Our New Chicken Coop
In 2011, I built our first chicken coop, converting the kid's tree fort. I learned a lot in the process of creating this first coop. I also realized what I would do differently the next time. Here's a picture of the first (and current) Coop.
Well....the time has come to build a new coop. The old one has to GO! It is sitting right where the new driveway is going for the new house. I started the new coop design by searching Medium-sized coops on BYC. I found a few that I really liked:
One kind BYC member even sent me his Sketchup plans. I was inspired so I drew up my own framing plans using Google Sketchup 8. Here's the general idea:
Coop 2.0 - The Construction Blog
In November 2012, I began construction of the new coop. I decided on a 10' x 5' footprint. I began with excavation. I was building on a slight slope, so I needed to do a bit of digging to level the site. Next, I built forms for 6" wide footings. The footings are about 10" deep. They required about 24 bags of concrete (80 lb bags). I rented a cement mixer for a weekend to help with this monumental task.
Here are the footings a week later, with the some of the plate installed.
Next, I stained the lumber with solid color stain. I decided to stain BEFORE building to better protect the lumber in our wet northwest weather. The first wall goes up...
I built both the front and back walls in the garage before setting them up. The rain is relentless here in late November so it is easier to build in the dry garage. Here is the coop with both front and back walls and one side wall installed.
I also placed a 14' sill on the top of the walls to hold the roofing joists. I'm eager to get the roof on so I can work out of the rain.
I stained all the wood with a semi transparent stain prior to installation to get the best coverage. I set up my workspace in the garage in the cold and wet winter months:
By March 2013, I had finished the roof and built the enclosed portion of the coop. I used T1-11 style siding on three sides. I also started installing the hardware cloth. This has small 1/2" openings. I read that this works better than chicken wire. Here it is with all but the front side done:
March 2013 - another angle: You can see in this picture that I have framed out the doors on the front of the coop. I used OSB for sheathing on the roof. I also excavated more around the coop and spread gravel.
Here is a picture of the composite roof. I eventually added gutters and downspout to this back side of the coop.
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OK. Almost eight years have passed since I started this article. A lot of life happened in between.
I finally finished the coop in April 2013 and moved my hens from the old play house to their new home. I don't have any more pictures of the building process. Sorry about that. I started building my own house on the property...and that big project took priority over the hen's house. (Note: you can now see my house in the background in the picture below). This article received some poor ratings due to its unfinished state. :-( I get that. But, I'm here to finish the story.
Here are two pictures showing the coop as it stands today:
I built the nesting boxes in my woodshop and then "inserted" it into the siding on the hen house. This worked great. It was easier to build it this way, than trying to build onsite, with limited tools.
I even wired the hen house with electricity (you can see the outlets) and installed an electric door that closes on a timer. I set the timer to work at sunrise and sunset. Works great. I stained the entire coop and applied some cedar shakes to the eaves. You can see I'm not quite done with that.
My hens LOVED this house. They stayed warm in our wet Pacific Northwest winters. There was plenty of cross ventilation because of the small shuttered window in the hen house.
I had my hens for three years. They were great layers and this coop worked great. It was MUCH better than the tree fort I started with (see above). Unfortunately, however, I lost my hens to predators. I lost a couple to a coyote and then again I lost a few to raccoons. They were free ranging at the time and I didn't keep a close enough eye on them.
I just purchased a new batch of chicks. They will be ready for this coop in a few weeks. I'm planning to keep them inside and not do so much free ranging. I will only have three hens...so I think they will have plenty of room in this coop.
I will plan to add some more photos to this article that show the inside, the door, and other details. Please let me know if this has been helpful. I'd love to hear back from you.
Take care.
Kris
In 2011, I built our first chicken coop, converting the kid's tree fort. I learned a lot in the process of creating this first coop. I also realized what I would do differently the next time. Here's a picture of the first (and current) Coop.
Well....the time has come to build a new coop. The old one has to GO! It is sitting right where the new driveway is going for the new house. I started the new coop design by searching Medium-sized coops on BYC. I found a few that I really liked:
One kind BYC member even sent me his Sketchup plans. I was inspired so I drew up my own framing plans using Google Sketchup 8. Here's the general idea:
Coop 2.0 - The Construction Blog
In November 2012, I began construction of the new coop. I decided on a 10' x 5' footprint. I began with excavation. I was building on a slight slope, so I needed to do a bit of digging to level the site. Next, I built forms for 6" wide footings. The footings are about 10" deep. They required about 24 bags of concrete (80 lb bags). I rented a cement mixer for a weekend to help with this monumental task.
Here are the footings a week later, with the some of the plate installed.
Next, I stained the lumber with solid color stain. I decided to stain BEFORE building to better protect the lumber in our wet northwest weather. The first wall goes up...
I built both the front and back walls in the garage before setting them up. The rain is relentless here in late November so it is easier to build in the dry garage. Here is the coop with both front and back walls and one side wall installed.
I also placed a 14' sill on the top of the walls to hold the roofing joists. I'm eager to get the roof on so I can work out of the rain.
I stained all the wood with a semi transparent stain prior to installation to get the best coverage. I set up my workspace in the garage in the cold and wet winter months:
By March 2013, I had finished the roof and built the enclosed portion of the coop. I used T1-11 style siding on three sides. I also started installing the hardware cloth. This has small 1/2" openings. I read that this works better than chicken wire. Here it is with all but the front side done:
March 2013 - another angle: You can see in this picture that I have framed out the doors on the front of the coop. I used OSB for sheathing on the roof. I also excavated more around the coop and spread gravel.
Here is a picture of the composite roof. I eventually added gutters and downspout to this back side of the coop.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK. Almost eight years have passed since I started this article. A lot of life happened in between.
I finally finished the coop in April 2013 and moved my hens from the old play house to their new home. I don't have any more pictures of the building process. Sorry about that. I started building my own house on the property...and that big project took priority over the hen's house. (Note: you can now see my house in the background in the picture below). This article received some poor ratings due to its unfinished state. :-( I get that. But, I'm here to finish the story.
Here are two pictures showing the coop as it stands today:
I built the nesting boxes in my woodshop and then "inserted" it into the siding on the hen house. This worked great. It was easier to build it this way, than trying to build onsite, with limited tools.
I even wired the hen house with electricity (you can see the outlets) and installed an electric door that closes on a timer. I set the timer to work at sunrise and sunset. Works great. I stained the entire coop and applied some cedar shakes to the eaves. You can see I'm not quite done with that.
My hens LOVED this house. They stayed warm in our wet Pacific Northwest winters. There was plenty of cross ventilation because of the small shuttered window in the hen house.
I had my hens for three years. They were great layers and this coop worked great. It was MUCH better than the tree fort I started with (see above). Unfortunately, however, I lost my hens to predators. I lost a couple to a coyote and then again I lost a few to raccoons. They were free ranging at the time and I didn't keep a close enough eye on them.
I just purchased a new batch of chicks. They will be ready for this coop in a few weeks. I'm planning to keep them inside and not do so much free ranging. I will only have three hens...so I think they will have plenty of room in this coop.
I will plan to add some more photos to this article that show the inside, the door, and other details. Please let me know if this has been helpful. I'd love to hear back from you.
Take care.
Kris
