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My Old coop wasn't cutting it for my 11 ducks (9 Muscovy and 2 rouen) so I decided to upgrade!
My wife and I used AutoCAD to design the new coop, the finished product is pretty close to this..
The doors beside the man door open for collecting eggs and double as clean out doors as the nest boxes are only fastened to the wall with a couple screws. The windows I got from my in-laws after they renovated their house. The majority of the ideas have come from 3-4 months of looking at other coops on backyardchickens. I wish I knew the names of the people I "stole" ideas from so I could thank them!! This site has helped a lot! I live in Canada, about 2 hours north of Detroit, Michigan, so it needed to be a very well thought out design to keep them out of the wind most of the winter. As you can see my summer coop wasn't going to work well for that.
I built the coop walls and floor in a shed at my parents, it was inside out of the wind. I had cut down about 20 poplar trees from around my field and decided to make them into lumber to build the shack out of. I think it cost around $150 for all the lumber (not including plywood)
I worked construction for 4 years building chicken barns and dairy barns so this was all relatively easy for me. My dad gave me a hand with some of the heavy lifting and putting up walls.
The floor
made of 2x6, is 12'x8' and has 5/8 tongue and groove plywood ($100)
I then built the walls and loaded the 4 walls and the floor onto a hay wagon and drove to my house.
The next morning we started to assemble! The freshly cut lumber was still pretty wet and heavy so we thought to do it the easy way (loader tractor)
With the walls braced we started cutting rafters, 2 feet of over hang on the low side and 16" on the top. My house is in the background and an acre pond behind that. The ducks are pets/pest control/meat.
The sun goes down around 5 this time of year so getting a light going was key, you can see the clean out door/eggs collecting door here.
Windows, house wrap and an old French door I found in my old barn
We also had some shingles laying around so I roofed it with the help of my wife.
I foamed around the windows and built a roost bar right away
The duck door is 16"x16"
I wired in two outlets right away, for a light and heated water bowl. Also a thermometer is in the corner.
I found some large window panes in my barn as well. Its unfortunate my bank barn is a mile from my house and with out water and hydro, but this made for a nice winter project.
PVC Feeders
A pail of water in a heated birdbath, works great!
Nest boxes in and being used, Fat Joe is the boss... After me of course
The roost being used well.
The outside run is mostly covered and about 14'x10'
With the fencing up and the run ready, I let them out, but with it being so cold and windy, they were not interested.
I still need to put barn board on the outside, and maybe add a light or two. I am happy with how it all turned out.
So I got bored this week and I built a chicken coop and got myself some chickens!
My Old coop wasn't cutting it for my 11 ducks (9 Muscovy and 2 rouen) so I decided to upgrade!
My wife and I used AutoCAD to design the new coop, the finished product is pretty close to this..
The doors beside the man door open for collecting eggs and double as clean out doors as the nest boxes are only fastened to the wall with a couple screws. The windows I got from my in-laws after they renovated their house. The majority of the ideas have come from 3-4 months of looking at other coops on backyardchickens. I wish I knew the names of the people I "stole" ideas from so I could thank them!! This site has helped a lot! I live in Canada, about 2 hours north of Detroit, Michigan, so it needed to be a very well thought out design to keep them out of the wind most of the winter. As you can see my summer coop wasn't going to work well for that.
I built the coop walls and floor in a shed at my parents, it was inside out of the wind. I had cut down about 20 poplar trees from around my field and decided to make them into lumber to build the shack out of. I think it cost around $150 for all the lumber (not including plywood)
I worked construction for 4 years building chicken barns and dairy barns so this was all relatively easy for me. My dad gave me a hand with some of the heavy lifting and putting up walls.
The floor
made of 2x6, is 12'x8' and has 5/8 tongue and groove plywood ($100)
I then built the walls and loaded the 4 walls and the floor onto a hay wagon and drove to my house.
The next morning we started to assemble! The freshly cut lumber was still pretty wet and heavy so we thought to do it the easy way (loader tractor)
With the walls braced we started cutting rafters, 2 feet of over hang on the low side and 16" on the top. My house is in the background and an acre pond behind that. The ducks are pets/pest control/meat.
The sun goes down around 5 this time of year so getting a light going was key, you can see the clean out door/eggs collecting door here.
Windows, house wrap and an old French door I found in my old barn
We also had some shingles laying around so I roofed it with the help of my wife.
I foamed around the windows and built a roost bar right away
The duck door is 16"x16"
I wired in two outlets right away, for a light and heated water bowl. Also a thermometer is in the corner.
I found some large window panes in my barn as well. Its unfortunate my bank barn is a mile from my house and with out water and hydro, but this made for a nice winter project.
PVC Feeders
A pail of water in a heated birdbath, works great!
Nest boxes in and being used, Fat Joe is the boss... After me of course
The roost being used well.
The outside run is mostly covered and about 14'x10'
With the fencing up and the run ready, I let them out, but with it being so cold and windy, they were not interested.
I still need to put barn board on the outside, and maybe add a light or two. I am happy with how it all turned out.
So I got bored this week and I built a chicken coop and got myself some chickens!
