Jo's House BYC Coop is finally done!

First, thank you to everyone for your help, suggestions, ideas, feedback throughout the various stages of this project. I spent some time looking at different coops, figuring out what we needed, getting your ideas from these threads on helpful features, etc. I built the coop 4'x4', 2.5' off the ground (which actually ended up being more like 3' with the slope in our yard. We have three girls, Betty, Peggy, and Sally, and they're young and new so still learning about the coop, but so far so good. I've never built anything like this, so there are lots of little imperfections, but overall I'm really happy. I'm going to be making a sign to probably go over the door opening - I'm thinking of calling this Jo's House after my late Aunt Jo (Josephine) who was all about decorating with rooster and chicken stuff (she grew up on a ranch). Let me give you the tour:

I tried to add lots of ventilation since we have very hot summers, so there are gaps at the roof line covered with hardware cloth (the ones on the side are bigger). There's this one window on the front and two huge windows on the back. The left side of the coop is basically one huge window facing the side that the breeze comes in...





I think the ramp still might be a little too steep, so I'm going to build a secondary one perpendicular and put something on top of the cinder block to make the primary ramp less steep.


The nest boxes have rear access and there's a lock and both sides. The locks you're seeing on the far left are for the side/door that the nest boxes are attached to - the whole thing opens up (see below)

The chain means hands free collecting. I got this idea specifically from someone's photo that they shared on this forum. The inside is painted with like an eggshell/semi-gloss, and then the linoleum will hopefully help make it easier to clean. The center piece is technically removable. I have the nest boxes boarded up because my girls are only about 10 and 15 weeks now.

The whole right side of the coop open for easier cleaning access.


The left side of the coop opens up as well. I just stick caribeeners in the latches.

Open. The 2x4 on the floor is removable and wedged in there to help lessen the amount of shavings that fall out.

The door is guillotine style. Our automatic opener should be coming within the next few weeks. In the meantime, I did an eye hook and clasp to try and lessen the chances of an unfortunate "oops" when the door is up.

The door itself seats about 4 inches below the opening on the inside, so hopefully no predators can lift it. I want to stain or paint the door and rails. The one thing I don't like about this set-up is that I have to unscrew one of the rails to get the door out. I could possibly shorten one of the rails, but I don't think the door would be as secure or slide as well. There's an eye hook on the 2x2 beam at the top of the door to help guide the wire.


The roosts are all easily removable since they are not screwed into the brackets.


The ramp is also removable because of those large brackets. My ramp is currently a 2x7 or 8 board, but I installed the brackets to fit up to 10" wide board in case the ramp ends up being too narrow.


With the height of the coop, I have the waterer and feeder hanging to reduce mess - so far so good. Hubby thinks I need to paint the underside of the coop since we just used OSB rather than true plywood, to protect the underside of the floor from moisture. So, I might not be as finished with the coop as I thought.


Thanks for looking and thank you again for all your help! I'm so happy and excited to have my girls and with how the coop turned out.

That is a beautiful coop!

Yes you do need to paint the OSB.

You can switch to sand in the coop and scoop it out with a kitty litter scoop to save money (wear N95 mask when sifting sand as it is very bad to breathe). There is a "got sand you should" thread on BYC that is good.

Also, if you get cold winters, I would buy a piece of plexiglass at home depot to go over your large side screened area so the wind won't blow right on them when they are sleeping.

The ramp is perfect. I wouldn't make it more level.

When they get older they may take off flying over your fence from the ramp. When they start doing this, if you don't want them in the other part of the yard, you can put some deer fencing (cheap plastic fencing) and make a vertical fence extension with it over your fence. They like to get over fencing if they can.

ChickensAreSweet said:

That is a beautiful coop!

Yes you do need to paint the OSB.

You can switch to sand in the coop and scoop it out with a kitty litter scoop to save money (wear N95 mask when sifting sand as it is very bad to breathe). There is a "got sand you should" thread on BYC that is good.

Also, if you get cold winters, I would buy a piece of plexiglass at home depot to go over your large side screened area so the wind won't blow right on them when they are sleeping.

The ramp is perfect. I wouldn't make it more level.

When they get older they may take off flying over your fence from the ramp. When they start doing this, if you don't want them in the other part of the yard, you can put some deer fencing (cheap plastic fencing) and make a vertical fence extension with it over your fence. They like to get over fencing if they can.

Click to expand...

Thanks ChickensAreSweet! Do you think I need to prime and then paint or just use my primer + paint in one that I used on the inside (grayish blue color) to give it some protection?

We were thinking of getting one of those exterior grade cloths for backyard lounging and hanging it over the more open side of the coop, hooking it to a latch in the ground for when it gets cooler during the winter (our winters are like 20-30 degrees at night, I think, definitely no snow here in the valley) and then we could also drape it over the fencing now and in the summer to create more shade and protection from the heat (it was 97 degree yesterday!).

They haven't really been up the ramp yet and this morning they only went about halfway down the ramp before jump/flying down, so that's why I was thinking the ramp was maybe too steep still. Do you think it's more a matter of getting used to the ramp and/or them being little still, rather than it being an issue with the ramp itself?