Well here we go... The wife said she was getting chickens... who am I to argue with her?! Any way, that meant we needed a coop. So I checked this site out, got some ideas and started building.. and here's how it went.
Chose the location for the first post and kinda built around that.
Built the floor platform and cut out square holes in the corners for the posts to go through. Platform is 4x8.
You will notice we are building this coop on quite a grade. Never mind that leaning left rear post... minor details....
I just had to keep reminding myself throughout this build... its a chicken coop... not a million dollar mansion...
We basically just screwed the floor to the posts. The floor doesn't really support any weight. Everything else is attached to the posts in some way shape or form. Just leveled the floor out on the posts and stuck the screws to it through the 2x4s.
Posts all leveled up and roof attached. That big Oak tree is gonna provide some nice shade in the summer time.
Another view with a little window framed in... which we later decided not to cut out. More on that later.
More framing and sides!!! That lower most little hole there in the front wall is for the chicken door which we later move towards the middle about 8 inches or so. More on that later.
Ok so here we have the sides on and the nest box installed. This build used waaay more 2x4s than I anticipated...
. Obviously don't have the back cover on the next boxes yet. The top is hinged for easy egg access. I also made is as low as I could so the kids could reach in to get eggs. While standing on the ground it's a little more than waist high on me.
Here is a view of the nest box lid open. again, ran out of OSB so the back cover isn't on yet.
Inside view of the nest boxes.
Got some paint and trim on now. starting to come together! I gotta get more OSB!!!!
Front windows cut out, partially trimmed, people door on and chicken door trimmed.
Chicken door finished, windows trimmed, hardware cloth on the windows, chicken wire covering the eves to hopefully keep the squirrels out.
Here is the roosting area. 2 levels. Should be plenty of roosting area. You can see the nest boxes on the right and the chicken door and windows on the left. As stated earlier, had to move the chicken door about 8 or 10 inches towards the camera as there really wasn't enough room to space out the roosts properly and I didn't want the chicken entering under the roosts or chickens pooping on one another while on the roost. Noone likes a crappy chicken....
Also you can see that window I was talking about earlier that we didn't decide to cut out. Didn't want the chickens roosting right in front of a window. Mabye this isn't a problem? I don't know. Someone can chime in on that. mabye one day I'll cut a small window out above that window so they won't be right in front of it. I chose not to put any windows above the nest boxes, there is plenty of ventilation between the 2 front windows and the the open eves of the roof. I didn't think it was necesary. we will see how hot it gets in there this summer and I will add windows as needed. was mainly thinking of winter time. We are in southern missouri where it gets quite hot in the summer and quite cold in winter. We definately have all 4 seasons here.
I haven't started on the run yet. still deciding what to do there. Any comments would be appreciated. At this point Im thinking its just gonna come off the front of the coop (chicken door side, duh...) and extend about 20 feet or so out and be about 8 feet wide and 5 feet tall. As of now I have 10 chicks. 3 of which are "supposed" to be hens, and 7 of which are unsexed. so hopefully we will end up with about 5 or so hens. That's the goal anyway. No roos wanted. So if anyone is in southwest MO and wants a roo or 2, or 3 or mabye more.... hit me up. I'm sure I'll have some to give away. If not, they are goin in my belly.
So that's about it. Just gotta bring in the litter, plan to use deep litter method. And Feed and Water. Plan to use the bucket feeder with the 3 inch PVC elbow as shown in another post on here and I have ordered the horizontal water nipples for the waterer as also seen in posts on here. Let me know what you think. All in all so far I have about $560 in it and total build time with one helper is about 2 1/2 days. using all new materials. Still don't have shingles on the roof, just roofing paper, or tar paper, or whatever you call it. My father in law is having his roof replaced next week and he is "supposed" to be saving me a few squares of shingles. We will see how that goes... Like the post title says, I'm no carpenter. I expect to spend another $200-$250 on the run between welded wire, lumber, and hardware cloth. That hardware cloth is expensive!!!! yow! Probably will use welded wire to enclose then use hardware cloth around the lower 2 or 3 feet just to keep out snakes, and the occational grabbing coon. Our soil is mostly rocks and clay so something would have to be very determined to dig under. Not to say they couldn't cause I'm sure they could if they wanted to. Round here we dig with dynamite. Shovels aren't very useful.
