Describe 'THE SECURITY VAULT' here
I wanted to build an economical hawk, and predator proof coop and run for my 6 ladies. I knew I wanted a raised concrete pad floor for the coop, and a fully enclosed welded wire run, as I have many hawks in my area. Flooding was also a concern as springtime rains often leave standing water on my property.
This was totally a one man build. I had no help,
Not even a hand holding a stick of wood !
It's a freestyle build, no real plans, just some rough sketches, and pictures in my head. The coop is 8 ft. x 4 ft. plus
The Tyvek Housewrap is fairly expensive, but I had this left over from a previous home improvement.
I'm especially proud of my idea for cheap siding. I used standard 6 foot treated "dog ear " fence pickets, cut the dog ear end off, and used a "board, and batten" design.....I ripped the same fence pickets for the batten strips. I paid $1.28 plus tax for each picket, available at any big home improvement store.
Secure doors and windows were very important to me, I have hefty hinges, and bolt locks on all the windows and doors, hardware cloth screened windows of course, and the shutters and doors are framed so the frame sets inside the window and door openings.
I used a total of 100 ft x 3 ft. welded wire ( $ 60.00 @ Lowes ) in the 9 ft x 12 ft. run secured with hammered poultry staples, Landscape timbers as the base of the run, secured with driven half inch rebar stakes thru drilled holes in the timbers. 4"x 4" posts in concrete.......And 2" x 4" 's ran across the run roof @ about 29 inches apart, just to support the hawk proof " dive bomb " wire on top.
I still have to bury hardware mesh, and secure it to the landscape timbers, to prevent a predator from burrowing under the run, but the coop's concrete floor is burrow proof, and a scratching chicken's nail file...lol
I have a 15 amp GFCI wired for light, and a water heater, in the coop.
I still have to build nesting boxes, a ramp down from the chicken door into the run, and stage a walk up to their perches inside the coop.
My 6 girls are only 10 weeks old now, they are still agile enough to jump here and there, but I'll make it nice and easy for them soon......As I anticipate my ladies will soon be fat butted egg layers.
I painted the interior white, mainly just for ease of cleaning.
I hope you like my coop, and I hope this may help someone with an idea, or inspiration.
It's hard to give an exact cost of my coop and run, as I had a lot of materials on hand. But I would say $ 500.00 to $ 600.00 is in the ballpark.
I will say please do not under estimate the cost of good quality exterior screws and nails, especially for the treated / exposed lumber......5 pounds of good nails or screws will run you $20.00 to $30.00......and you will need a lot more varieties, and sizes than you may think.
I wanted to build an economical hawk, and predator proof coop and run for my 6 ladies. I knew I wanted a raised concrete pad floor for the coop, and a fully enclosed welded wire run, as I have many hawks in my area. Flooding was also a concern as springtime rains often leave standing water on my property.
This was totally a one man build. I had no help,
It's a freestyle build, no real plans, just some rough sketches, and pictures in my head. The coop is 8 ft. x 4 ft. plus
The Tyvek Housewrap is fairly expensive, but I had this left over from a previous home improvement.
I'm especially proud of my idea for cheap siding. I used standard 6 foot treated "dog ear " fence pickets, cut the dog ear end off, and used a "board, and batten" design.....I ripped the same fence pickets for the batten strips. I paid $1.28 plus tax for each picket, available at any big home improvement store.
Secure doors and windows were very important to me, I have hefty hinges, and bolt locks on all the windows and doors, hardware cloth screened windows of course, and the shutters and doors are framed so the frame sets inside the window and door openings.
I used a total of 100 ft x 3 ft. welded wire ( $ 60.00 @ Lowes ) in the 9 ft x 12 ft. run secured with hammered poultry staples, Landscape timbers as the base of the run, secured with driven half inch rebar stakes thru drilled holes in the timbers. 4"x 4" posts in concrete.......And 2" x 4" 's ran across the run roof @ about 29 inches apart, just to support the hawk proof " dive bomb " wire on top.
I still have to bury hardware mesh, and secure it to the landscape timbers, to prevent a predator from burrowing under the run, but the coop's concrete floor is burrow proof, and a scratching chicken's nail file...lol
I have a 15 amp GFCI wired for light, and a water heater, in the coop.
I still have to build nesting boxes, a ramp down from the chicken door into the run, and stage a walk up to their perches inside the coop.
My 6 girls are only 10 weeks old now, they are still agile enough to jump here and there, but I'll make it nice and easy for them soon......As I anticipate my ladies will soon be fat butted egg layers.
I painted the interior white, mainly just for ease of cleaning.
I hope you like my coop, and I hope this may help someone with an idea, or inspiration.
It's hard to give an exact cost of my coop and run, as I had a lot of materials on hand. But I would say $ 500.00 to $ 600.00 is in the ballpark.
I will say please do not under estimate the cost of good quality exterior screws and nails, especially for the treated / exposed lumber......5 pounds of good nails or screws will run you $20.00 to $30.00......and you will need a lot more varieties, and sizes than you may think.
