Our First Coop - Bartholomew Country Babes

BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY BABES

Here are a few pictures of our COOP. I realize I went a little overboard, but if we ever decide to not have hens, we will have a nice garden shed. I am not much of a builder nor did I have any plans/blueprints to build this. I just started building. I can say the wife, daughter and weiner dog love having the girls around....

Day 1 of the process. I received a great Porter Cable cordless drill/saw kit for fathers day and decided to put it to use..

As you can see, there is hardly a flat piece of land at our home. So, everything I build, I have to build a frame underneath. I utilized the East wall of the minibarn to act as my West wall.

A better view of the slope of our land...

I used 4x4s 3' in the ground, 2x6 foor joists, 3/4 plywood and 2x4 studs....Also, weiner dog found her way into the picture...

T-111 siding and some low grade windows

A view from the North

I found the door at the local landfill's reuse area and cut it down to size. It's actually a solid wood door. Also, those are 2x4s for the roof.

I bought these handy little brackets from Menards. Made life easy..

The COOP is finished and ready to be stained. Tried to match the other building and failed. EPIC FAIL....

A couple pics from the inside...

Notice the automatic chicken door. Works awesome..We are waiting for 0 degree temps to see if it still works....

I made two roosts at differ heights so the heavier girls can get off the floor. You can't see it but we have a box fan in the window blowing on the right hand side of the roosts. All the girls end up sleeping right in the wind on hot nights...

I finally stained the building and all the posts in the run. I also added some venting on the COOP. My run is 14' by 24'. I have about 18" to 24" of an apron around the COOP for the critters. I also put deer netting on top of the run.

All my girls (except the biggest hen, WIFE). The most important is wearing pink....