Our little chicken coop in Progress!

[twfernandez]

Hello everyone! I've been keeping a running commentary on our build in progress - with pics - over in the "New Member Introduction" forum. I thought it best to move the coop Design & Construction thread over here!
For anyone who may have been following along over in the New Member forum, sorry for the double posts!
Please feel free to post any questions, comments, and especially criticism where warranted - I've never built a chicken coop before, and I don't know much about raising chickens either, so the feedback would be most appreciated!

Coop build in progress:



First, had to cut/clear all of this to make room for the build. Still in the process of clearing - lots of poison ivy in the area - but making good progress.
The coop/run sits along the treeline near the middle of the property with the back of coop facing south.



Here we have all of the posts set, 4x4's sunk 24" and set in 18" of concrete. I don't have a plan drawn up, but I do have a plan.
The run is going to be 8' wide by 24' long, 6' tall, covered by a lean-to style roof.
The hen-house is on the east end of the run(where the two tallest posts are set,) and is going to be 10' wide by 4' long, for a coop that's a little L shaped, 28' long in total.
The hen-house will "face" west, into the run.
So far, I've spent about $90 on lumber, and $100 on hardware cloth, garden fabric and chicken-wire. I don't necessarily have a budget, but am looking to be as cost effective as possible.



This angle faces into the coop from just outside. I've trenched the exterior to 12", using standard chicken-wire for the trench.
Planning to lay down some weed-killer and Preen garden fabric along the interior of the run(to try and prevent that stubborn poison-ivy from popping up in the run) then top with sand/dirt.



Here I've placed the "underwire," in kind of a "U" shape, approximately 12" vertical and 8~10" horizontal because of the bend.





After laying the underwire, I sprayed aggressively with an herbicide all along the interior floor of the run, then covered with garden fabric. The objective is to prevent weeds and the poison ivy from returning in the future.
The herbicide will be "pet-safe" in 48 hours according to the label, and we won't have the girls in the run for at least another four to six weeks, so I don't think there is a long term concern for their health.





Not sure if it was evident from the photos, but the washers attaching the underwire to the frame boards are along the bottom of the boards once they are attached.
Here, I've attached and leveled the lower frame boards and filled the trenches back in. For what it's worth, it seems easier to hang the board level and fill in the dirt rather than fill in the dirt and then try to level the board.
I figure I have two to three more hours of work before the trenches are all filled back in - then it's time to level the top of all of the poles and start framing out the hen-house.
Weather permitting, I'll be working on the coop throughout the week; and the Girls will be here Saturday!

 

[twfernandez]

@Bradfordj -

Sue got a laugh out of the idea of starting with 4 and stopping when you run out of land. We were thinking along those same lines - better to build in the extra space now than to wait until later and try and expand.



So here I've framed in the floor for the hen-house, sits elevated 24" - we decided to make the hen-house 6x10 instead of 4x10 - this will give the girls plenty of space, even if we stay at 17~19 chickens.
Decided to add some storage underneath, that's the OSB you can see on the ground - it's tall enough to hold 5 gallon buckets, feed, etc.
Will update as we go, and again, thanks all for the kind words and encouragement!

Thanks,
T&S

 

[twfernandez]

Whew - almost a week since my last update - and we've been pretty busy the whole time! It's this nice spring weather, so much to do ...

Just wanted to update our little chicken coop progress:



This wall faces North, and it was very time consuming to frame it. Specifically, trying to figure out how I was going to set up the nest boxes - we finally settled on four boxes, accessible from outside and just below the window. Three of them 12"x12", the last one 18"x12" (to get the exterior box centered and work around the incidental 4x4) - we're calling it the penthouse.



The next wall (facing west) went up more quickly - the pop door and window are centered on the wall, pop door at 12"w x 15"h - not sure if you can tell, but two of the rear 4x4's were warped. I didn't think it would be to much of a problem when I sunk them in concrete - but it has created some interesting challenges in terms of getting the frame square and level - I'm optimistic that the siding will hide it in the end.

From here, we are looking west at the rear of the hen-house. I think the warped 4x4's are a bit more evident. I put in a couple of 2x6's upright on the outside edges of the rear wall to help support the weight of the rear doors, which will be 48" x 51".



A long view of the chicken-run facing the hen-house - I had the sand dropped off this morning and got it pretty evenly spread out throughout the run.
So, all in all, not a bad week in terms of progress!



