NBChickenKeeper
Hatching
- Sep 20, 2015
- 4
- 2
- 9
Hello All,
This is my first official post
I will start by advising everyone "the only thing I have ever hit with a hammer (prior to building my coop) is my thumb"
Last winter (2014) I talked my wife into considering chicken keeping solely for eggs. Following her consent I began researching the hobby and formulated a coop "design" in my head. As stated above I have really never been very handy with a hammer and I do not own a single carpenters tool.
My objective to building the coop was to first and foremost use as much recycled material as possible. Over the winter months and into the spring of 2015 I collect as much used wood, fasteners, hinges and latches as possible. I (with the help of my father in-law) spent hours taking apart crates, removing nails and staples and cleaning up the used material as best we could. My father in-law is as handy with carpentry as I am but he (over the years) has collected an entire wood shop of electric and hand tools.
We built the coop in his garage using a module assembly approach to ensure disassemble and reassemble on its final site would be as easy as possible considering we are 2 plumbers who think they are carpenters.
The following is our journey over several months of spending all our free time working on what became a real family affair.
The frame;
The Back Wall:
The Front Wall:
The Trim Work / Priming and Painting:
With the exterior completed we move it over to it's final home where interior work will be completed:
The coop
Now I began building the interior. I did lots of research and incorporated the following:
*Nesting boxes built with the floor on a slight angle to enable the eggs to role into an outside collection area
*Outer egg collection doors
*Roost box with chicken wire over a collection drawer
*Outer door to slide the drawer out for easier clean-out
*Storage area with doors
*Area to hang feeder and water
All the above features in a 50sq foot area
Nesting boxes with storage above:
Outer egg collection:
Storage doors installed:
Roosting Box with drawer:
Access opening for drawer pull out:
With the interior complete I built a 8' X 16' run. I had to buy all of the pressure treated lumber and welded wire mesh for this part of the project. Our plan is to keep only 4 to 5 hens in this coop and allow them to free range when we are home to watch over them but the run will enable them to run around all day when we are not home. I ran the wire mesh approx. 3 feet along the ground in the event a predator wants to dig under the wall - good luck with that
The Run:
I built the run "roof" in panels (approx. 4' X 8' each) and hinged them together to enable us to open the roof section by section if/when required.
Okay so that's the progress to date and I plan on still landscaping around the entire coop with building gardens and covering the end of the run to create a dry area to place the eventual chicken spa and play area
Hope you like it !!
Bye for now.
This is my first official post
I will start by advising everyone "the only thing I have ever hit with a hammer (prior to building my coop) is my thumb"
Last winter (2014) I talked my wife into considering chicken keeping solely for eggs. Following her consent I began researching the hobby and formulated a coop "design" in my head. As stated above I have really never been very handy with a hammer and I do not own a single carpenters tool.
My objective to building the coop was to first and foremost use as much recycled material as possible. Over the winter months and into the spring of 2015 I collect as much used wood, fasteners, hinges and latches as possible. I (with the help of my father in-law) spent hours taking apart crates, removing nails and staples and cleaning up the used material as best we could. My father in-law is as handy with carpentry as I am but he (over the years) has collected an entire wood shop of electric and hand tools.
We built the coop in his garage using a module assembly approach to ensure disassemble and reassemble on its final site would be as easy as possible considering we are 2 plumbers who think they are carpenters.
The following is our journey over several months of spending all our free time working on what became a real family affair.
The frame;
The Back Wall:
The Front Wall:
The Trim Work / Priming and Painting:
With the exterior completed we move it over to it's final home where interior work will be completed:
The coop
Now I began building the interior. I did lots of research and incorporated the following:
*Nesting boxes built with the floor on a slight angle to enable the eggs to role into an outside collection area
*Outer egg collection doors
*Roost box with chicken wire over a collection drawer
*Outer door to slide the drawer out for easier clean-out
*Storage area with doors
*Area to hang feeder and water
All the above features in a 50sq foot area
Nesting boxes with storage above:
Outer egg collection:
Storage doors installed:
Roosting Box with drawer:
Access opening for drawer pull out:
With the interior complete I built a 8' X 16' run. I had to buy all of the pressure treated lumber and welded wire mesh for this part of the project. Our plan is to keep only 4 to 5 hens in this coop and allow them to free range when we are home to watch over them but the run will enable them to run around all day when we are not home. I ran the wire mesh approx. 3 feet along the ground in the event a predator wants to dig under the wall - good luck with that
The Run:
I built the run "roof" in panels (approx. 4' X 8' each) and hinged them together to enable us to open the roof section by section if/when required.
Okay so that's the progress to date and I plan on still landscaping around the entire coop with building gardens and covering the end of the run to create a dry area to place the eventual chicken spa and play area
Hope you like it !!
Bye for now.
Last edited:
