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After hours upon hours of searching BYC coop designs, I found myself constantly going back to the Wichita Coop and all of its followers. That design was the most aesthetically pleasing to me and seemed to fit the functionality that I was after. I, like many others, slightly modified their plans to fit what I wanted. I made the run 5'x12' and the coop 5'x4'. Other than that I think mine closely resembles theirs.




All of my lumber was found on CL. It took some emails, phone calls, and a Saturday morning of driving around. But the only money I have spent is $13 on 3" screws.


I was working alone so progress was slow going. I know some of you will be thinking "he is doing that all wrong, you're supposed to build this first and then do that". I am not a carpenter (I'm actually a commercial/industrial demolition by trade). This is what worked for me. I managed to get everything plumb, square, and level. That's all that matters!




It was starting to get dark but I was having too much fun. I was cutting the boards in the garage so that I didn't bother the neighbors with the noise and then assembling it under the back deck lights.




Alright...I had to call it a night. I worked until about 9:30 on Saturday night.










This is where I left off at the end of Sunday. This week I have a cute little painter coming to put the first coat on it. I am picking up some wood-framed windows, that I found on CL for free, this afternoon. I will frame those in sometime this week. I am still trying to decide what to use as the siding for the coop. I will probably break down and purchase the shiplap boards because they just look so good. Next on my list of materials to find is the tin/metal roof. I'm hoping to find someone on CL that has just build a shed or barn and has some leftovers. I will keep you posted!


I found these windows on CL for free. They came out of an old house. It cost me $30 in hinges to hang them. (Including the hinges for the 4th window that will be in the side door, and the hinges for the nest box lid) I also framed in the chick entrance. I did it 10" wide because that seems to be the standard that I found on other pages.


I bought a glued 1"x16"x8' pine board for $20 for the nest box. This is the only lumber I have had to buy so far. The windows are all rough framed in for now. The hinges will actually go outside of the siding once I get the shiplap on. I will put latches on them at that point and screen the inside.




My local home improvement store didn't have shiplap siding so I opted for the tongue and groove. It cost about $5 per 8' section but it was totally worth it. We installed it Saturday morning and my cute little painter arrived to get it all sealed. We went with semi-transparent driftwood that tinted and sealed the wood yet was transparent enough to show the beautiful wood grain.




The dog managed to find a cool spot to sleep. I also reinstalled the window and hardware.


This is when I broke the news to Trouper that this wasn't a playhouse for pups. He didn't take the news very well. In fact, I'm pretty sure he has managed to pee on every vertical board on this coop.










This one is kind of dark and doesn't really do the stain any justice.


The door, trim, windows, and wire mesh starting to go in.


The trim and windows will be painted a seafoam green that is a little more vibrant than the original color of the windows shown in the pics. We are thinking about going with a standard metal galvanized roof. Originally we were thinking about going with the dark green metal panels but we liked the seafoam green from the windows against the color of the stain so much.


Adding the wire and trim work.






We are now about 90% complete.