We lost one of our chicks on Friday, but otherwise the girls are doing well and growing quickly, and Sue and I have both been enjoying the nice weather, and the chance to work outside together(me on the coop, her in the garden!) The plan for this week? Doors and floors!
Will update soon!

Thanks,
T&S

 

[twfernandez]

Hey Guys!

Just a quick update - I had a chance to get some more work done on the coop - all of the posts are now cut to level along the tops, and the underwire is fully buried with all of the lower frame boards set and level! Tomorrow, I start framing on the hen-house!



A view of the build facing west. You can see the "L" shape thanks to the black garden fabric - the elongate portion at the end is where the hen-house will be. The pop-door will face west, with a fully opening rear for easy cleaning.

Also - The Girls Have Arrived!



They are soooooooooo cute!

Sue and I already are in love!

We're fairly sure from the folks we purchased them from that they are all Araucana's! We ended up with more than we planned on, starting at 17!! I'm glad I decided to extend the hen-house by that two feet now!
We already had them eating out of(and climbing around all over) our hands! Can't wait to spend more time with the girls!




Will definitely be posting more pics in the next several days; and for those that wondered, yes, that is a box for a brand new Miter Saw - my wife bought it for me because she was so happy with the work I've been doing(though I think she has some more things in mind once this build is finish ... the back porch could use some ... I digress!)

 

[twfernandez]

Just wanted to post a couple of pics of the girls larger brooder:



It's certainly not the prettiest thing I've ever built, but they needed more room - and quickly - so I scrapped together a 4x4 1/2' "brooder"

The girls are much happier in the larger space, they're going to be staying in the larger shed until I can finish building their coop.




They're growing up so fast!

Sue has been giving them buckwheat noodles as a treat - now, whenever she walks into the shed, they get all excited! It's great!!
Will update later this week as the build progresses.

ttyl,
T&S

 

[twfernandez]

Hello again guys! Wrapped up a little early today because of the rain, and looks like its going to rain again all day tomorrow. :-/ But, the good news is that I was able to get quite a bit done leading up to the weekend, and I will be putting in a full day tomorrow(in my rain gear) - so progress is being made!



Rafters and perlins are all cut and hung!



As I mentioned, when planning the roof, I was able to find plenty of pictures online, but most of them showed only the completed roof, or the angle wouldn't show me the detail I was looking for, so I've included multiple shots and angles of the roof in case anyone wants to see how we did our roof. (Full disclosure: I've never built a lean-to style roof before. Also, I don't know how to spell perlins .. purlins??)
Throughout this build, most of the lumber we've been using has been nice and straight - however we had managed to pile up quite a few 16 foot 2x4's that were warped/skewed pretty noticeably - I was able to put these to work for the perlins, since the warp/skew didn't affect the structure when attached on the "flat" side of the 2x4 - and since it's only visible from inside of the run, it also doesn't affect the look of the coop overall. I figured this was better than letting perfectly solid lumber(albeit, a little crooked) go to waste.

Another angle, this shows the "back" of the run - I'm not using any eave trim for the rear, only a slight overhang of the metal roofing, this way the water will drain better - for this reason, and also because it's on the back, and therefore not as visible, I didn't run a facing/trim board across the rafters.



Here is the "front" of the coop with the facing/trim boards hung across the front of the rafters. I've given us a two foot awning on the front side, and a one foot awning off of the rear - this should help keep the area around the run from getting too muddy.
As you can see, I did get some painting done which is great! (I want to paint everything I can now, before hanging hardware cloth/siding.)



This is just a closer shot of the front awning - did I mention that I've never built a lean-to style roof before? Looking at this picture, I've created quite the lumber sandwich - the recipe is included for anyone who would like it!

<recipe>

To make a lumber sandwich, you will need:

Lumber
Fasteners (nails or screws, whichever you prefer)
Gumption

Combine ingredients as follows, starting from the lowest horizontal board you can see:

The bottom 2x4 is attached between the 4x4 posts, hung sideways - this is to attach the hardware cloth too.
Immediately above that is another 2x4, hung flat, that attaches the 4x4's to each other.
On top of that is a 2x6, hung sideways. That's the one that the rafters are resting on - 2x6 to give me the pitch I wanted on the roof. The rafters sit directly on this and are attached to the rear of this board by metal joists.
Next, on top of the 2x6, between each rafter, is another 2x4 hung sideways. This is to fill the gap between the 2x6 and the roof - I had thought about cutting and hanging hardware cloth over that opening, but the 2x4's were much faster to get up there.
Finally, you've got the perlin(which is just a 2x4 hung flat) that runs all the across the rafters.

