So we decided to get chicks a few weeks ago after months of discussing the idea, but had not really put too much thought yet into what kind of coop we wanted to make. I built the brooder box from two kitchen cabinets back to back, and the morning we went to pick up the first group of chicks, a quick glance at the free section provided this beauty:
It's a 10 year old 8ft x 8ft Wooden playhouse a Dad of one of the kids at this preschool a few towns away. The director decided that it was taking up too much space in the play yard, and listed it just ten minutes before I called about it. The thing weighs about a ton, and the woman was convinced that the only way to move it was in one piece using a crane. Well since I don't own a crane (hah!) we decided to take it apart and transport it that way. It took four of us most of a day to get it apart (with one terrifying moment when the roof came crashing down) and viola! Chicken coop in my backyard! Well... a pile of wood pieces that would hopefully be a coop anyways. After finding the playhouse, we decided that we wanted to build the whole thing from reclaimed materials, to save money and because we try to reuse most things we have anyways, so we took a trip down to The Rebuilding Center and bought about 500 linear feet of reclaimed wood (4x4, 2x4,, 2x6, 2x20, etc) for about $25. The most we've spent on this so far was a bit over $70 for welded wire fencing, post brackets, screws and some other small things that we had to buy new. We figured we'd have to buy those things new, as well as the plywood we'll need, but we plan on buying reclaimed materials or getting things on Craigslist. It's amazing the things people give away for free!!
So I am doing this pretty much by myself since I am off for the summer, and my husband works during the day, so the progress is fairly slow. The first thing I did was put the walls back together, and add a door and two small windows where the "window" holes were on the front.
Next I added 2x4 trim pieces to give the house more stability and make it look a little more finished in the end. The vertical ones will be cut to the proper length when we prepare to put the roof back on. Didn't want to cut them too short.
Then the other day after doing a lot of reading on this forum, I realized that my windows were not nearly sufficient enough in terms of allowing light into the coop, so I undid all the work I had done to put those small ones in and today added two windows I pulled from a 1920's house that was being demolished. The space to the left of the door is a bit smaller than to the right because the Dad who built the playhouse didn't center the door, and I was too lazy to build an entire new door frame just to eliminate a few inches difference. Being made from reclaimed materials, it's bound to be a little funky in places... it's part of the charm, right?
I have two more that will go on the east facing wall(to the right of the door) and one large one that may go on the back wall, but since there is only two feet of space between the back of the coop and the fence, I'm not sure if that window will be worth the effort. Luckily I am collecting windows for a Greenhouse Project (that my husband says I'm not allowed to start till the coop is finished), so I had them on hand already.
<--Only half the windows I have.. I know, I'm insane...
So now here we are today, front windows in, side windows ready to be put in, and still SO much work to be done. The 8ft x 14ft roofed run will be connected to the right side of the coop, and there is a pop door on that wall about two and a half feet up, so we'll have to build them a ramp. We plan to build a floor, two roost along the back wall with a giant poo board underneathe, and four nesting boxes on the west wall with outside access for easy egg collecting. There are two vents, a smaller one in the front (can be seen on the first picture of the playhouse at the peak of the roof), and a large one on the back wall in the same place. Will this be enough ventilation? We'll be putting gutters on both the coop and the roof of the run that drain into an old wine barrel for rainwater collection to water the hens with. It's going to be great when it's done I hope!
More pictures to come as we make more progress.
Keep watching!
And any advice or thoughts or ideas are more than welcome. We are very new at this chicken thing, and this is the first big construction project I've taken on, so we're kinda winging it. Haha!
It's a 10 year old 8ft x 8ft Wooden playhouse a Dad of one of the kids at this preschool a few towns away. The director decided that it was taking up too much space in the play yard, and listed it just ten minutes before I called about it. The thing weighs about a ton, and the woman was convinced that the only way to move it was in one piece using a crane. Well since I don't own a crane (hah!) we decided to take it apart and transport it that way. It took four of us most of a day to get it apart (with one terrifying moment when the roof came crashing down) and viola! Chicken coop in my backyard! Well... a pile of wood pieces that would hopefully be a coop anyways. After finding the playhouse, we decided that we wanted to build the whole thing from reclaimed materials, to save money and because we try to reuse most things we have anyways, so we took a trip down to The Rebuilding Center and bought about 500 linear feet of reclaimed wood (4x4, 2x4,, 2x6, 2x20, etc) for about $25. The most we've spent on this so far was a bit over $70 for welded wire fencing, post brackets, screws and some other small things that we had to buy new. We figured we'd have to buy those things new, as well as the plywood we'll need, but we plan on buying reclaimed materials or getting things on Craigslist. It's amazing the things people give away for free!!
So I am doing this pretty much by myself since I am off for the summer, and my husband works during the day, so the progress is fairly slow. The first thing I did was put the walls back together, and add a door and two small windows where the "window" holes were on the front.
Next I added 2x4 trim pieces to give the house more stability and make it look a little more finished in the end. The vertical ones will be cut to the proper length when we prepare to put the roof back on. Didn't want to cut them too short.
Then the other day after doing a lot of reading on this forum, I realized that my windows were not nearly sufficient enough in terms of allowing light into the coop, so I undid all the work I had done to put those small ones in and today added two windows I pulled from a 1920's house that was being demolished. The space to the left of the door is a bit smaller than to the right because the Dad who built the playhouse didn't center the door, and I was too lazy to build an entire new door frame just to eliminate a few inches difference. Being made from reclaimed materials, it's bound to be a little funky in places... it's part of the charm, right?
I have two more that will go on the east facing wall(to the right of the door) and one large one that may go on the back wall, but since there is only two feet of space between the back of the coop and the fence, I'm not sure if that window will be worth the effort. Luckily I am collecting windows for a Greenhouse Project (that my husband says I'm not allowed to start till the coop is finished), so I had them on hand already.
So now here we are today, front windows in, side windows ready to be put in, and still SO much work to be done. The 8ft x 14ft roofed run will be connected to the right side of the coop, and there is a pop door on that wall about two and a half feet up, so we'll have to build them a ramp. We plan to build a floor, two roost along the back wall with a giant poo board underneathe, and four nesting boxes on the west wall with outside access for easy egg collecting. There are two vents, a smaller one in the front (can be seen on the first picture of the playhouse at the peak of the roof), and a large one on the back wall in the same place. Will this be enough ventilation? We'll be putting gutters on both the coop and the roof of the run that drain into an old wine barrel for rainwater collection to water the hens with. It's going to be great when it's done I hope!
More pictures to come as we make more progress.
Keep watching!And any advice or thoughts or ideas are more than welcome. We are very new at this chicken thing, and this is the first big construction project I've taken on, so we're kinda winging it. Haha!