It's nothing special compared to some of the others on here, but I was impressed with my ability to even put up something like this. Lemme know what you think!
Chose the location for the first post and kinda built around that.
Built the floor platform and cut out square holes in the corners for the posts to go through. Platform is 4x8.
You will notice we are building this coop on quite a grade. Never mind that leaning left rear post... minor details....
I just had to keep reminding myself throughout this build... its a chicken coop... not a million dollar mansion...
We basically just screwed the floor to the posts. The floor doesn't really support any weight. Everything else is attached to the posts in some way shape or form. Just leveled the floor out on the posts and stuck the screws to it through the 2x4s.
Posts all leveled up and roof attached. That big Oak tree is gonna provide some nice shade in the summer time.
Another view with a little window framed in... which we later decided not to cut out. More on that later.
More framing and sides!!! That lower most little hole there in the front wall is for the chicken door which we later move towards the middle about 8 inches or so. More on that later.
Ok so here we have the sides on and the nest box installed. This build used waaay more 2x4s than I anticipated...
Here is a view of the nest box lid open. again, ran out of OSB so the back cover isn't on yet.
Inside view of the nest boxes.
Got some paint and trim on now. starting to come together! I gotta get more OSB!!!!
Front windows cut out, partially trimmed, people door on and chicken door trimmed.
Chicken door finished, windows trimmed, hardware cloth on the windows, chicken wire covering the eves to hopefully keep the squirrels out.
Here is the roosting area. 2 levels. Should be plenty of roosting area. You can see the nest boxes on the right and the chicken door and windows on the left. As stated earlier, had to move the chicken door about 8 or 10 inches towards the camera as there really wasn't enough room to space out the roosts properly and I didn't want the chicken entering under the roosts or chickens pooping on one another while on the roost. Noone likes a crappy chicken....
I haven't started on the run yet. still deciding what to do there. Any comments would be appreciated. At this point Im thinking its just gonna come off the front of the coop (chicken door side, duh...) and extend about 20 feet or so out and be about 8 feet wide and 5 feet tall. As of now I have 10 chicks. 3 of which are "supposed" to be hens, and 7 of which are unsexed. so hopefully we will end up with about 5 or so hens. That's the goal anyway. No roos wanted. So if anyone is in southwest MO and wants a roo or 2, or 3 or mabye more.... hit me up. I'm sure I'll have some to give away. If not, they are goin in my belly.
So that's about it. Just gotta bring in the litter, plan to use deep litter method. And Feed and Water. Plan to use the bucket feeder with the 3 inch PVC elbow as shown in another post on here and I have ordered the horizontal water nipples for the waterer as also seen in posts on here. Let me know what you think. All in all so far I have about $560 in it and total build time with one helper is about 2 1/2 days. using all new materials. Still don't have shingles on the roof, just roofing paper, or tar paper, or whatever you call it. My father in law is having his roof replaced next week and he is "supposed" to be saving me a few squares of shingles. We will see how that goes... Like the post title says, I'm no carpenter. I expect to spend another $200-$250 on the run between welded wire, lumber, and hardware cloth. That hardware cloth is expensive!!!! yow! Probably will use welded wire to enclose then use hardware cloth around the lower 2 or 3 feet just to keep out snakes, and the occational grabbing coon. Our soil is mostly rocks and clay so something would have to be very determined to dig under. Not to say they couldn't cause I'm sure they could if they wanted to. Round here we dig with dynamite. Shovels aren't very useful.
It's nothing special compared to some of the others on here, but I was impressed with my ability to even put up something like this. Lemme know what you think!
