Wyandottes, 20 birds, and a coop. Oh my!

So I thought to get the coop build thread started now while I was thinking about it.

My boyfriend, Keith and I are planning on building a coop for 20 Wyandottes coming in April. It's going to be a massive feat considering it's an 8x10 coop complete with giant egg box and run. (Also storage).

So far we have most of the plans drawn up and we'll be starting construction this weekend! I'm at school currently so I'm on mobile and will post pictures of the plans and the spot when I get home.

I look forward to seeing your build! When it comes to photos, more the merrier!

Okay! Finally found the plans so it's time for pictures!

Fair warning, Keith and I are in no means at all architects or good at drawing out plans, this was just what we came up with so that he could explain to me what he was doing. (And me making sure I knew what he meant) so some of these might not make any sense...



This was mainly showing me how the framing for the floor base/walls is going to work. And also the egg box. (Please ignore the left hand corner at the top that was me trying to do something that didn't work.)

We're planning on making as much storage as possible. One of the best ideas we have so far is under the egg box we're going to obviously have support posts coming down for it since it's going to be huge. Keith suggested boarding up the sides to give us some under egg box storage where we could put Tubberware/Rubbermaid containers filled with feed, oystershell, and grit.



This (above) was our write up of all the different details/ideas we had plus a little better drawing of what it might look like (from the side) and what we might need (we do have a better supplies list including 8 4x4x8ft. pieces instead of just 4.)



And another/better drawing to see what Keith was talking about. Since we're planning on 20 birds, we're going for an 8ft. by 10ft. by 8ft. high chicken coop. So far I think we're going to be doing wide open nest boxes (two levels of course) but per someone's suggestion on one of the other threads I've been following, we may be doing the top level open and the bottom level divided/cubbied nest boxes and see which one the girls like best.

I should have pictures of the area of the yard we're working with and of what we have so far to try and salvage. More pics shall come soonish!!

Also! If anyone has any ideas about getting the area we're trying to work with not a swamp whenever it rains, feel free to let us know!

We started digging out the outer perimeter for the coop, god I forgot how many rocks there are in this mess of clay they call ground.

Either way, we've got two out of four sides dug out so far. Still haven't gone to get supplies yet (like the cinder blocks) but Keith wants to get everything dug out/marked out first.

I'll have pictures of the area once we go out again (we're taking a quick break because of how windy it is).

fangedknight said:

We started digging out the outer perimeter for the coop, god I forgot how many rocks there are in this mess of clay they call ground.

Either way, we've got two out of four sides dug out so far. Still haven't gone to get supplies yet (like the cinder blocks) but Keith wants to get everything dug out/marked out first.



I'll have pictures of the area once we go out again (we're taking a quick break because of how windy it is).

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The best advice I'd give you is to lay the wire "skirt" on the ground 2-3 feet from the run and cover it with dirt/ rocks . The grass will grow threw it and hold it down ( we staked it down with cut up clothes hangers).... no digging required

I hear you on rocks! I live on glacial till, and have what we call Spanaway spuds. A full on swing with a pick is not recommended, leads to hitting a boulder at full force. OUCH!

So far digging the foundation was my biggest hurdle. Rocks, tree stumps=frustration. .Happy to follow along with your build and help since I just went through this recently

So not much progress at all today, the wind was just too harsh for Keith and I to actually get anything done, on top of my cordless drill breaking and making me even more upset than I already was today. ARGH STRESS!!

Anywhoodles, Here's some pictures of the area all marked out and the part that we dug out! We also grabbed the first round of supplies! But we've now realized we're going to need more than just two people working on this. :/

First up is Keith raking out the massive amounts of leaves we have to deal with. On the right hand side is a tipped over busted up ancient coop that we attempted to salvage. Unfortunately it's so old/rotted out that the wood is literally useless and it's tiny. We tried and it was free so no big loss.



Here's where we've marked out where the door to the run is going to be in red.



Our dog, Tucker, photobombing as usual.



Two out of the four sides dug out. The red line is to mark the side of the chicken coop that faces out to the run. (This will have the chicken door along with a fullsize door that we'll use to go in and clean up the coop/check on the gang.



More Tucker photobombing.... Mom decided to bring him out on his long leash so he could wander around.



Another angle of the two sides that we dug out.



And more Tucker as Keith continues to dig.



And here's the "wider" view of the entire run. It's about 20x10 for just the run, making the total length from the outer edge of the run to the back of the coop 28 ft. (or 30 if you want to round up).



Oh look! More Tucker! He's a goofball I swear...




And that's about it for right now. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be better... I might actually ask if anyone's nearby to give me a hollar if they'd like to come and help.

So this weather officially stinks. I'm three steps from plotting murder of the weather men. I'm hoping this clears up soon or else we're gonna be S.O.L. I'll let ya'll know when we finally get this thing moving again. Ugh. I hate the fact that we've been having so much godforsaken snow. I'm honestly starting to get worried about whether or not we're gonna be able to get it built. Between this weather and Keith's work schedule we haven't had much luck in doing anything except getting our materials to get started and putting down the cinder blocks.

fangedknight said:

So this weather officially stinks. I'm three steps from plotting murder of the weather men. I'm hoping this clears up soon or else we're gonna be S.O.L. I'll let ya'll know when we finally get this thing moving again. Ugh. I hate the fact that we've been having so much godforsaken snow. I'm honestly starting to get worried about whether or not we're gonna be able to get it built. Between this weather and Keith's work schedule we haven't had much luck in doing anything except getting our materials to get started and putting down the cinder blocks.

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Classic 'kill the messenger'...haha!
Hang in there!