Little Coop on the Prairie
My husband and I live on 20 acres in a small manager's cabin (efficiency apartment), so we always joke that we live in the Little House on the Prairie, so it seemed proper to call the new chicken house the Little Coop on the Prairie. We are currently building a barn that will have a 60' x 30' covered area for riding and working horses or mainly if it is raining when the farrier is here. On each side will be a fully enclosed 20' X 30' area. One of the sides is where the horse stalls and feed room will be. The other side is for hay and will have a 10' X 10' area where the coop will be located. We used scraps that were from the barn to build the coop. All were purchased were the feeder, waterer, hinges, latches, and chicken wire. The coop is 4' deep by 8' wide by 4' tall. It has a 4' door from top to bottom for me to get in to clean. (I am short so 4' tall is good enough for me!!) It has a 1' by 1' chicken door with a ramp. We were not planning on getting chickens yet (wait till the barn is finished he told me!!) then some friends were given 4 birds and had nowhere to put them, so we got them! We got the 4 birds Saturday night. Sunday morning at 5am the roosters decided to remind us we were not dreaming that someone gave us 4 chickens! So my husband got up and started planning and made the floor, floor legs, supports for the floor. We went to church and came back and got to work! I didn't think to get the camera out while the husband was working before church so I do not have pictures of the base or the supports underneath. Our chickens free range on 20 acres with lots of places to get away and live in the coop at night. They don't even go in when its raining they hang out in the hay behind the coop!! Enough descriptions and background, lets move on to building!
Here we have the base with frames for the walls.
The coop has 6 legs, each is screwed to the floor and held in place by 2X4s running beside them.
Here we have a back. The coop has the measurements it does so we could use
the plywood we had lying around and not have to cut too much!
Here we have all the sides on and Chad is working on the solid door.
Door cut to size, now attaching the 3'X5' roll of hardware cloth. The 5' side goes from
top tobottom and the excess that was cut off was just enough to cover the opening above the
chicken door. We were going to use the ramp as a door there, but changed our minds and decided
to have a regular door.
Almost done! Just needs a ramp, litter, and chickens!!
Here are the happy inhabitants. Prior to the coop they were living in a medium to large sized dog crate!!
We did not have time to put roosts or nests in until yesterday (almost a week after building the coop)
I didn't have any litter, so we decided of what we did have around, hay would make the best temporary bedding.
4' Roost! They loved it!
Kept coming in (even with the ramp knocked down) while
hubby was building the nests and roost
Here are our nests. The girls were jumping in them while hubby was working in there!!
Here are the feeder and waterer
Here is the finished product from the outside!!
Here is the floorplan. PM me if you would like a bigger image of it.