</recipe>

Here you can see the latest addition to the hen-house, with the roof framing completed. What isn't painted in this shot will be covered by siding/trim - hopefully in the next week.
At the top of the hen-house, where the awning meets the frame, there is a 1 1/2" gap between the perlin(painted white) and the frame as well as a similar 3 1/2" gap along the top of the rear wall - these is going to remain permanently open for ventilation
That's all of the pictures I have for now - today, we were able to finish hanging the interior walls and roof, as well as get the rest of the interior chicken wire up over the window and the front/rear roof "vents"
While there is still much to be done, I am enthusiastic about the progress. I expect rain all day tomorrow, but I can concentrate on the inside of the hen-house, which has a passable "roof" now(finish wiring for the lighting, cut and hang roosts, poop-boards and nest-box "perch/step").
Next week, the weather looks great, so I should be able to get a lot done. I have all of the roofing material now, so my plan for next week(tentatively) is to finish painting the run and the rafter work, then hang the steel roof.
Once that is finished all I have left is ... well .. a lot, really.

But - I am optimistic, and will post updates as soon as I am able!

Thank you,
T&S

 

[twfernandez]

Hello everyone!

Our thanks for the kind words and encouragement!

Quote:
@whitney556 , we figure, if you're going to have chickens, you may as well have spoiled chickens!

Quote:
@drumstick diva - Thank you! I've had plenty of practice over the years doing different projects for home and work, but no carpentry background specifically - just patience, determination, and a lot of good luck!

Quote:
@tbatz11 - We are subscribed to your build thread, and your coop looks stellar. I giggle a lot while building because your husband is a precision builder, whereas I just bend and twist and hammer things until they fit! But your coop looks great, and the colors you chose are classics! We have decided on an our exterior colors - Yellow for the hen-house, white trim and roofing.

<long story>

We just moved into this house last year in August. A big part of the move was renovating the house on the property - it was in pretty bad shape. I had to replace almost all of the subfloor from water damage, needed new plumbing, new electric - anyway; we gutted the house and now it's very nice.
As a part of the renovation, we needed to paint the exterior. We were going for brick red with a light brown trim... Picked the colors from color cards at Home Depot and had five gallons of light brown mixed to do all of the trim work.
When we opened the can, we thought the color looked a little bright, but figured it would darken up when the paint dried.
Suffice it to say, what we thought we purchased(light brown) and what we actually had were quite different, and the trim came out yellow .. I mean, seriously yellow. So, about half way through painting, we realized the house was literally the same color as the Washington Red Skins jersey, and it was starting to look like a hot-dog. :-/
So, we changed gears and went with brick red and grey trim. It looks much better that way.

But we couldn't return the yellow paint to the store since it was a custom color - so I have 4 1/2 gallons of allegedly light-brown but actually yellow paint leftover - and this was how we decided on the color.

</long story>

Again, our thanks for following along with the build - you guys don't know how uplifting it has been to share this experience with you! Thank you thank you!

T&S

 

[RickyDean]

Will try to put up pics later. Yes I am in the framing stage and already have
Floor, nesting boxes and walls cut and framed up. However I now know
It needs to be bigger. i will have to extnd floor and walls but shouldn't be
a problem. Thanks for your response.

 

[ChickonInc]

I just love hearing about people starting with chickens and talking about their journey. You and Sue are gonna enjoy the years to come with your girls. I can already tell that your coop is gonna be fancy dancy. Mine is okay, but I'm expanding mine to my shed. It has running water, heating and cooling. Than last but not least electricity. It's huge, and can hold up to 90+ Chickens! Has 2 floors and well. I'm excited. But, it's filthy and I'm not too excited about cleaning day

and good look to you and sue with your girls.

You'll start out with 17 and end up with 50. Chickens are addictive. Then you get attached and then a hawk comes along. Happened to me but Your coop with hopefully be safe for your feathered friends. Btw they can live to be 20! Amazing.

oh and

 

[Marylani]

Thanks so much for sharing your progress. I'm in planning stages of building a 6x10 hen house. So this is perfect! Keep us updated! I'm taking notes!