circulation), 12 volt lead acid battery, a boat live well timer, and a solar panel. ( the live well timer has recently stopped working so in the process of replacing with a better quality one)
After spending so much time building the coop I didn't want to wait 6-8 months for eggs so I found a local guy who had some 4-6 month old chickens. I added 2 RIR, 2 Barred Rocks, and 2 Black Austerlopes.
I got the first egg about a month later
Because of the garden next to the coop I relocated the doors for the run to the front
Finished, I almost ended up moving into and sleeping in the coop when my wife found out how much I spent building it. We really enjoy having the chickens free range in the afternoons and would do it all over again. Now I'm working on permission for some Cornish X's in a hoop coop that I promised her I can build for lees then $100.00
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/birdicus7s-chicken-coop-plans-and-progress-pictures
My dad is a retired carpenter so was very helpful when it came to making changes to the original design to save time or headaches.
This when I decided it was way too tall and jacked it up and cut 10" off the bottom of the PT 4x4's
We also decided to only have the one row of nest boxes for the 6 hens. Because of this I didn't need the side of the nest box to hinge, so I hinged the roof of the nest box and installed some weather striping to seal it up.
The main difference was the siding, we wanted to have the same siding and colors as the house.
I later came back with some PT 1x1's around the top edge of the linoleum to insure the edges didn't come up
For the water system I used the farmtek poultry nipples. I then plumbed a looped system with 3/4" pvc, that included a valve for draining, 800 gph bilge pump (for water circulation), 12 volt lead acid battery, a boat live well timer, and a solar panel. ( the live well timer has recently stopped working so in the process of replacing with a better quality one)
After spending so much time building the coop I didn't want to wait 6-8 months for eggs so I found a local guy who had some 4-6 month old chickens. I added 2 RIR, 2 Barred Rocks, and 2 Black Austerlopes.
I got the first egg about a month later
Because of the garden next to the coop I relocated the doors for the run to the front
Finished, I almost ended up moving into and sleeping in the coop when my wife found out how much I spent building it. We really enjoy having the chickens free range in the afternoons and would do it all over again. Now I'm working on permission for some Cornish X's in a hoop coop that I promised her I can build for lees then $100.00
