Building Our Run/Coop (with pics!) :)

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MrsBrooke

MrsBrooke

Songster
5 Years
Aug 11, 2014
2,658
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Magnolia, Texas
Here we go!

Construction of the coop at Casa de Los Brookes is underway! We've got more done than the pictures would have you believe, and we're going to extend the run area out a bit to give the ladies more room... But we're neck deep in it, for sure.


The "front" of the coop with the frame for the future door. Since this picture was taken, we have decided to extend it another 12' for more room in the run. We sank the posts 12" and embedded in concrete.



You can see, once again, the "front" with the door frame, which will be dug up. There's Mr. Brooke working on the run-side wall of the coop and our two Australian Shepherds, uh, "helping."



This is the completed frame for the coop wall that will go inside the run. If you squint, you can see the cement blocks where the stilts will sit and keep the wood from touching the ground (ignore the pile of trash in our future goat area... the previous owners of the property apparently had no pride).

We've got a ways to go, but we are closer to having chickens than we were before!

We welcome any comments or tips that y'all might have. We are brand new to this and have never undertaken a building project this large.

More pics to follow...
Thanks for taking a look.
frow.gif
 
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So how big is the coop going to be?
How big is the run?
Are you putting a roof on the run?
Are you using hardware cloth or chicken wire?
Have think about predators and how to out smart them when building one or you might wake up one morning finding your babies not moving.
 
deathfromabove said:
So how big is the coop going to be?
How big is the run?
Are you putting a roof on the run?
Are you using hardware cloth or chicken wire?
Have think about predators and how to out smart them when building one or you might wake up one morning finding your babies not moving.
Click to expand...

The coop will be 12' x 12'. We'll have about 20 chickens to start and we wanted room to add more. Going by the four square feet for bird, that should leave us plenty of room.

The run is 20' x 20' right now, but we will increase this to 32' x 20', I believe.

The entire run will be wrapped/covered by hardware cloth. The .5" kind from Wayfair. That will be the "roof." The coop will be covered by SunTuf panels, probably... something near-indestructible, but that will allow some light in... I'm trying to mitigate using artificial light.

The only thing we haven't really started yet is a way to keep things from digging under. We're thinking of burying the wire a foot or so down into the ground around the run/coop... We've got two Australian Shepherds, and only one seems to be digging-prone, but I worry about him getting curious and digging into the coop for a mid-day snack.

As for predators, even if they somehow figure out how to get into the run, they will have zero access to the chickens in the coop at night. Plus, we are going to have a combo lock on both the run and the coop to human-proof our feather babies as well.

Thanks for the questions!

How does this sound to you? I would love any tips or tricks from those who've gone before us. :)
 
MrsBrooke said:
The coop will be 12' x 12'. We'll have about 20 chickens to start and we wanted room to add more. Going by the four square feet for bird, that should leave us plenty of room.

The run is 20' x 20' right now, but we will increase this to 32' x 20', I believe.

The entire run will be wrapped/covered by hardware cloth. The .5" kind from Wayfair. That will be the "roof." The coop will be covered by SunTuf panels, probably... something near-indestructible, but that will allow some light in... I'm trying to mitigate using artificial light.

The only thing we haven't really started yet is a way to keep things from digging under. We're thinking of burying the wire a foot or so down into the ground around the run/coop... We've got two Australian Shepherds, and only one seems to be digging-prone, but I worry about him getting curious and digging into the coop for a mid-day snack.

As for predators, even if they somehow figure out how to get into the run, they will have zero access to the chickens in the coop at night. Plus, we are going to have a combo lock on both the run and the coop to human-proof our feather babies as well.

Thanks for the questions!

How does this sound to you? I would love any tips or tricks from those who've gone before us. :)
Click to expand...

To the bolded - are you looking at going straight "down" with the wire? If so, for a good no-dig barrier you want to do down and out - so that you "skirt" the entire perimeter to a distance of 1 foot or so out. A straight down barrier is more likely to be dug under by a predator as they will just keep digging deeper until they've gotten under it - the "out" barrier is more likely to frustrate them into giving up as they will are not as inclined to move out to try digging again as they are to just keep digging deeper.
 
Ol Grey Mare said:
To the bolded - are you looking at going straight "down" with the wire? If so, for a good no-dig barrier you want to do down and out - so that you "skirt" the entire perimeter to a distance of 1 foot or so out. A straight down barrier is more likely to be dug under by a predator as they will just keep digging deeper until they've gotten under it - the "out" barrier is more likely to frustrate them into giving up as they will are not as inclined to move out to try digging again as they are to just keep digging deeper.
Click to expand...

Ah haaaaa. Brilliant. Thank you!!!

I will pass this along to the lead architect!
big_smile.png
 
400


Here is our "Coop" d'ètat as we have lovingly begun to call it.

Expanded the run another 8' to give them a little more room to roam. We've got the middle support post up and part of one wall of the run braced... tonight we will order the hardware cloth. :)

Tomorrow, we will finish tri-bracing the other posts to form the perimeter of the run and begin assembling the walls of the coop!

I am SO stinkin' excited.
 
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We took a break from building yesterday... Sunday, we got SO much done. The of the run is entirely done (except for the part where the door will go). The hardware cloth shipped yesterday... So we're going to begin construction of the coop frame and do what we can this evening!

I'll post more pictures of our current progress later today and then what we get done tonight!

We also just paid for two hens and a rooster from a breeder here in Texas. Show quality birds, to be sure. Instead of raising chicks from a hatchery, we want a little higher quality (not to knock the hatcheries) in order to show them.

BREED FOR THE STANDARD!!! (Our new battle cry... heh.)
 
400


Here is more coop work. :) The .5" hardware cloth arrived, and we will be installing the door soon! The plan is a screen door reinforced with the hardware cloth.

Progress!!! :D
 
400


Here it is with the door installed. :)

400


A close up of the latch - it will be dead bolted during the day when we are not at home and at night. We will probably install a different type of latch at the bottom and top of the door as well. It may be redundant, but we don't want to chance a raccoon making off with our chickens!

Our hardware cloth is standing by. Tomorrow, we will level the coop foundation and put together the frame. :)

Pray for us to have nice weather the next few days!!!
 
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