Coop de View

Coop de View is a chicken fortress. A 10' x 10' coop with a 3.5' x 7.5' work/storage area and about a 350sf pen (it's irregularly shaped). We stick built it ourselves using as many recycled and inexpensive products as we could find. The costs ran about $3200.

Thanks to everyone here at BYC who has taken the time to put your coop designs and pics here. For me it's been the best source of ideas by far for my design and inspired me to keep a pictoral journal of our build. And thanks to my smart and capable husband who had only an inkling (true for the rest of us too) about what he was getting into tackling this project. After 4 and a half months of significant weekend and holiday work and with the help of our daughters and many friends, our coop and run were ready to receive our youngsters. We have been working since then (another few months) on a weekend day here and there to put the finishing touches on it and probably have another few sessions before I will deem it "done".  Though as many others have said, I'll probably forever be thinking of upgrades and changes.

We have only found a couple things about our design that I would change. We tilted the floor of the place about 1.5 degrees towards the poop hatch for cleaning. Works great, but...We tilted the whole foundation and subfloor, rather than build a tilted floor over a level foundation. We thought we'd save building 2 floors. But everything we built above it is tilted too. Not noticeable to the naked eye. but the walls were not really square and it required some fancy footwork on my husband's part to make it all work. We also chose a roof pitch that made the largest overhang come down too low.Hard on tall visitors. The pics will tell the story.

We live in the Santa Monica Mountains (as does every predator chickens have) so there isn't much level ground around our house. We chose this spot for our coop because it's far enough from the house in case there are any smells (which it turns out there really aren't).

But it is close enough that we can easily check on the chickens many times a day if we like. Also it's part of the dog's turf and they patrol and leave their scent which helps with predator control. It's also got tree cover to help with our occasional scorching summer temps. We do get some wicked winds there but are planning to install plexi wind breaks at both ends of the pen.

We built the floor frame, then put it in place so we could accurately space the foundation posts. Then took it away, dug holes and poured the concrete. The 4 corner posts are sunk in the ground. The other 5 are on foundation blocks sitting on concrete pads. When the posts were in we brought the frame back and leveled it with the 1.5 degree slope towards the poop hatch.

We put the cheapest vinyl sheet flooring we could find over the plywood before we did any wall framing. An idea I found here.

We built the wall frames on the deck where it was nice and flat then carried them to the coop.

Next we framed the roof. We created a lot of overhang to keep it cooler and provide cover for stormy days.The really big front overhang creates a covered porch area for the girls in rainy weather. This is where the roof pitch caused the overhang towards the tree to come down too low. So though we are all kinda short and have no trouble, taller folks bump their heads. Oops.

Roof sheathed with plywood and walls with sideboard. You can see the opening for the poop hatch too.

Next comes wiring, insulation, interior ply and framing for the storage area.

We painted the coop the same colors as our house since it's within view. We used doors and windows

we took out of our house when we renovated it.

We built the interior walls to create a 3.5' x 7.5' area for storage and work. We used regular chicken wire inside since we're just keeping the chickens out of it. We used a 1/4" HEAVY hardware cloth on the windows (screened on the inside) and the vents at the wall and ceiling junction. We left this area unsheathed all the way across the 2 opposing walls for ventilation. When it got a little chilly this winter we made inserts for about 2/3rds of them out of insulation (the stuff that feels like bubble wrap with silver on both sides). Worked like a charm.

A better view of the vents and interior window screens.

Coop all secure and babies enjoy their first taste of home. Max is on guard. The wood planks at the floor are to keep the pine shavings in. We're using the deep litter method.

You can see the poop hatch behind the babies and their temporary perches.

Here is an updated pic with final perches.

Shelves and boxes are done in the work area. This is the automatic pop door and the girls' access to their nest boxes.

Here is a shot of the storage/work area. I got the idea of putting egg box access inside from one of my favorite coops here - Wendyskill's Chicken coop. Thanks for the inspiration! Nice when it rains.

Nest boxes.

This empty corner in the coop is where we plan to put up temporary "walls" in a couple weeks for our new batch of chicks. You can see the heat lamp above.

The real work began when we started on the run. I mentioned that we have every predator a chicken has in our mountains and I don't think it's right to get any animal unless you provide a place where they can be safe and happy. Once again we used HEAVY wire. We had to order the 16 gauge 1/2" stuff online since we couldn't find it in local stores (we ordered the heavy 1/4' for the coop at the same time). It would have been way too expensive to ship, but luckily our daughter was driving through Berkekey and could pick it up. We staked the area and sunk the posts in concrete.Then we dug down 6"-8" and put the wire down, connecting each length side by side with wire, completely covering the floor. We even patched irregular spaces and brought the wire up the tree. Nothing over 1/2" is getting in there! We also brought the wire up the base boards that make up the bottom frame.

Once we had the wire down we brought in gravel to help keep it down and help with drainage.

Here's a close-up of the 16 gauge wire.

We wired the top too once we finished the sides. Here's a shot of the wire we cut and bent around the tree at the top. Again we patched and wired it till we were sure nothing could get in. And of course with the pop door shut at night the flock is safe and sound behind even smaller 1/4" heavy gauge vents and windows.

Dirt down, wire up. No pop door yet. But they get their first "run" time. Kaya would like to be in there with 'em.

Completed run from inside.

More run shots.

Trim is up, shingles on. All is secure.

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A few shots of the flock.

Good luck to all future coop builders.